"I had my gallbladder and stones removed..."

What I liked

I had my gallbladder and stones removed through keyhole in August, it was a hard decision to make as I was at the time 6 weeks pregnant. I would sincerely like to thank my consultant who actually came to see me before my operation, with their lovely colleague whilst i was still in pre-op. The Anesthetic team also came to see me as did the house doctor from the ward. All in all i was seen by 5 doctors before I was operated on, which I thought was wonderful, I was very reassured and felt confident that I had made the right decision. I was in pre-op admissions for 2 hours before I was walked up to theatre. The nurse who looked after me during this time was wonderful, they were knowledgeable and talked me through what she was doing and why. Anesthetics was simple and I woke up in recovery sometime later, in agony. I was given more painkillers which I was so grateful for. Although it was a keyhole procedure, it was very painful. I was then transferred to ward 34.

What could be improved

I only have a few gripes.

1) Nurses on ward 34, PLEASE stop calling everyone 'sweetheart' - its so irritating and i'm not 90, although I was in too much pain to care, which brings me smoothly onto my next point.

2) When a patient says they are in pain, they are in exactly that. I wasnt saying it to be difficult or demanding, I was genuinely in agony. I understand that the concern was that I was pregnant, but surely some advice from an obstetrician wouldn't have gone amiss?? I had to ask for painkillers as apparently paracetamol was appropriate - I'm sure they must have thought i had a drug problem.

One thing I didnt mention to any staff and didnt want to either is the fact that I am a nurse myself, I'm a sister in private medicine so I know the crack - come on you trained staff, beleive your patients when they are complaining and please address us by our names!

Anything else?

Overall it was fine - doctors you were all fantastic and you treated me so well. Nursisng staff were good apart from points mentioned above. Ward was clean and appeared to be well staffed.

Thankyou all so much. I now live a pain free life thanks to this operation and I'm now 9 weeks pregnant and very healthy.