Back home after a rough 8 days in hospital with more work (and pain) than I expected. This was the 5th cancer related excision/reconstruction surgery i’ve had in 18 months. All the drains, dressings and external stitching removed and back on the routine of wound cleaning and lots of antibiotics to add to the existing collection of meds. Also managed to acquire a Mr.Spock style eyebrow ridge which hopefully won’t grow on me - and will subside over time like the rest of the swelling is doing.
Another constant was the absolutely dire hospital food - I had planned on Huelling it but honestly, aside from the last few days I doubt I would have been up to making the shakes and had already polished off my last remaining RTD’s previously so instead had what was optimistically described as a therapeutic low sodium/fat/cholesterol diet from the hospital nutritionist.
I’m not sure how fried chicken and processed cheese slices fit into a diet description like that, but they were served at least once a day. Got me thinking @Dan_Huel if Huel had every considered trying to get RTD’s into hospital trusts as an option for patients who are really not up to facing a full meal (pretty much anyone who’s had a long general anaesthesia) or wanted some variety.
Best of luck with your recovery Phil, everyone here at Huel is routing for you.
We have had previous talks around getting Huel into the NHS. I will paste our Head of Nutrition’s reply, James, here: "It’s a great idea, but not an easy one. As I understand it (I could be wrong), there are three ways that a hospital could supply Huel for patients:
Through pharmacy - ie ‘prescribed’ via ACBS. There is a lot of red tape here and would involve clinical trials on the efficacy.
Through the catering dept. ie served as an alternative to meals but made up at ward level
Bought by individual wards and made up at ward level
However, catering depts and wards can only buy things that are approved and getting on this list is not easy and decisions are made infrequently (2 yearly?). I cannot describe how much work is involved in getting to the decision makers, something which we do not have the resource for.
There’s also selling to the shops in hospitals and so patients can buy from them or the vending machines. This would only apply to Huel RTD and Bar though."
And there are lots of mixed messages too. When you work on a cardiac ward and are promoting a positive change in diet after a cardiac event, last chance saloon type thing and patients can order suet puddings, chips and so on, during their hospital stay, there is definitely room for improvement. Very frustrating for healthcare professionals.
Hope you’re on the mend and starting to feel much better Phil.
There’s a fourth way to get Huel in hospitals @Dan_Huel, delivery from friends
Maybe we can start an underground nutrition network? I know I’d be happy to drop by with a crate or two of RTD should anyone ever be in hospital in Dorset.
thanks I’m going to have to reassess what Huel’s and flavours I use over the coming weeks - the surgeons are super paranoid about keeping my sugar levels very low to help with the healing and limit the risks of infections, so I guess I might have to drop off of Black edition and switch to some Original 2.3 or even UU.
I ended up ordering 4 x vanilla and 4 x UU 2.3GF which should tide me over until I come out of the other side of the current recovery cycle when I can reassess my situation / needs again. Or to use as a food hoard for the impending zombie flu apocalypse.
Not without knowing how much excess stock of each product they had. And it’s the only flavour they didn’t move to v3.0, so people who want that flavour had no choice but to buy the old stock.
It’s crap that they’ve run out though, when people can’t tolerate the new recipe. What we need is for some plucky Huel insider to leak the 2.3 formula so we can make a knock-off in our sheds and sell it ourselves. Maybe get that chancer who makes the counterfeit T-shirts involved to handle the free gifts.
Thanks, I’m on it! Huool® will be available in your local pub car park from next Wednesday! First orders get a fake T-shirt, a fake scoop and a cocktail shaker stolen from that very pub.
I would buy more v2.3 but it has a bbe 2020 so I reckon I now have enough stock to last me to the end of the year (I’ve got nearly 20 bags now and I generally only use 200g per day maximum).
My hope is that we’ll be on v6 by the time i need another subscription.
And that v6 will be incredible.
Or the same as v2.3
