My doctor left a message on my phone machine regarding treatment for my sluggish stool output. He are treating this as 'pouchitis' and said to go back on the Rifaxamin; and it may take a month.

He added 'if we can't get this cleared up, we might have to remove the pouch but I don't want to have to do that'.

Is there any other way to 'remove the pouch' than to go to an iliostomy?????

Peggy, I'm sorry to hear that you're having problems. Did your doctor do a scope to find pouchitis? It just seems "sluggish stool output" can be from a few different things. It's just my opinion here, but if he means to remove your pouch after one month of pouchitis, I would hope that you would seek a second opinion, and I also think that wasn't the sort of message a doctor should leave on a machine.

I hope you feel better soon,

janna

I agree with Janna. Very poor manner.

Dear Peggy,

I agree with Janna and Bill. An endoscopy would be definitely worthfull at this moment to make a clear diagnosis. If it is really a bad pouchitis there are a range of "heavier" medicines (like Entocort/ Purinethol or even Remicade) to try before going for an operation. If you will try Rifaximin you can do this in combination with Ciprofloxacin for a better chance of a good result. When really no medical treatment reacts, I would first choose for a wait and see policy (when possible). It just sometimes disappeared without exact understanding. After this you could go for just a disconnection operation in which the ileum is disconnected from the pouch and you get a (temporary) ileostomy. This also could heal the pouchitis. Afterwards a new connection can be made. It is even possible to make a second pouch from the remaining ileum if the pouch really has to be removed (I don't know a lot about that). I don't want to scare you with my story but I only want to tell you there are normally a lot of options to prevent an ileostomy. I hope you will be fine on Rifaximin!
Succes, Roger

Peggy,

Can you get a consult with Dr. Victor Fazio at the Cleveland Clinic? He will do whatever needs to be done to save your pouch.

Wishing you the best.

Dear Peggy,

when reading yor message again, I now understand that you have evacuation problems of the pouch which is treated if there is a pouchitis. The following link could be interesting for you: http://cms.clevelandclinic.org/digestivedisease/documents/spring_2005_pog.pdf

Succes, Roger!