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Kevin,
I have a permanent so I do not have a
specific understanding of your situation. However:
What your Doctor told you may be right on
the money but given the circumstances I would delay the procedure until the new
Doctor explained to my satisfaction why he has a different understanding then the
original doctor. It does not sound like he has done that successfully. I
do not think you should automatically believe that Doctors are always correct, that
they are equally qualified or that they cannot make a bad decision. It
does not sound like you have the confidence in this Doctor that you should to entrust
him with this procedure. If this Doctor already has decided what he going
to do regardless of what he finds then he may not be the correct Doctor for
you.
Any chance of you waiting till your
original Doctor returns? Might be sooner today then it was two days ago.
You are your own best advocate, in fact
you are probably your only advocate, do not assume that the system is going to
take the best care of you without your active participation. I believe the
system will take the path of least resistance and if that includes pairing your
with a lesser qualified Doctor, then it will do so. You have to demand the best
and ask sufficient questions to convince yourself that is what you are receiving.
Lots of questions to ask.
- Why
does he think the stump will be diseased?
- Can
they do any tests to verify the condition of the sturnp?
- If
it is not already diseased why does he think it will become so?
- Why
does he think the original doctor left it that way?
- How
many reconnects has he done?
- Can
you get a second opinion?
If I were in your situation I do not think
I would go through with it from what you described unless it was an emergency.
That might be bad advice but there are a lot of stories out here about errors in
judgments by Doctors which had permanent bad effects on the lives of patients.
In an extreme situation you can tell him he cannot remove the stump and if he
is not qualified to reconnect to it, ask him if knows of another surgeon who
is. (at that point I would have just fired him)
Good Luck with your decision.
From:
colostomy@yahoogroups.com [mailto:colostomy@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Kevin Utter
Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2006
6:09 AM
To: colostomy@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [colostomy] Reconnection
Scenarios
Has anyone heard of any negative stories regarding
reconnects?
My doctor was describing the procedure to me and he mentioned that
there is a chance that they will not be able to reconnect me. This is
not the same doctor who performed the original sigmoid colectomy; he
got deployed to
me that if he got deployed, he left enough of a stump for the new
doctor to work with. He also connected the bowel segments with
surgical thread so that it woud be easy to find the stump. Based on
the results of my barium enama there appears to be a significant
stump remaining...
The doctor who will perform the surgery indicated that he will remove
the remaining stump to ensure that I do not develop diverticulitis
again. The original doctor said that he removed all of the diseased
portion of the sigmoid colon, so why should the new doctor remove
whatever is remaining? I'm worried that they might not be able to
drop/lower the remaining part of my colon far enough to reconnect
with the rectum, since they want to remove the last piece of my
sigmoid colon. Is this normal procedure?
Can some one explain to me what their doctor told you? Any advice
will be appreciated. I go in on the 16th for my reconnect. I want to
make sure I understand what to expect and why they do the reconnect
in this manner.
Thank you.
Kevin
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