Lunch

Lunch is not just a “moment to eat”, it is also a “moment of therapy”. It takes a while before I realize that the therapist slang is peppered with “moments”. For a layman, it is difficult to immediately understand the logic of the structure around lunchtime.

There is a select group of people belonging to “the lunch group”. I understood that this group existed, because people had to leave therapy earlier due to the lunch group. What was done exactly, was a mystery to me. Later I realized that, if you can walk a little, you are supposed to walk from your wheelchair in the hallway to your seat at the table. That is an “exercise” or “therapy moment”.

Also, the more advanced patients get the opportunity to pick up their own plate, knife and fork from the buffet to set their own table for lunch.

I missed that explanation in one way or another, so I cheerfully sit at the table with a nice gentleman, who I talked with so much at breakfast. There was a great commotion among the lunch staff. “You should be at your permanent place!”, I’m punitively addressed.

Dumbfounded, I ask where my permanent place is then. That is the leftmost spot on the first lunch table as you enter. I roll in that direction and go sit at the table there. A lady with a walker came to sit next to me. She is clearly not a talker, and looks like she is reluctantly having lunch. So, we limit ourselves to logistics.

(Can you pass me the buttermilk please? Thank you.)

Later, a few others join us and introduce themselves. We talk small talk. After 10 minutes, I have finished my cheese sandwich, a cup of buttermilk, coffee and a pear, and that is it. It is a quarter past twelve. Perfect – I can take a nice long rest, because I’m quite tired of the morning program.

“We are not supposed to leave the table” whispers a table companion to me, when she sees that I am getting ready to drive away.

We are not supposed to leave the table? Says who, and why? It’s the kind of remarks that gives me rebellious tendencies immediately.

It isn’t much fun at the table with this company, while I can snuggle in my bed.

I share my feelings with my table companions. To my surprise my neighbor with the walker agrees with me. If I want to start a rebellion, she will certainly join in, she says. Unfortunately I’m not the hero that I pretend to be, and remain seated until 12:30PM.

Fortunately, a nurse explains to me why you are supposed to stay at the table until 12:30PM. There are patients who need to have lunch in a low-stimulus environment. If everyone just rolls back and forth, skips and beeps during lunch then that is too stressful for them.

See, I can understand that. And that wouldn’t initiate rebellious tendencies. It would just have been nice to be told of such rules in advance. Weeks later, I hear that the fixed area is made based on the length of the person and the height of the lunch table. That I can understand as well. It is just unfortunate that it is not always explained to new patients. That would have saved a lot of aggravation and stress on all sides.

This blog has been translated by Monique Gregor – Van Tol