"Explanations made me feel much less anxious"

I visited the IBD clinic at the medical day bed unit at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley yesterday to review my situation. Up until this point I had been informed that I had a relatively mild case of ulcerative colitis, which really didn't fit with the severity of the symptoms I have been experiencing.

The IBD Clinical Nurse Fiona talked me through things in detail showing me examples on her computer clarifying why she considered the previous assumptions to be incorrect. She talked through a number of aspects in terms of treatments and provided me with a very good understanding of both the disease and what I should expect.

Even though the news was quite a shock, being provided with properly considered explanations made me feel much less anxious about the road ahead.

I must say that I finally feel as if I'm a person being treated, rather than someone just going through the system, which is a huge credit to how Fiona dealt with me, both at the initial consolation, and the follow up call.

Ultimately, when situations like arise being managed by people that care and understand the issues you face, not just medically, takes a huge pressure off in terms of me dealing with what will be a difficult time ahead.  A positive attitude can only help with the outcome.