My son appears to be a candidate not by choice for the surgery. He has severe UC. We have been given at least five different names. Other than how many pediatric J-pouch surgeries have you done on the last year, and total in the past 5-7 years? Also do you think they will answer them? People say if they don't you should probably avoid them anyway. Any help and guidance on this would be greatly appreciated.
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Prescott, definitely use a peds doctor. And ask what ever questions that YOU feel are important. My son had UC since he was 6 years old. This is your child and I believe ask away! I know surgeons can be prickly, at least ours seemed to be, but he was excellent And was very good to my son. That's all that mattered to me. But my husband asked him how many surgeries have you done, what is your failure/complication rate. He was very open with us and answered every question and did not seem to be annoyed. You can also research it by looking at their bios from insurance. Mor just google the person. It's amazing what you will find out. Our surgeon also gave us the name of patients around my sons' aage for him to speak to if he wanted. When it comes to your child, or yourself, if you don't question, you won't have answers!
Good god luck to your son. Poor kid. How old is he now? Mine was 23 when he had his colonectomy. Very difficult for him.
dianne
For my nephew's J-pouch (he was 8) a pediatric surgeon and colorectal surgeon worked together in the OR. That may not be easy to arrange, but I think they were glad to learn from one another.
Very few surgeons will have done large numbers of cases on children. If you can find a colorectal surgeon at a children's hospital you might hit the jackpot, but such a combination might not exist.