I am going back there for the first time in years. everything will take longer than expected. I would suggest making the appointments on the same day and scheduling your return flight home later than you think is necessary just in case.

I was told that my upcoming appointments would be on a Monday and Tuesday so I booked my flight home for Wednesday morning. Now they're saying I might need to see Shen Wednesday (I didn't book the first flight out just in case).

Bring a ton to read -- I"ve never waited around so much anywhere.

Best--Debbie

Scheduling at CC can be a complete nightmare. But you've passed the first hurdle as you have appointments with two highly respected docs. Congrats!

I would keep the appts you have BUT I would schedule to stay another one or two days so that you can get testing done. Don't know what day of the week you have appointments, but I would definitely stay long enough to make sure you are there on a day that Dr. Shen does scoping procedures. I know he does them Wed and Fri mornings but I don't know what other days. PM me and I can send you the direct number to his office as they should be able to tell you his scoping days.

If you have any thoughts of trying to save the pouch, I would see Dr. Shen first, and discuss options. I believe Dr. Shen only scopes in the morning; office appts. are in the afternoon. If he asks you to "come back next week" for a scope, explain that you have to get back to work, or are travelling, etc., and he'll make every effort to get you in the next morning that he scopes.

If you are leaning more towards surgery: pouch removal (or redo, etc.), you could delay the surgeon's appt. until after seeing Dr. Shen; however, there's certainly no harm in talking to a surgeon the same day you talk to Dr. Shen.

Totally agree with scallop, take a couple books! Liz also makes good points as well - tack on an extra day or two just in case ...

Best of luck.

Schedule a scope and appointment same day with Shen. His office is good about doing it that way to begin with. If you don't ask for a scope and see him he might have you come back. Make sure you don't go alone. Reason I couldn't get scoped the first time and I couldn't afford the 17 dollar an hour caretaker they provide for the day. They are usually good about trying to get you into seeing people you need the same week. I stayed a week the first time and had to change my flight. I should have booked one way flights, would have been cheaper.

I live closer now, 5.5 hour drive. I booked my scope Friday morning and follow up appointment Friday afternoon. so I could do fun stuff over the weekend and be in Monday for some dreaded reason. I was ready to schedule to have my pouch taken out. Nobody could figure out what was wrong with me. I had insane pain, tons of blood coming out of my barnett pouch and cramping. Everyone said pouchitis and I never had it. He told me that by looking (so did 3 other GIs that scoped me). He tested me for C.diff and I came out positive and now a lot better. Sad I have to travel that far for a cdiff test but I got an answer at least.