Food for thought..

Looking after a sick parent is a lot harder than it seems.

There are so many things to consider especially when you are dealing with a parent who has been through 2 operations in a short span of time.

There's the issue of nutrition for the parent as she needs to eat more nutritious food in order to accelerate wound healing and to regain her energy so fresh food has to be cooked for her. At the same time, most of us are often hindered by the numerous things that post-op patients cannot eat because of housewives tales. Cannot eat eggs (It will create pus), cannot eat seafood la (Will cause infection), certain type of wounds cannot take certain type of fish la, cannot eat mushrooms la for some reason for another, cannot eat chicken la because male chicken (rooster?) not good and all that kind of things.. Sometimes I really wonder about the truth of these housewives tales, but when we are trying to accelerate the wound healing process, it is better to be safer than sorry about certain things. Why test the system?

In addition to the numerous food items that she cannot eat, there is also an existing problem of food she cannot take due to her own pre-existing medical conditions. My mum has a heart problem as well as a blood problem. Her blood is slightly thick so she has to take certain medication to reduce the thickness. As a result, she cannot eat a lot of foods that contain vitamin K such as brocoli as it counter-effects the medication for her blood and heart. Green tea is out too.

If you think that is all, there's more to come. Another reason why it is difficult to cook for my mum is because the medication that she is taking makes most food taste bad. Garlic that she previously loved, tastes bitter now. She cannot eat food that is too oily or too salty so most of the time her food is porridge or bee hoon. We try to change the variation a bit by cooking macoroni or kway tiao soup for her tho. She is also becoming more fussy about food but then again, after eating steamed fish for a few weeks, you kind of get sick of it.

She doesn't eat a lot now too. At most, she takes about 5 or 6 spoons of porridge and it's enough. At least she eats ingredients with it tho so it's more filling. It's better to give her less than force her to eat more. I'm guilty to say that I have lost my temper before when I cooked for her and she didn't want to eat more than 5 or 6 spoons. How is she supposed to regain energy and heal!?? But now, I'll learnt to give her less and at least complement her when she finishes everything.

That's all about food now. I'll blog about this next time.

PLS TAKE CARE OF YOUR LOVED ONES.