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Hi, I'm coming up on six years post-op and doing fine in general. When I had my surgery I was living in Connecticut, so I went to Yale-New Haven Hospital for all my care. My gastroenterologist was the amazing Dr. Debbie Proctor, and she referred me to the equally amazing Dr. Vikram Reddy for my procedure when it became clear my serrated polyps were trying to kill me. We did the proctocolectomy as a prophylactic procedure.

Anyhow, in the last six years, I've moved across the country, and I'd like to get established with a competent surgeon for follow up care, plus having someone I can turn to if anything goes wrong with my pouch. I live in North Idaho but Spokane is close by, so I'd prefer to go there if I can. Seattle is an option (a five-hour drive) and I know there are a bunch of good docs there, but Spokane would be much more convenient.

Does anyone know good docs who are familiar with J-pouches in this area? By familiar, I mean docs who have actually performed the surgery -- I'm not trusting my pouch to a newbie. 

Thanks in advance.

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Hi, DPM. Although surgeons often continue to care for their J-pouch patients, they usually don’t have much interest in taking on the care of J-pouchers without any surgical needs. My suggestion would be to look for a knowledgeable gastroenterologist instead. You can always get a referral to a colo-rectal surgeon in the unlikely event that you need one.

True in general, but Dr. Reddy was adamant that I not let just anyone up there. My follow-up is supposed to include regular scopings, to check the centimeter or so of rectal cuff he left behind for any signs of serrated polyps. I really don't want to have gone through all the trouble of getting my guts yanked out to avoid cancer only to get cancer anyway.

I understand his point -- if a doc hasn't dealt with J-pouches before, he or she could cause some real issues poking a scope up there. Then again, if my rectal cuff is only a few centimeters long, I'd think a flexible sig would be more than enough to inspect the area, and there'd be no need to go up into the pouch itself. Still, I don't want a ham-fisted rookie perforating me. 

Guess I'm just looking for names of any docs in Spokane that might be a good starting point. Then I can interview them to get an idea what their level of expertise is.

 

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