"The excellent care my son received while in the day case unit"

I would just like to thank all the staff in the day unit at RACH for the excellent care my son received while he was in hospital recently.

We arrived at 7. 45 and were shown straight through to his bed space (even though we weren't supposed to arrive until 8am) where our fab nurse (Ashlynn) was waiting with all the paperwork that was required to be filled in, I did this while daddy and my son went and played in the very well equipped play area, a little while later we were seen by the anaesthetist who came through to the play area to see my son rather than disturb his playing! Again he was really lovely, explained everything that he would be doing and made us feel at ease. After a little more playing, we were then seen by the surgeon, he was exceptionally nice and had an excellent bedside manner, he explained exactly what they were planning to do and again made us anxious parents feel at ease.

My son was second on the list and he got a bit upset that mummy and daddy wouldn't let him have any juice (as he was fasting), but the lovely ladies in the play coordination team helped take his mind off of this, they blew some bubbles and played play doh with him, which was a very welcome distraction, as mummy was getting quite upset too by this point.

A little while later at around 10. 30 it was time to go through to the theatre, where the ward nurse and theatre team read my son a noisy book while he was put to sleep, I was more than happy that I was leaving my baby in their safe hands but still had a little cry as it was a bit overwhelming, Ashlynn was really nice and didn't make me feel silly - even though I knew I was being!

Once back to the ward my son was a little sore but was quickly given some calpol to make him comfy and had a mammoth sleep! We were not rushed out despite the fact that all the other kids who had had surgery after us had all already gone home, they were happy for us to let my son sleep for as long as he needed. Once he did eventually wake up we were all ready to leave (even had our coats on! ) he decided he wanted to stay a bit longer and vomited all over the floor, himself and mummy! Thank you to the nurse who came to our rescue (I'm really sorry but I didn't catch your name! ) who helped us get all cleaned up and got my son some anti sickness medicine, which helped him feel much better and a little while later (around 8 hours after we arrived! ) we finally managed to escape!

Thank you all so much again, you really are a wonderful, kind and caring team, keep up the good work!