Lasagne with coleslaw, salad and garlic bread; banana and custard

So this is it, my last meal in residential medical care. But not my last blog post, I promise: I think getting used to being at home – or rather at my mum’s home – is going to give me plenty of stuff to write about.

It had already been a tiring day before I even got near my lift home, as I tried elbow crutches for the first time this morning. I got on with them better than I expected to, given that I am more than a little lacking in coordination at the best of times, and walked easily back and forward across the room a couple of times before being asked if I wanted to try the stairs.

I didn’t particularly want to, but I agreed. Going down is considerably more precarious than going up, and I’m grateful the senior physio was there to catch me, and that’s all I’m saying about that.

And then lunch, about which more in a moment, before the trip home westwards across the beautiful Isle of Wight countryside¹, which was a touch overwhelming after a month of nothing to look at but a brick wall. The rehab team members who came home with me told me I am not to even try moving around without help from Zelda², but the senior team member who taught me to use crutches this morning was fine with me using them, or even using nothing at all if I thought I could do it safely. As he also told me it’s likely to be six weeks until I get to see a community physio (although the people who brought me home thought it would be less than that), I’m more inclined to go with his judgement rather than confine myself to Zelda’s company for weeks to come.

After an interruption from the council care assessor, who told me that the help I will be getting is “reablement” so will assist me in preparing food and drink rather than doing it for me, BUT will only help with microwave meals rather than actual cooking. They also won’t help with shopping, so tonight will have to be sandwiches (but not soup) after all, as mum doesn’t have anything else in the house. 😕

Luckily I at least had a decent lunch before coming home. The lasagne smelled like school dinner lasagne, or at least what I imagine school dinner lasagne would smell like, of tinned tomatoes and cheap mixed dried herbs: I never got lasagne for school dinner, growing up as I did during the height of the Turkey Twizzlers era of school lunches, when sneaking out to the chippie was generally a healthier option.

It tasted better, or at least higher quality, than it smelled, though: lots of decent minced beef sauce between layers of soft pasta, with the top being less the classic bechemel (or however you spell it: I probably should know but I don’t, and I can’t be bothered to look it up) with a sprinkling of cheese than a slab of melted cheese hiding a small amount of white sauce. That isn’t a complaint, obviously.

The salad I requested with the lasagne had a new addition for my final meal: strips of red pepper. I love sweet peppers, so I was very pleased with this. There was also a huge pile of coleslaw (which I assume was counted as today’s “fresh vegetable”, although it’s clearly nothing of the kind). Then banana and custard for pudding, with custard that actually tasted of something. (I think whoever it was who said on Facebook that the problem was probably too little sugar might have been on to something, as this lot was both sweeter and tastier.)

So there we go: last care home food review done. I might be reviewing a lot of ready meals from this point: I hope you like that idea, as I’m not sure I can see much of an alternative atm.

1. And we saw a red squirrel! If you’ve ever wondered if Island natives still get excited about seeing red squirrels, I can now tell you they do: the team member driving me home gave an audible gasp of excitement when we saw it! ↩︎
2. My trusty wheeled zimmer frame. Because of course I’ve given her a name! ↩︎