"Liver resection"

I had a liver resection with the consultant here in February and I couldn’t be more grateful.

I was very scared of what was going to happen and extremely nervous about waiting to be put under anaesthetic. I can honestly say that the team made me feel so at ease, the anesthetist and theatre team made little jokes to relax me and assured me everything would be fine. They kept my partner informed and all in all I am so grateful to have had such a wonderful surgical team.

The consultants and their support nurse were truly amazing. They made me feel like a person rather than just a number and silly little things they would remember about me when they have so many other patients, which really make all the difference.

Yes there were things that could have been better with aftercare, but I think people sometimes forget that we are very fortunate to have a service such as the NHS and they are under enormous amounts of strain.

I had post surgery complications and ended up with trips to the royal, whiston and just over another week in aintree. And I can tell you that you could be a lot worse off than in aintree hospital.

I will say that my initial post surgical care was over all very good. Ward 4 staff are wonderful. There was a nurse who sat and Just held me while I cried and I will forever be grateful for the comfort she brought me.

My second stint at aintree there was a little bit to be desired, but again they are under enormous pressure with short staffing and too many patients. At the time I hated every second, and there were a few people who could have been nicer and a bit more compassionate but they were one or 2 people in a huge team and I am still very grateful to have had them all at my service. Every member of staff is under a lot of pressure and it must be a very stressful and sometimes thankless job. More people need to join the nhs and then maybe the care would be 100% all the time, but for now they do fantastically well with the staff they have and I think we all need to remember that we are lucky to have the NHS when we really need it.

To all the surgical team, theatre support, ward 4 staff and those on ward 29 and elective care staff thank you, and in the nicest possible I hope I don’t have to see you again!