What’s a ‘foodie’? Someone who loves ‘fine dining’. As opposed to someone who likes all dining. Preferably with a trough of some kind, filled with wonderful things. Breakfast buffets do it for me, as long as they’re good. And am I a ‘foodie’? Or a ‘pig’?? Because I don’t stop. Can’t stop. Don’t want to. Wish it would stay open til 12 then I could carry on and just call it ‘lunch’ from then on. Or, if you eat enough, you don’t actually need lunch. Of course, you can have it anyway, but you fill up on breakfast, which we did in Lisbon, we skipped lunch. Other than a custard tart. Or two.
So a ‘foodie’ is just a pretentious pig. The foodie likes his/her trough to arrive in tiny little, works-of-artish, beautifully arranged, drizzled with a jus, for all 26 courses of the ‘tasting menu’. I do the same, but with bigger portions. I do try to be ‘artistic’ with the food arrangement on my plate, but it’s hard with a shovel.
Anyway, I’m back home now, so it’s just a banana for breakfast once more. Another 3 days in that breakfast buffet and I’d be in hospital.
Whereas my poor bruvva hasn’t had breakfast for over 4 months. Nor lunch, nor dinner. And now they want to start him on… well, water’s a start, but he can’t swallow. It’s a reflex and it goes away with lack of use. Needs to be retrained. Weird, or what? Because if he can’t swallow it, it goes down the ‘wrong pipe’ and will give him all sorts of problems. Like he needs more problems. If I was in charge (God help them all!!!), I’d give him a curry. He’d be swallowing with the first bite. But apparently this a common issue with long-term ICU… ‘abuse!’ It stops you working, completely. Even though he is now, officially ‘trach free’!!! Which is brilliant. No more little pipe sticking out of his throat. Don’t need it no more. (Count blessings). But don’t worry; he still has umpteen other tubes, lines, pipes in countless other places.
So yesterday he took his first two steps. Literally, in four months. I do 26,000 steps in one day in Belem, and he takes fucking TWO!! Slacker. But after those two his blood pressure plummeted and he had to be medically ‘improved’.
I’m going to see him this morning so called in first to check he’d ’be there’ (he actually doesn’t go out very much but does have various ‘procedures’ and scans and stuff) because I really don’t want to visit an empty bed. Or really, a space where his bed would be because generally, where he goes, his bed (and all his hi-tech gear and monitors, go with him). And he might be in the dialysis unit. With his bed. As his kidneys haven’t recovered from their original shut-down. But I can see him there whilst he’s ‘busy’ being dialysed. More pipes.
And that’s how it goes. 2 steps forward, but literally, and one-and-a-half back. But we’ll take that half step, put it in the ‘profit’ column, and go on from there.
When he’s finally ‘better’ I’m going to take him for that curry. And if he has any issues swallowing it, I’ll eat it myself. No problem there. It’s the least I can do for him.
Happy Thursday
A xxxx
(today’s pic was taken by Mel. That’s why it’s all healthy stuff. I was somewhere else at the time, with no hand free for the camera).