October wasn’t supposed to be like this. Chris’ contract at the University of Tübingen ended, as planned, on September 30th. No, we don’t know what we’re going to do next, but we have a visa to stay in Germany for the next 6 months while we figure it out. But that’s not what this post is about.

You see, the plan had been to spend October taking a break, searching for work a bit, but also giving Chris time to do a few fun projects he hadn’t had time to work on this past year. We also thought we’d travel a little bit more, maybe scoping out possible places for our next move.

To say that things didn’t go as planned this month, however, is an understatement. An unexpected — but successful— cataract operation was suddenly scheduled and performed in mid-October, diagnosed when Chris went to the eye doctor on October 1st. Surgery went well, and a week later, just as a slight allergic reaction to the prescribed eye drops seemed to be clearing up last Friday night, Chris suddenly had chest pains. All is well now, and the doctors said that he didn’t have a heart attack, so that was good. But the problem with getting sick in the middle of the night on a Friday is that you wind up in the hospital on Saturday morning, with the doctors wanting to perform tests before they will let you go home, and the tests can only be started on Monday.

So, Chris got to spend a weekend in the hospital. The nurses and doctors were all pleasant, and the room actually had a nice view of a grassy area, so it wasn’t so much that the surroundings were horrible, I guess. And of course, a hospital stay is like an “all-inclusive” vacation package: you get a bed, attentive staff who poke and prod at intervals to make sure you’re feeling fine and all the fizzy water and fruit yogurt snacks you want. Plus, of course, you get three meals a day.

Three German meals a day.

Make that three German hospital meals a day.

We didn’t expect that hospital food would be good, and Chris reports that although it wasn’t very exciting, it was better than other institutional foods here. I should note he ate at the notoriously mediocre Mensa University cafeteria during the week while he was working at the University, and some days even the salad bar wasn’t very good there.

So while the food wasn’t good, it wasn’t bad, although it certainly seemed to have lots of food that might be bad for you, at least in the nutritional sense. Here’s a look at what Chris was served, as much as I can remember. Chris got to pick Tuesday’s breakfast, as well as ask for the addition of fruit to Monday’s dinner, but the rest just came without any choice:

Breakfast:
Saturday: 2 rolls, butter, jam, 3 slices of Wurst, Coffee or Tea
Sunday: 2 rolls, 3 slices of Wurst, butter, jam, Coffee or Tea
Monday: 2 rolls, butter, jam, 3 slices of Wurst, Coffee or Tea
Tuesday: muesli, 1 plain yogurt, 1 fruit yogurt, Coffee or Tea, pear (too hard to eat)

Lunch:
Saturday: 1 roll, butter, 1 big bowl of Vegetable Soup, chocolate pudding cup
Sunday: 1 roll, butter, small bowl of tomato soup, beef goulash, spätzle, red cabbage salad, vanilla pudding cup
Monday: 1 roll, butter, small bowl of chicken soup with tiny noodles, little meatballs, mashed potatoes, corn & peas, applesauce
Tuesday: 1 roll, butter, small bowl of broth, Lentils with Wurst links in them (it’s a typical dish here in Schwabia)

Dinner:
Saturday: 2 slices of brown bread, 3 slices of cheese, butter, small tube of liverwurst, pickle
Sunday: 2 slices of brown bread, 2 slices of cheese and 1 slice of Wurst, butter, small tube of liverwurst, cherry tomato
Monday: 2 slices of brown bread, 3 slices of Wurst, butter, small tube of liverwurst, pickle, small apple

Of course, they do get points for trying to jazz it up with offering the main dish on a covered plate:

Dinner is served on a covered dish

Take off the cover to reveal what goes with the bread roll, butter on the side of the tray:

Wurst plate for Dinner

Note that there is only a hot meal provided at lunch time. A German friend of ours commented that this is typical in Germany, where people will would traditionally eat a big meal at lunchtime, and then just sandwiches for dinner. So, the hospital meal plan is tailored to that model, perhaps to make people feel more comfortable (I mean, that makes sense). But for an American, it’s a bit of a shock to be given just slices of Wurst — essentially bologna — for 2 meals a day.

I just found it so strange that there weren’t more healthy-looking items offered at mealtimes. Hardly any vegetables, no fruit by default (and the 2 pieces that did come after Chris had a chance to ask for them were too hard to be eaten). On Saturday, the nurse very nicely gave me a lunch too, as she said she had extra, and I’d been there with Chris since he arrived in the room at 4am. Saturday is soup day, and I can say with certainty that the soups were incredibly salty. That was  a surprise, since it was a cardio unit, after all. Also, the patients were offered caffeinated coffee and tea at breakfast, which is also a little different from what I remember my father reporting when he was in a cardio unit in the U.S.

Anyway, after 2 days of a dinner of Wurst on bread, Chris was ready for something different, and didn’t eat all the slices on Monday. So I tried a slice of the one that looks a like Italian Mortadella; I did that specifically so I could report on it here. Yup, it tasted like bologna … just by another name. 😉

Luckily before Chris had to face his dinner tray one more time on Tuesday, he had one final fancy heart test and then was released from the hospital. The doctors don’t know what caused the problems on Friday night, but have ruled out serious heart problems. So that’s good.

And today Chris had a final follow-up at the eye clinic on his cataract operation. His eye surgeon said his eye looked excellent, and even said Chris didn’t have to do any more of the eye drops at all. Chris really hates getting eye drops, so this was very welcome news.

So, 4 weeks after the medical adventures began this month, they have (hopefully) come to the end for the moment. Looking back, it has been far from the best of times, but thankfully not so bad as to be the worst of times.

Just definitely the Wurst of times.