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Living alone when you're sick. How do you feed yourself?

Today I was diagnosed with pneumonia. Started an antibiotic and was referred to an ENT doctor.

Have had a recurrent sinus infection since July. Already took two courses of antibiotics. Frustrating. I'm usually very healthy. I'm an athlete, for heaven's sake!

That's why I was so slow while hiking last Tuesday. Not surprised I have pneumonia. Have been coughing hard, running a fever and feeling exhausted.

This morning, I started a big pot of chicken broth from frozen chicken bones I saved in the freezer. Broth simmered for five hours. The house smells wonderful.

Now I'm simmering chicken-vegetable-noodle soup with garlic, ginger and other herbs. Hooray!

Chicken vegetable soup: prescribed by mothers across the world.

LiterateHiker 9 Sep 20
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51 comments

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2

So sorry to hear it, hope you feel better soon. I am a bone-broth advocate, so you are off to a good start.

3

Stay hydrated.

Spirulina supplies many nutrients we need. You can keep enough to feed you for a week or more in a half gallon milk container without refrigeration.

Dried fruits and vegetables are easy, when you feel bad; yet, they are good for you.

If you are mobile, you know what to do.

3

Do not mess around with pneumonia. Take the best care of yourself possible and DO NOT exhaust yourself doing stuff you can let wait. Stay hydrated also.

1

order in

@maxhyde

In this redneck area (Eastern Washington), pizza is the only food I can order in. I don't eat pizza.

But I can call in an order to go, and pick it up at the restaurant of my choice.

2

You need a Witness to Your Life.

3

I am 81 years old, Single for 50 years, have lived alone for over 40 years and have never been so sick, or lame, that I could not get up, move around, feed and take care of myself.

2

Hope you get well soon. I was really sick a few months ago and thought it was the flu. I could barely get out of bed; couldn't sleep due to shaking, sweating, and having nausea/vomiting all throughout the night. I remember all I could make myself eat were a few small pieces of canned pears. It sucked.

Do the best you can to take care of yourself

3

I always have a pot of chicken soup in my freezer, for just such an occasion. Get well. 😀

Yup next time I make "The soup" some will be frozen and marked "In case of emergency". Good plan.

2

Sorry to hear about this latest development. The gang seem have a load of good suggestions. get well soon 🙂

3

Last time I was really sick was some years back, I was home for a week with the flu. I lived on hot tea and chicken soup and collected a stack of used tea cups/mugs because I was too tired to wash them. It was the middle of the winter too so I just decided to batten down and hibernate. Mainly stayed in bed with the TV remote and a huge box of tissues. I was so delighted when I could eat solid food again, I made myself a poached egg on toast and savored every bite.

2

I have 3 partnered adult children within 30 miles of where I live. If I get sick I can text any or all of them and tell them I need help and it will be there. Usually I have one of them checking in with me about midweek as it is.

1

Out here we have a website called SkipTheDishes that you can order and have delivered from local restaurants. Kinda expensive, but when in need.

In my area, we have Door Dash which works the same way.

1

If I have a good soup then that's usually good, chicken noodle is good but less greasy the better. I also usually grab some orange juice for the C and hydration, keep some crackers around. Otherwise I take it slow and let my body fight it off. I've always done this in both single and attached periods.

Hope you recover soon 🙂

0

"I'll bring you chicken soup this weekend," my friend Billie said. Lovely. I'm making a big pot of chicken vegetable soup, too.

My daughter, Claire, and her new husband, Matt, are both sick. They live three hours away in the Seattle area. "Your chicken noodle soup is my favorite!" Claire said today.

So, I called Claire's dad, asking him to bring Claire and Matt some homemake chicken soup, since I'll be swimming in it.

2

OMG. Listen up, LH. Take it from old Dr. Don. The absolute first question you should ask yourself is "How did I get pneumonia?" That's because once it's cured you will assume you will never get it again. Most people who get pneumonia (A) haven't had a pneumonia vaccine, 🍺 have ignored some kind of upper respiratory infection for a long time ☕ Think they are invincible and therefore do not slow down when they should. 🍸 Always object when somebody infers that they aren't taking the absolute BEST care of themselves. Any one you know sound like this, LH? The reality is pneumonia can kill you dead as fried chicken. Anyone considering maintaining their hiking schedule with an infection is not taking care of themselves. Athlete or not. SO: Stay hydrated and REST! Antibiotics have no effect on viral pneumonia. Unless you are an active AIDS patient the odds are overwhelming that it is viral. Stay Hydrated and REST, REST, REST!!! And don't fucking DIE. (My patients all loved me)

Twenty years ago, I got the pneumonia vaccine. Updated it in 2016.

Love your response! Thank you, Dr. Don.

You're right: I have a "mind over body" approach to injuries and illnesses. Idiot. I think I'm so healthy and tough. Slap me upside the head.

"It's not good to ignore your body," the doctor said this morning. He was right. So are you.

@LiterateHiker 35,000 patient visits says I'm right. You can mail me the fee.

@LiterateHiker By the way, all the various suggestions listed below are basically good. You should not worry too much about what you are eating so long as it's reasonably nutritious. Don't mega dose on ANYTHING! No cleanses, No harsh food, No extreme diets. Be easy and caring to yourself and REST!! Wait out the improvement. Time to read, watch movies, relax and get better.

1

When I'm too sick to feed myself, I don't eat. Luckily I don't get sick often. I caught some garden variety virus about a year ago and lost 22 pounds in a matter of days.

2

I just open a can. Hope you now have a speedy recovery.

1

COMFORT FOOD! Lots of liquid (water) and comfort food. Something easy. For me it is Kraft macaroni and cheese. (Don't hate!)

Kraft mac'n cheese and Campbell's soup have their place.

2

I'm very fortuate to have a daughter who took me in after my better half died and I was suffering from cancer. I do not know how I would have survived without her help. I can no longer work like I used to and am sick all the time. I'm getting better but the side effects are keeping me down. So I love her so much. I don't know how I could do this alone.

1

Hope you get to feeling better quickly.
When I'm sick, it's just like any other day.
I eat when I'm hungry.

2

being disabled, i get some services from the county, and one of them is mom's meals (like meals on wheels). i keep them in the freezer. i eat them for breakfast but if i am sick enough and have to ask my guy, who can't cook, and has alzheimer's, to feed me, i just ask him for a mom's meal. he can heat it in the microwave. it's not gourmet dining but it is better than starving and it's better than fast food.

g

1

Dunno..depends. When I was almost killed in 2014 by being beaten in the head by a thief who ambushed me for my birding camera, I couldn't even stand up.

I made it to my room, and Thai residents at the apartment building piled a couple of banana stalks near me, with a jug of water. The hospital told me to tell my friends to check on me each day to see if I'm still alive, so I did.

I managed to survive on bananas until I could walk to a nearby store for more food.

Now that I'm recovering from intestinal cancer, using cannabis oil, I have to walk long distances-seven blocks each way at times, to get food here in Songkhla, Thailand, since I sold my motorbike last year when I thought I was about to fly to the US.

I use cheap public transportation, or just keep trying to walk, despite being dizzy from cannabis oil and my muscles not working properly, depending on when I last took some.

Luckily, here in Thailand, there are food vendors everywhere selling food from motorbike side car carts, tables set up on the sidewalk, tiny shops, etc. Unluckily, there are only a few foods my body accepts, although the list keeps growing.

I found that I must eat certain foods at certain times if I want to improve and that changing my schedule or even buying food from a different vendor can result in symptom setbacks.

Each food schedule only lasts a couple of weeks before I start craving some other illogical food and the feeling intensifies until I finally take a risk and eat it. Usually, eating that food, no matter how silly, suddenly improves my health and often another food I had been eating before begins to disagree with me-often violently (sigh).

But whenever I humor this food weirdness, I improve rapidly, so I suppose my body needs certain nutrients at certain times.

1

I have never once, in all my 60 years, lived alone. I think it would be a good idea to prep some meals & freeze for "sick days". When you finish your product, portion into Glad type freezer bags & freeze the leftovers. Perfect for when you feel under the weather or just feel like a lovely bowl of awesome soup.

Della Level 6 Sep 20, 2018

@Della
When I make soup, I make a "shitload," a technical cooking term. Usually have stacked, plastic containers in the freezer of healthy, homemade soups. Two servings apiece.

But I ran out this summer. That's why I'm making more chicken-vegetable soup. It's simmering on the stove.

1

Oh man. I wish I was there to share it. Enjoy! May the force be with you and the chicken soup.

1

Sorry to hear you are I'll. Make sure you get over this before you get active again. A relapse is not good and some have died because they did not take care.

Yes Jim Henson the creator of the Muppets died for that very same reason he wouldn't take care of himself

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