"My total knee replacement experience"

I was admitted to ward on February 3rd 2016 and discharged on February 8th.

I can’t find one single thing to complain about (except the £30 car parking charges)

I had a Nissan Fundoplication op at your hospital about three years ago and as a result, I can no longer vomit at all.

I expected it to be an ongoing task to convince the staff that I can’t vomit and must be given constant anti sickness meds, how wrong I was.

At the pre-op assessment, before I had a chance to mention it, the anaesthetist was reading my notes and said to me words along the lines of “you’ve had a Nissan Fundoplication, we must make sure to give you anti sickness meds” and they wrote it down and circled it on my notes.

I was admitted on the 3rd Feb and saw a different anaesthetist.

They too were very on the ball. They discussed with me my request for sedation and said they would rather me not have it. They explained in depth why this was so, the preferred sedation drug I am allergic to and the others can make me feel sick and due to my past op, I mustn’t be sick.

They could tell I wasn’t nervous about my op (have had loads over my lifetime) and we came to an agreement. They would give me my spine injection, headphones with music on, and before the op started, they would double check I was still happy to go on without sedation.

True to their word, I was in the op theatre, before the op started, they removed my headphones and asked me if I was happy I wasn’t going to feel a thing, I said I was more than happy.

The op started at about 8:30.

The anaesthetist came to my bed at lunchtime to find me sitting up in bed eating dinner. They laughed and said I wouldn’t be eating that if I had had sedation.

I have to have my other knee done in about 6 months and am more than happy to have no sedation again.

The nurses (and other staff) on ward 7 were simply amazing, I can’t fault any of them.

From the cleaners, the people giving me coffee, the nurses, blood takers, physio etc, everyone treated me superbly, made me feel relaxed and very welcome, they all deserve a big thank you.

I really can’t praise all the staff enough, it annoys me when I hear people complaining about the James Paget or slagging it off,

I have had a few ops there over the years and every single time it’s been a very pleasurable (well as pleasurable as an op can be) experience and all staff very professional.

I found ward 7 to be very clean, every time I used the toilet it was spotless, the cleaners all happily chatted away to me while they cleaned, the nurses (whether trainee or sister) were all first class and should be proud of themselves.

The nurses went out of their way to make sure my stay was as pleasant as it could be, and I simply can’t put into words how impressed I was by both their professionalism and their caring nature.

The patience the nurses had was also superb.

I even found the food to be very good quality, I’m sure it’s much better than it was in the past.