My guess is that they think because you have had UC for so long, that it's in your best interest to have your colon removed before future polyps appear, and are cancerous.

You might want to consider a 2nd or 3rd opinion.

Sue

The decision is tricky for you, more so than for someone suffering with a poor quality of life. The downstream risk of waiting is considerable, though, since some of the cancer scenarios are pretty nasty (they don't always find it in time). You don't say if this polyp is cancerous, but I'm guessing yes, given the plan for surgical resection. I think you may have gotten a warning shot with this polyp, and it may be time to just be grateful for the 23 surgery-free years and accept that things have progressed to a new phase.

Large polyps can hold a T1 tumor in there. Mine did! So if there is severe dyplasia then I would imagine they want to yank it all.

I appreciate the responses - a biopsy on the polyp came back with no cancerous cells. I also had a Prometheus test confirm that I've got UC and not Crohn's. All of this makes the decision even harder, I'm afraid.

An alternative might be frequent colonoscopy. Its not fool proof but something to consider if there was no other indication of cancer. If you have pan colitis your chances of cancer increase dramatically after about 20 years.

With my expereince the J Pouch is a no brainer. I do understand that some people have no option but to have the bag for life but I had one for 9 months until my reversal surgery and it was the worse thing. The words "you get used to it" are just something to make you feel better about it. Sure you learn to deal with it but not get used to it. I have totally forgot about my J Pouch unless someone asks me about it or the topic comes up. Trust me if I am ever told I will have to go back to the bag for any reason I will learn to deal with it but never get sed to it.

You mention doctors so I'm assuming you have had more than one opinion. Believe me your colon is not worth keeping with high cancer risk. I had my colon years before being finally diagnosed. When my final flare from hell wouldn't go away and I had UC and diverticulitis pan colon it had to go. I decided against trying biologics because of the risks, my age and colon cancer risk.

Most of the people posting on this site are having problems. 95% of those with j-pouches are doing fine and aren't posting here. When you are reading posts please keep that in mind. A lot of new j-pouchers post as our doctors and ostomy nurses don't tell us everything we need to know and this is an awesome support group.

You don't have to go straight to a j-pouch. You can opt for a potential 3 part surgery and go to a permanent ostomy straight away and have no more operations. If you decide later to go forward then you can go for the j-pouch surgery.

As difficult as my recovery has been I wish I'd had the surgeries years before I did.