"My first hospital stay in seventy-one years"

I was admitted at the end of June to Treble Ward at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital for a six day stay at the request of my excellent neurologist. Some fifteen months ago I was diagnosed by them as having a incurable auto immune disease called Myasthenia Gravis and I have been following at the “conventional” drug treatment programme to control the disease. Unfortunately the disease failed to fully respond to this and my neurologist had me admitted to Treble Ward to undertake a course of Intravenous Immunoglobulin Treatment. In seventy-one years, I have never been in hospital overnight. My neurologist fully explained to me the risks associated with the treatment and went on to say that the Treble Ward was the very best location that they knew to have this treatment undertaken. They went on to say that the medical team in the ward were exceptionally qualified for the treatment I needed to have.

Some three days later, I was admitted to the Treble Ward administration team. From the moment I arrived, it was very clear to me that the ward was dealing with patients who needed intensive levels of nursing care. My wife was able to stay with me throughout the admission process and the nursing staff from sister through to student nurses all said hello. I was soon seen by the duty neurologist and ‘routine’ tests then followed ahead of the starting of the treatment the next day.

At every stage of my stay, I cannot praise all the medical staff highly enough; as a seventy-one year old wuss, they were simply fantastic, caring and very professional. Above all, they always were cheerful and possessed a great sense of humour. My infusion was not without risk and the care that was taken by all those treating me was clear to see. At every stage of the treatment, things were fully explained to me and repeated to my wife when she visited me.

Once I had my first infusion I then settled into ward life and then became very aware of the other things that make a hospital stay; the ward was very clean and a ward cleaner was around all day time. The shared “facilities” were well used but kept immaculate. I had heard so many bad things about hospital food, they simply did not apply to Treble Ward, the catering staff were brilliant. The food on offer was both nutritious and had enough variety to allow me a good choice.

The nursing staff in Treble Ward were simply fantastic, the ward sister very quickly agreed to me self medicating myself (that involves twenty-one tablets and an injection each day) and they insured that all the “routine” daily tests required by my neurologist and my diabetician happened exactly to time. Considering that the ward had seventeen other patients, all of whom had more nursing needs than me, that was brilliant. The treatment so far had done the trick. Well done to my neurologist and Treble Ward.