Gluten-free Hospital Stay

My Gluten-Free Mother (the Second Generation) just had surgery last week. We joke that it was a nose job, on the inside, not the out and so the discussion on being gluten-free at the hospital was raised. Read more below:

Most precipitously that week, I received an email link online about this very topic enumerating the difficulties. Once I did my research I found a disturbing trend. I've not run into many (any) who had a successful experience eating hospital food. (Some horror stories are worse than others.)

The discussion group in DC (if you aren't a member, you really should attach yourself to that one--for knowledge and information, I find it very enlightening,) is currently stitching a thread about this very subject.

You can search for a hospital's legal obligations, fiduciary duty, responsible parties and other big words by googling hospitals gluten-free, but I'll give you the gist of it in a nutshell.

DON'T TRUST YOUR HOSPITAL TO FEED YOU. The gorgeous sister-in-law works at Primary Children's Hospital in Utah and from her very lips I hear the difficulties they have with dietary restrictions--sorting trays--delivering meals and juggling food. "And then some wiseacre gave them the idea of offering actual menu choices..." Some days she says that it's all up in the air at once.

Most of these service people (from the preparers to the servers) are minimally trained, and they feed hundreds, if not thousands of people, repeatedly every day.

So if you want to be healthy and get out of that place quickly, plan to take care of your own dietary needs. I know it's hard to add that burden on, but who wants to come out of that place sicker?

Remember to plan in advance with your physician for all of your potential G-F medications and other necessities at glutenfreedrugs.com.

Good luck and P.S. Mom smells wonderfully.