"Great Staff"

I was in ward F4 today, and as usual the nurses there were fantastic. They take time to talk to each patient, and a good rapport is built with everyone. I had a reaction to the meds (remsima) they gave me on there, and I had to wave to the ward nurse, who came to me straight away along with 5 other nurses.

Within 5 minutes, I'd gone from being unable to breathe, dizzy and vomiting to just working on calming my breathing again as the drugs took effect to fix the problem. They anticipated everything I needed without me having to ask for it - a sick bowl through to the drugs I needed and oxygen. The strap broke on the oxygen mask, so one of the nurses patiently held it. Another nurse knelt beside me asking me to focus on them rather than everything going on at the time and helped me to remain calm (I have anxiety, so this was a feat in itself). There was also a doctor that came straight away, who was professional, friendly and able to write down the symptoms I had when I was able to speak and tell them.

At all times, including for the following 2 hours, nurses checked I was ok, even when they weren't checking my obs. The nurse came to sit with me for a short time, and you could tell they genuinely cared what I had to say. They had a conversation with me about life in general and asked about why I might have had a lack of sleep last night.

When I got home, I called the IBD helpline straight away, and the St Lukes staff had already let them know about the reaction, so I was able to talk to them about it without having to rehash the experience.

Please pass on my thanks to all the team, without them I would have been a mess mentally after the experience, but I'm calm and happy. I've never been so relieved to be in the care of nurses as I was today, and I have a lot of medical problems, so I don't say that lightly.