Surgeons

Im assuming you are at teaching hospital? All of my surgeries were at a large University hospital and who was in my operation, residents, fellows ect was a concern of mine. (PS I do not have a pouch)

My first surgery (resection with loop ostomy) I asked my surgeon point blank will you be doing my entire surgery. He said yes, that he was taking full responsibility so he would be the only one operating. At that time my case was a little complex and they had changed what surgery they were doing a few times so in that case it seemed he wanted to be the only one operating.

In my final surgery I did not ask before hand however this was my third surgery with this surgeon and I had worked with two of his surgical fellows a lot and just felt comfortable with my overall care and wasn't as concerned. It was a large surgery they had to repair a fistula and my vaginal wall, in addition to my rectum removal and colectomy. He told me that his partner would be assisting so they could have me under for less time. I know the majority of my surgery was done by the 2 colorectal surgeons, however one of the surgery residents and a colorectal surgical fellow were in my surgery so if they did part of it I don't actually know.

I had my surgery at a large university (teaching) hospital but my surgeon (who was very experienced with the j pouch procedure) did the actual surgery. (I asked!) I'm sure there were many in the OR that day but he's the one who did it. But you're right.....there has to be someone, at some point doing their very first procedure. They would be under a watchful eye though as well.

Best of luck with your future surgery.

sd1 said...
ByeByeUC: Thank you. Still a little scared getting a j-pouch after reading some of the horror stories on here haha

I understand but try not to let that scare you. The successes far outweigh the failures. I was scared to death at the time as well.....kind of hard not to be. My sister and my uncle both have long time j pouches and they have done very well over the years too. I just spent 3 weeks in Europe with my sister (She lives in France). On this trip I learned that my husband (who has a healthy colon) uses the bathroom to poop more than my sister and I together who are colonless. It seemed that way anyway....maybe he just takes longer!

cupcakespinkgal said...
My ostomy group where I live is a good example. Its a group of over 40 people. The majority love their ostomy and have minimal issues, a little different than people with less than ideal outcomes posting on the internet.

What's the point of being in an ostomy or j-pouch group if you are 100% happy with the ostomy/j-pouch? I'd only join if I was having problems, much like the reason why I joined HW in the first place.

NOW I find out you can ask your surgeon straight out whether he will be the one actually doing the surgery. I never thought to ask!!! DUH! I also went to a teaching hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, oldest hospital in the country with an excellent reputation and had the head of the colorectal surgery department at the Univ of Pa do the surgery, or so I thought! He had a staff of residents who all seemed to be on the ball, but once under the knife, who knows? My concern was that I have situs inversus, all my organs are reversed. Afterwards, I came to find out I was the first patient with this phenomena that Dr. Fry had operated on. He said he stood on the opposite side of the operating table....no problem. He did leave the anus and my main problem was ulcerative proctitis and four years after my operation, my disease is back inside the anus! Now, I am wondering if a resident didn't finish up shop during my operation and failed to remove the entire rectum when making the cuff. My operation was in 2010, Dr. Fry retired in 2013 and my disease returned in 2014. The surgeon I am now seeing does NOT want to remove the anus.

I too never miss my ostomy support group meeting, even though I'm very happy with my ostomy. I feel that I give a lot of support and encouragement to those who aren't as happy, or who are just learning how to adjust. I feel good when I leave there knowing that I was able to help someone.
And I also feel good walking into that room knowing that everyone in there is pretty much like me with my ileostomy....or they have a colostomy or urostomy. There's a core group of people who are there every meeting, we meet every few months. And we're all really helpful to the newbies. I think I'm about 15 years younger than everyone else, but we still have shared a lot of the same experiences.
It's nice to have that connection.