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what is your experience in dealing with doctors who have a very conservative "wait-and-see" approach? In some ways, I think this is great because it could mean your body heals itself or with meds and no need for invasive testing or surgery. on the other hand, i sometimes think the doctor should be a little more aggressive in the diagnosis and treatment. for example, if i feel something is wrong with my pouch, the doctor gives me antibiotics. i ask him to scope me, and he says, "no, we will wait until your annual because it could cause more damage and irritation". so rather than go in and find the problem, he is treating me based on my clinical symptoms, like pouchitis and fistula.

is it because they see so many of these things in their practice and they KNOW that most of the time they can resolve with conservative measures? or they like a "wait and see approach" until things get worse and they HAVE to go in?

i understand their point that sometimes doing too much probing might worsen things, but sometimes i just want them to confirm with their own eyes what is going on!

anyone experience this or have any thoughts?

thanks! you always help me think clearer Big Grin
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My first GI was very conservative. I wasted almost a year taking asacol and prednisone before he would move to the next step. It was pointless and I never healed while I was waiting for those meds to work. They just didn't. I like aggressive docs. Had I not waited so long, I might not have needed 2 blood transfusions.
My gi was conservative. That is why I lost my colon. He would not give me the aggressive drugs I needed for a severe flare. My previous doctor was aggressive which scared me but I bet she would have given me the transplant rejection drugs I needed to save my colon.
I think the best doctors are both conservative and aggressive depending on the situation.
Subzeromambo-
just curious, what kind of drugs were your doctors not willing to put you on and why did you agree to a surgery before you felt all options had been tried, or had something drastic happened?

I went on every drug possible, Asacol, Prednisone, another I cannot think of, and the big ones Remicaid, and Humera, each one progressively failed to produce results after an initial period of them working. My colon still had to go. So there's no guarantee that would have made a difference. These drugs also produce side effects that are less than desirable, including high rates of cancer while on the drugs, bone loss, hair loss, weakness, bacterial and viral susceptibility, etc.

Unless something drastic happened, its the patients job to ensure they exhaust all possibilities.

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