J-Pouch Surgery - Recommendations Needed

Many people have traveled to CC for j pouch surgery but there are many skilled surgeons all over the country. Where do you live? I had an excellent surgeon in Philadelphia.

Also if you post this question on jpouch.org you will get many more responses. Not many people here have had surgery or even looked into it.

I was scared too believe me! There are quite a few j pouchers on jpouch.org who live in CA who I am sure can recommend a great surgeon. And yes, I am very happy with my j pouch. I also have two family members with long time j pouches and they have done great as well. The surgery is no walk in the park...I won't sugar coat it. But it was such a small blip on the radar map compared to all the suffering I endured with UC.

The healthier you are going in to surgery the better. And of course you need a surgeon who has done oodles of j pouches. I was really sick going in so I had some minor complications after my first step. I had it done in two steps...you can check my signature. Please let me know if you have any specific questions. :)

My surgeon is Dr. Robert Beart and he's now at Glendale Memorial. He is the top CR surgeon in CA having done more than 2000 jpouch surgeries. However, there are other good surgeons in the State. Whereabouts do you live?

Sue

My brother went to Mayo about 17 or so years ago for his. He hasn't had any issues with it other than a few infections but that might be common with any of them.  Obviously back then the procedure was fairly new and Mayo might have been one of the few places doing it, but he had a good experience there. If I remember correctly, he recovered pretty quickly but was in the hospital about a month before he decided to have surgery.  They were really good about getting him all the info he needed and even letting him interact with other patients in the hospital who had just had the surgery.