"Excellent care during and following colonoscopy"

I received a horrible surprise following sending my routine over 50s poo sample. It was positive and could be cancer. I had to have a colonoscopy to explore the cause of my blood. I am fit and healthy. I have no symptoms. How can this be??

The first thing that surprised me was the speed and efficiency of the response to this. Within a few days I had received a date for a telephone consultation with a nurse, and one week later I would have my colonoscopy. The nurse was due to phone me at 3pm on Tuesday. At exactly 15:00 my phone rang, and Ollie, the nurse, talked me through the procedure. He was clear and reassuring- only 2% of these tests show something that will require major intervention- a statistic to hold on to!! 

One week later, the process took place. Once again everyone was friendly and professional. However, I would particularly like to express my thanks to Arwen, who performed the procedure. As you can imagine, this is a frightening and anxiety provoking process, and she treated me with compassion, empathy and professionalism at all times. She understood and addressed my anxiety and she gave me clear instruction as to what was happening and when things might get more uncomfortable. When she found the lesion that needed excised, she explained it to me in a clear and non-patronising way, and she got to work in dealing with it. She then took such care in securing the site after the excision, that I think she probably saved my bowel.

In recovery, she came and explained what she had found, and what she had done. She was able to answer my questions clearly and honestly, and (fortunately) reassuringly. I was discharged following this prolonged procedure (due to the nature and site of the lesion), but during the night I started having some bleeding. This bleeding required that I be admitted to DGRI. I once again received compassionate and professional care from all staff in A&E and Surgical Assessment Unit. Whilst in A&E, I was very surprised to be visited by Arwen (the endoscopist), who had somehow found out that I was there. She and I discussed what had happened, and she explained what would likely happen next. I was very impressed that she found out I was in, and took the time to visit me.

The rest of my story is pretty boring. Things settled, and I got home that evening. 

However, I am convinced that the only reason that this story ends blandly is because of how carefully Ms Claydon secured the site after excising the lesion. If she had not taken the time that she did, the bleeding may not have stopped, and, because the lesion was in my caecum, I cannot envisage any outcome other than a laparotomy and resection. So thank you NHS Dumfries and Galloway, and, in particular, thank you, Arwen for going above and beyond in all respects!