Hospitals provide meals to all patients, breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, for free. You will be given a menu a day in advance and you just tick what you want. There are options for special diets like Halal, Kosher, vegetarian, high calorie or diabetic. At meal times, make sure you eat hot food straight away because you’re not allowed to reheat the food.
If you miss a meal for some reason, then in between meal times you can ask the nurses to contact the kitchen. They can provide you with a cold meal, like a sandwich with fruit and yoghurt. Most hospitals have “protected meal times” which make sure you are not sent off for scans and tests and miss your meals.
If you don’t like the hospital meals, your family can bring in something from home or you may be allowed to go out to a local restaurant to eat. Some wards have a kitchen that you or your family can prepare food in so check with the ward beforehand. Most of the teenage cancer units have their own kitchens.
You might go off your food a bit whilst having treatment. It can be a good idea to get your family to bring in stuff for you to snack on so that you have a good supply of your favourite foods. See the eating problems section for more info.
