Does this seem like a reasonable approach?

I would greatly appreciate opinions on my approach to my situation. Here it is:

I had a second bout in three years of diverticulitis at the end of May. First bout was in April of 2011. Both were treated with cipro/flagyl.

My UC has been in remission for the most part since 2011, although I had a flare up at the end of 2012 that I got under control with Rowasa enemas. Currently I have no blood or mucus, bm's about 2x per day. Pretty good on the UC front.

I am due for a colonoscopy this year, and am scheduled for one 7/18, after the diverticulitis has had time to settle.

My GI doc wants to get a look before recommending surgery, although he does seem to be from the school of thought that you should have surgery after two episodes of diverticulitis. There seem to be other docs out there that no longer necessarily recommend this.

The problem is the UC. I had two surgeons in 2011 tell me that IF the diverticulitis became recurrent, that they COULD do a resection removing only the sigmoid colon, providing the UC is still under control.

I don't know how comfortable I am with that--there's a part of me that would almost-as drastic as it sounds-just be done with the whole thing and have my colon removed rather than risk multiple surgeries or problems down the line after resecting a UC colon.

HERE'S MY PLAN: I have the colonoscopy and then get a surgical consult AND a second opinion from another GI doctor. I've been thinking of switching anyhow, so now may be a good time to talk to someone else. I'm guessing that anyone I talk to will want a recent colonoscopy, as my last one was in 2011.

Does this sound like a reasonable approach?

Thanks for your input-
Chinamom

Sure. As far as the actual decision goes, that's kind of tricky. You should be the one to make that final decision.