It's a tricky question, I'm not sure how you go about rating doctors.

My only reference point is my own surgeon, James Keck at St Vincents, Melbourne.

My non-scientific way of judging competence was:
- middle-aged (not too inexperienced, but not too old 'n' shaky handed)
- involved in teaching (up with latest trends/best practice)
- works out of a major city hospital, and not some chop shop in the outer suburbs
- titles/position (I think he's a director of something-or-other, so again, must be fairly skilled/experienced to hold such a position.)

Though I see you already have your j-pouch, so perhaps you are looking for someone more specialised in the aftercare side of things? For that I am still a bit unsure of where to turn, i.e. back to surgeon (can take months to get an appointment), or a GI maybe.

I'd be interested to hear others thoughts.

I would say professor John cartmill

He practices out of Macquarie university private in Sydney

Hands down the most technologically advanced private hospital in Australia. Prof cartmill was instrumental in its set and is the head of surgery for the entire hospital

He has also worked at the Cleveland clinic alongside Vic fazio for a couple of years so his experience is up there with the best

I recently had my takedown done. I'm actually lying in a hospital bed right now, it's been about 30hours! He used the da Vinci robotic to do my second surgery/jpouch formation and just did the takedown now.

Phenomenal hospital. Exceptional surgeons, great nursing staff. I also had a professor of anethiology do my GA and post pain care so couldn't ask for anything better than that.

Highly recommend them

James

Thanks for the feedback. Im 13 months out and still having some pain issues. There is nothing obvious causing it and im not getting much joy from my surgeon, so I'll be looking for another opinion soon. Can travel to sydney if i have to.

If your problem is pain, like nerve pain then I recommend Professor Bosil Tillman. Practices out of Mac Private and Nepean Private.

Again, probably one of the best pain management guys Ive ever met.

I had a lot of pain issues. First surgery was laproscopic and they clipped a nerve, so ever since I have pain issues and Prof Tillman has been the first guy to get it under control and manage it through the surgery process. He's good.

JH

JH

Thanks for that. I cannot seem to get a clear diagnosis of what my problem is. I have had a whole bunch of tests and my nurse practitioner seems to think it might be nerve damage, but I think we have reached the limit of her knowledge. I am looking for a specialist who has had a lot of experience with pouches and may have come across someone with similar symptoms. A Brisbane specialist would work better for me, but I'm not averse to travelling to Sydney as I have family there I could visit and kill two birds etc.

Forgot to mention he is a professor of anaesthesiology, not Colorectal surgeon. But he works in Prof John Cartmill (colorectal surgeon) team basically at Macquarie. My last 2 surgeries were with John doing the surgery and Tillman managing the pain aspect.

I don't know Brisbane that well sorry.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I am starting biofeedback on Friday and will give that some time before I go for a second opinion.
Lixxie. The first few months after my op I referred to the surgeon for primary care, but I just kept going downhill and they couldn't work out why. So then I went to a IBD nurse practitioner who put me on to a gastroenterologist who helped me back on the right path to recovery. It was as simple as removing opiate based pain meds. I didn't feel as nauseous, I started to eat better, and I healed. I have used the gastro and IBD nurse mostly with reference to the surgeons office at times as well. We have tried lots of options, none of them solving my pain issues. So it's on to biofeedback for a couple of months to see if that can do the job, and then I'll see another surgeon for a second opinion. May also try acupuncture as well at some point.
This whole thing has been very dissapointing as my quality of life is worse than it was before surgery. Sure I don't have UC and all the associated risks of that, but I do have daily pain, too many PM BM's, and generally just don't feel great.
But I will be back, be it with a pouch or a bag, I WILL feel good again. Gary

Hi Gary, love your attitude, I also suffered with opiates and was much better off than on them, my surgeon Dr. Borten was fantastic but unfortuately now retired(Gold Coast, Qld.), had a botched procedure in Jan 09 inserting PTQ Implants into the anal spincters to give better control. Completely stuffed me up, pain, agonising pain is all I had out of it, and to an extent still do. Apparently, they have broken up and migrated to who knows where. One piece rejected, I wasn't believed until the surgeon saw the hole in the bowel wall, 2 taken out loads still in me, this is the cause of all my pain.Saw another surgeon for a second opinion and he said they were inserted wrongly, but he wanted to take them out by creating a fistula, so still haven't got an answer, I was wondering if I have nerve pain too. Wishing you luck, Heather