Olive,

Just came across you post. I hope you are feeling well!

That is a terrible situation for you to be in. Hopefully you can work with your new Dr. to bypass the ER mess. My Surgeon and the hospital he is associated with is about an hour away from my home. He insists that I always call him first and get down to the hospital where he is located in case of emergency’s (which I have had a few…). That way, he can always work with the ER Dr’s and admit me if necessary. I’ve had a few very uncomfortable rides down there, but the ER time I saved in doing so was well worth the hour drive.

As real as the pain, issues, and general anatomy of a J-Pouch is to you and me, it is still a quite obscure surgery to some hospitals. If you go into a Hospital with little knowledge of the surgery they will look at you like you have two-heads instead of zero-colons.

Do you have the ability to work with the Surgeon who did your J-Pouch? If not, you may want to research the area you live in to find some one with good experience. Since you have had obstruction issues in the past you may want to get some tests done to rule out adhesions and kinks in your system.

I hope that things work out for you; you don’t deserve to be treated like that when you are in so much pain.

ER doctors are mixed. Most are good doctors that will listen to their patients, but some of them are cynical, doubt patients, and want to see "proof" of an injury. So, for them, unless you have a pair of scissors stuck in your gut, you really don't need to be there. I think that these type of ER docs are a minority, but I also think that they create the majority of problems. It's too bad because they give the good ER docs a bad name.

When I first got sick, they failed to do tests that my GP requested (it was on a weekend), which resulted in a two month delay in my diagnosis. Other times during the illness period, I showed up and was treated within a half an hour. The doctors would call my GI (this happened twice, both on weekends), and ask what to do. Those ER doctors did a good job. The first one didn't.

Since my surgery, I've been to the ER once. And they handled everything correctly. I was vomiting and had mild dehydration. This was the day after I was released from the hospital. It may have been a blockage that passed on the hour trip to the hospital, or it may have been acid reflux caused by the loss of my colon. There was only a 15 minute wait. They did a bunch of X-Rays within the first hour I was there. And they kept me there for 8 hours to ensure that everything was ok. (My surgeon's office had called and altered them to what was wrong). The ER doctor was a really good guy, and really patient. But this was at a hospital that has a gastro ER doctor on staff.

Bill,
Thanks, I am feeling much better. All my surgeries were two hours away from my hometown and my surgeon has moved so I don't go there anymore. I went for a check up with my local doctor and when I told him what happened at the hospital he said, "Let me guess, you went to Crestwood? It's a great hospital unless you're sick." So doctors in town don't have much respect for it either.

Now that I've found this group of doctors I can call and whomever is on call will meet me at the hospital and treat me instead of the E.R.

My arm is feeling much better but still not completely normal; I guess it takes a while for one of those infections to clear up.

I guess the moral of my story is to not put up with that kind of treatment and search for new ways to handle problems. I hope I've found mine now.