I had a nasty flare-up (Crohn Disease) in November last year and was hospitalized. The condition was so severe, that a strong dose of steroids, an IV or even infliximab could not control it. The appointment with the surgeon for the preparation of a massive surgery as a last solution.
During the last 10 months, doctors and nurses have been working very hard to help me. Finally, the condition has started to calm down with the new medicine, and I feel a lot better now. For me, it has been a tough journey. I do not know where I'd be without Wendy and my IBD Team. Sincerely thanks to them.
Here I want to especially thank Wendy - a dedicated IBD Nurse, who helped me immensely to get through a difficult time. She made a very stressful time bearable with hope. I cannot stress enough how great the impact her work has on my life.
She is very caring, patient and compassionate to her patients, which are also appreciated by other patients I have met. A big flare-up is a nightmare for every IBD patient, the depressing symptoms, the nasty side effects of heavy medicines, the physical and emotional pain.... all can bring you down, on the edge of nerve breaking down and depression.
The IBD team is a 'lifeboat' to each IBD Patient. Good communication between them is vital but not always easy to achieve. Patients were normally on a heavy dose of steroids/medications. IBD nurses were normally extremely busy going from patients to a patient. Wendy is extremely professional while remaining completely humane. She is such a great listener and communicator with incredible patience.
When I was in a panic or in an anxious state of mind, she always addressed my concerns and explained things clearly and answered my questions in detail, no matter how busy she was. Another example, if I failed to answer the phone due to my condition, she always tried hard to reach me and made sure. She is truly compassionate and understands how important that kind of communication is for a patient, to rest their mind in peace, to make them feel supported in a difficult circumstance.
She kept me calm and being positive, I always felt better after communicating with her. It worked like another medicine. I am also very impressed by her strong skills in handling problems, add-ons and her wealthy knowledge and experiences in IBD Field. IBD is one of the most difficult and complex conditions to treat. Every patient must be treated with an individual treatment plan as their response to each medicine may be different. This requires good knowledge of each patient and the nature of each medication. It also involves lots of on-going tests, medicine adjustments or even switching, let alone handling the unexpected and complicated incidents.
It is a challenging job. But she is always well-organized and efficient in all things. I am impressed her incredible good memory about my previous tests, dose change, what need to be done now, what on a certain date in the future, so on and forth, so much information for just one patient and the number of IBD patients in Nottingham is not small and seemed to continue to increase every year. For me, it is hard to imagine someone can remember all of these things well without loving his/her job.
She is an outstanding role model for the nursing profession and a tremendous member of your organization. So, I simply want to say ''thank you'' to Wendy, my consultant and all the IBD Nurses here.