Surgeon Recs for colovesical fistula with radiated tissue
Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2018 8:50 am
Hi all,
My dad is a 19 year prostate cancer survivor, but he has recently discovered he has a colovesical fistula (likely involving his sigmoid colon). After a week of fighting a blood infection (ecoli) and inflammatory arthritis, he is recovering and getting closer to having surgery. The surgery will be challenging, as he had 47 doses of old school beam radiation for his prostate cancer (which, from our research, can make the colon tissue very friable) and he has continually had fecal incontinence (particularly in the AM) since his radiation treatments.
I have been reading up on this forum (thank you, thank you, thank you) for all the great tips. We are at a major academic medical center, with several ASCRS surgeons on staff. However, we have received a backdoor recommendation from another doctor to NOT have the surgery here, as the residents run the service (not such a good idea for such a complex case). My dad is a very active dude, works on his boat 6+ hours a day. Would he accept a colostomy bag, yes, but we would love to resolve the fistula, and maybe even the fecal incontinence issue, with this surgery.
Ideally, we'd love to find a highly recommended FL surgeon with plenty of experience in tough cases like this, as FL will provide the best insurance coverage..but I am willing to fight his insurance to have him seen by either Ronald Bleday at the Brigham or Liliana Bordeianou at MGH (where I live) if need be.
Any recommendations, either in this thread or via PM, would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Techie
My dad is a 19 year prostate cancer survivor, but he has recently discovered he has a colovesical fistula (likely involving his sigmoid colon). After a week of fighting a blood infection (ecoli) and inflammatory arthritis, he is recovering and getting closer to having surgery. The surgery will be challenging, as he had 47 doses of old school beam radiation for his prostate cancer (which, from our research, can make the colon tissue very friable) and he has continually had fecal incontinence (particularly in the AM) since his radiation treatments.
I have been reading up on this forum (thank you, thank you, thank you) for all the great tips. We are at a major academic medical center, with several ASCRS surgeons on staff. However, we have received a backdoor recommendation from another doctor to NOT have the surgery here, as the residents run the service (not such a good idea for such a complex case). My dad is a very active dude, works on his boat 6+ hours a day. Would he accept a colostomy bag, yes, but we would love to resolve the fistula, and maybe even the fecal incontinence issue, with this surgery.
Ideally, we'd love to find a highly recommended FL surgeon with plenty of experience in tough cases like this, as FL will provide the best insurance coverage..but I am willing to fight his insurance to have him seen by either Ronald Bleday at the Brigham or Liliana Bordeianou at MGH (where I live) if need be.
Any recommendations, either in this thread or via PM, would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Techie