I'm going to do a fecal matter transplant!

My new GI has his partner call me this evening. I only met the new GI yesterday, and already they're moving quickly on this. I am so grateful for that. Apparently the FDA has ok'd FT for people with c. diff. I'll be the first person this practice has done it on who also has Crohn's, but when they saw that I had been positive in just February and that in the last two years I've been positive probably 6 or 8 times by this point, they're all in for it!

So I have to find a donor. The initial criteria is that they have no history of GI problems at all, and that they haven't taken antibiotics in the last 3 months. I'm probably going to ask my mom to do it since my husband is still in Houston until he finds work here.

Then the donor has to do a battery of blood tests to make sure they have no communicable diseases at all. As soon as they pass that, we'll have 1 month to do the transfer. It will be done at the hospital as out-patient, and I'll have to do a colonoscopy prep to prepare it. They'll also do a colonoscopy while they do the transplant.

I will need to call my insurance tomorrow to ask about this, but I'm really hoping they'll cover it. If they don't, I'm not quite sure what to do. I have an excellent plan that covers most things, so I'm praying they will. Keep me in your prayers, guys!

I really, really hope this works. Then I can get on with just treating CD and not have to worry about which is causing what all the time.

Good luck with everything and keep us informed. for whatever it's worth it seems like the right thing to do.

Holy crap! That's awesome!!! I will pray your insurance approves it. I really, really hope this works for you!

Insurance may deny based on Experimental/Investigative (not sure, but this is a common denial for newish treatments) Like I've said before, I know the California process like the back of my hand but I'm certain most state have a similar process. If you get a denial, seek your state's insurance regulator and file an appeal. If possible, look for something called and IMR (Independent Medical Review). Also, any denial letters/paperwork you receive should also have directions for appeal printed on them. Good luck!! Please please keep us updated.

Hope it all works out for you. My daughter just had a fecal transplant in December after a 2 year battle with c-diff. She is finally clear of it!! Her father was the donor and she was the second person in the practice to get it. Insurance would not cover it because it was experimental, but it didn't matter because most doctors do not charge you to do the transplant. They just do it during a screening colonoscopy and the insurance company doesn't need to know about the rest. I called around to different labs for the blood and fecal tests her father had to do, and even though they were expensive, when I asked what the "self pay" charge was is was 60% less. I knew insurance wasn't going to cover the screening tests so I did self pay for 700.00 for all tests. Since than our doctors office has set up a self pay package with one of the labs to do all tests for 500.00. My daughter did feel worse for a week after the procedure. There is an adjustment period to the new bacteria but the c-diff was gone. It didn't help her crohn's as we hoped but we didn't expect much from it in that area. Our doctor has since done 7 more transplants and all were successful in clearing c-diff