"General anaesthesia"

I had a minor procedure on Tuesday and wanted to thank all the lovely staff who helped me, from DOSA who couldn’t have been kinder to the theatre team , to the staff in 211 . I am terrified of surgery, terrified of anaesthetics, a difficult patient but I felt very safe and cared for. 

Especially want to thank the anaesthetist Sarah (? I think),  the nurse who held my hand as I went under and was an enormous comfort to me, the nurse in recovery who made me laugh and helped me feel safe, and then the HCSWs and students on 211 . One was called Kenny I think, and he was a lovely , very polite nurse . I wish I knew everyone else’s names but they were all wonderful all day Tues/Wed morning . 

The staff nurse on 211 night shift came to talk to me at 2am and she spoke to me in such a very wise and caring manner that I calmed down immediately and fell fast asleep . She has the ‘magic touch’ as I told her in the morning , she reminded me so much of a couple of ex colleagues which was a huge comfort in the middle of the night. 

My only minor wobble is the way that the doctors do their side of things - the ward rounds, but this is a universal issue in hospital from experience , so many faces come to your bed and only one introduces themselves, half don’t even look at you, they spend all of 5 minutes at your bed and walk away. The nurses were fine to bleep them back and one did oblige and spoke to me for longer but that should be a matter of course, if you’ve had an operation you’re bound to have questions and need a chat before you go home . Even if you could get stuff written down (beyond what’s on the discharge letter I mean) . I didn’t get a leaflet or anything at all and I could have done with something maybe . I’m aware my surgeon spoke to me in recovery but I only very vaguely remember that and not what really what was said . 

Not blaming anyone as it’s standard procedure I know , just that it’s very hard to remember what you’re told and to understand it all sometimes . Helps if you’re reminded again the next day or in writing or something !

On the whole though ARI’s an absolutely wonderful place, when I worked there I always felt the staff were like an enormous ‘family’ where everyone works so well together if that makes sense, and I felt that again on Tuesday , everyone couldn’t have been lovelier .