The Good

If you are vegan and find yourself in the hospital, there are definitely worse places to be than Atrium Health in Pineville, NC! Not only do they understand what “plant based” means, they always had a choice of options. And a verrrrrry easy-on-the-eyes man came to my room twice a day to explain my choices. I wish I’d taken more yummy pictures – both of the food and the man – but when you’re in ICU or hooked up to IV painkillers, you tend to forget social media. However, the picture above is a good example: Black beans that actually had a little taste and spice, a real corn tortilla, fresh collards, rice, and the ubiquitous small square of bread. Not pictured: my small cup of very good sweet ice tea.

I also remember some pasta, veggie burgers, a hummus plate with pita bread and vegetables, and a large fruit plate with some peanut butter subbed for the cottage cheese.

I’m certainly not going to have Doordash run down to the hospital to pick up food, but it was nice being able to trust I wasn’t eating anything I was ethically opposed to. And the tastiness (most of the time) was a great bonus.

The Really, Really Bad & Ugly

If you’re vegan, you can’t do much worse than a stay at a certain physical rehabilitation center in Rock Hill, SC. (I have absolutely nothing nice to say about this place, aside from a few of the physical therapists, so it shall remain nameless.)

I transferred from Atrium Health to this center on Christmas morning, and my Christmas dinner – as you can see – consisted of a plate of green beans and carrots, a cup of vegetable soup (I don’t know what the broth was, I don’t want to know what the broth was, and I think I’m happier not knowing), and a very small container of low-fat vanilla ice cream made with real dairy milk.

A more typical lunch/dinner would have been a salad (iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, dressing, and real dairy cheese) and another dish of those d*mn carrots.

Not only was most of the food they served me NOT vegan, it was also alarmingly low in calories and protein – and I needed plenty of both as I was recovering from two pelvic fractures. Is it any wonder I lost 25 lbs in the time I was there? To be fair, I don’t want to blame JUST the food – part of it was also no doubt because of this pesky little Hepatitis A virus I contracted. They should have transferred me back to Atrium Hospital, but to cover their *ss they decided the reason I refused to eat animal products and vomited everything I did eat was because of a body image disorder. So instead of proper food and medical care, I got to speak to a psychologist!

Are you a vegan who’s had a stay in the hospital? What was your experience?