The Colon Club

JJH wrote:

Basil wrote:P.S. I've had a temp bag for exactly one week and am already harassing my surgeon for a reversal. I haaaattteee this fucking thing.

tammylayne wrote:...Your doc put the bag in...he/she is the best one to discuss when and how to take the bag out....

There is only one real complaint I have about my treatment and it concerns the bag. I have a lot of confidence in my surgeon and the only directive I gave him was pre-resection: I want you to do what you have to do but if there is any gray area do not give be a temp bag.

He seemed to understand this. I had no radiation and was a prime candidate to skip the ileostomy. But only time would tell. Woke up with the bag. When the surgeon came in I was told it was a close call and "she" was the tie breaker. "She" turned out to be a fellow (young doc) who I had never met before that day. "She" was not my doctor and someone I never (and would not have) authorized making medical decisions. If I had to do it again, I would have been explicit that I did not consent to any newbs having anything to do with my care.

If my surgeon had said, "it was a close call but this is what's best for you," I would have accepted it. But what I heard was the surgeon would not have done it but they let the green doctor decide.

Sorry, still bitter, although I know I should count my blessings and shake it off.

Basil wrote:Question about scans - I had a ct and MRI in March at diagnosis and a Ct and MRI before surgery a couple of weeks ago... Any strong thoughts on the benefit of a PET at this point?

According to the article cited by peanut_8 in this thread, it may be too soon after surgery to consider a PET/CT at this time. There is a whole section in that article about possible false positive and false negative reports in PET scans done too close to recent surgeries.

I have had 3 PET/CT scans in the past and one of them generated a False Positive due to reasons cited in that article.

Basil wrote:There is only one real complaint I have about my treatment and it concerns the bag. I have a lot of confidence in my surgeon and the only directive I gave him was pre-resection: I want you to do what you have to do but if there is any gray area do not give be a temp bag.

He seemed to understand this. I had no radiation and was a prime candidate to skip the ileostomy. But only time would tell. Woke up with the bag. When the surgeon came in I was told it was a close call and "she" was the tie breaker. "She" turned out to be a fellow (young doc) who I had never met before that day. "She" was not my doctor and someone I never (and would not have) authorized making medical decisions. If I had to do it again, I would have been explicit that I did not consent to any newbs having anything to do with my care.

If my surgeon had said, "it was a close call but this is what's best for you," I would have accepted it. But what I heard was the surgeon would not have done it but they let the green doctor decide.

Sorry, still bitter, although I know I should count my blessings and shake it off.

I have a couple of questions. Do you have a copy of the consent form that you signed before your surgery? If so, did it mention anything about other doctors possibly participating in your surgery? Do you know who actually performed your ileostomy procedure?

For some teaching hospitals that are connected with medical schools, there is a paragraph like that in the required Informed Consent Form.

You can view such a consent form by doing a Google search for a document entitled, . GENERAL_SURGERY_07.PDF. On the second page of that document there is a paragraph explaining this possibility. That document Is a consent form for laparoscopic surgery, which is somewhat similar to your robotic surgery.

Also you may want to have a look at this document:

https://www.mdanderson.org/education-training/clinical-research-training/graduate-medical-education/residencies-fellowships/surgical-oncology.html

I was hoping that the hot spots that showed up on my husband's PET scan were false positives. It really sucked to find out he had another large polyp/tumor on the other side of his colon, and that the PET scan was "correct." Of course, it's better to know than to not know... so, good luck and here's to hoping that no hot spots are detected!

JJH wrote:

Basil wrote:There is only one real complaint I have about my treatment and it concerns the bag. I have a lot of confidence in my surgeon and the only directive I gave him was pre-resection: I want you to do what you have to do but if there is any gray area do not give be a temp bag.

He seemed to understand this. I had no radiation and was a prime candidate to skip the ileostomy. But only time would tell. Woke up with the bag. When the surgeon came in I was told it was a close call and "she" was the tie breaker. "She" turned out to be a fellow (young doc) who I had never met before that day. "She" was not my doctor and someone I never (and would not have) authorized making medical decisions. If I had to do it again, I would have been explicit that I did not consent to any newbs having anything to do with my care.

If my surgeon had said, "it was a close call but this is what's best for you," I would have accepted it. But what I heard was the surgeon would not have done it but they let the green doctor decide.

Sorry, still bitter, although I know I should count my blessings and shake it off.

I have a couple of questions. Do you have a copy of the consent form that you signed before your surgery? If so, did it mention anything about other doctors possibly participating in your surgery? Do you know who actually performed your ileostomy procedure?

For some teaching hospitals that are connected with medical schools, there is a paragraph like that in the required Informed Consent Form.

You can view such a consent form by doing a Google search for a document entitled, . GENERAL_SURGERY_07.PDF. On the second page of that document there is a paragraph explaining this possibility. That document Is a consent form for laparoscopic surgery, which is somewhat similar to your robotic surgery.

Also you may want to have a look at this document:

https://www.mdanderson.org/education-training/clinical-research-training/graduate-medical-education/residencies-fellowships/surgical-oncology.html

Thanks - I have no doubt that I signed a consent agreement that allows fellows to perform procedures. I have been relatively open to that stuff. I had a freaking gallery of nurses and trial staff in the room for my first flex sig when I agreed they could take extra samples for research. I just really didn't want a temp bag and erring on the side of not having one was the only directive I gave my surgeon. Anyway, I'm dealing with it and it's fine. Have my reversal scheduled for late September so there's a plan in place. My treatment has been surprisingly effective and I'm thankful for that. I know this is a minor, minor issue in the big picture and I'm not going to further whine about it.