waiting list for reversal

Hi 

A very warm welcome to the online community it really is the group that you didn't want to join and I'm sorry that your bad news brought you to us.

Maybe sometime we could have a chat about the problems you are having with your bags and see if we can come up with a solution but let's talk about your stoma being revisited. Unfortunately I think you've been caught in the mess the NHS is in at present with more and more bowel cancer operations being scheduled, the success of bowel screening is taking its toll on resources.

Before you start remortgaging your house let's try and look at this in a different way. Although your hospital maybe overstretched it could be that a neighbouring hospital in a different NHS trust could have capacity have you thought about speaking to your GP about this to see if he could arrange a referral to a different hospital even in a different part of the country, it is your right to have treatment anywhere you want and if you are prepared to travel to another part of the country it might persuade him to try or you could do the leg work yourself and make some phone calls to neighbouring hospitals and test the water.

If you are determined to go along the private route, there are many hospitals around that could revisit your stoma but at what cost I tried to look at prices in my area (London) and couldn't get a price structure all the big national names like Nuffield, Ramsay Health, Spire Healthcare, BMI Healthcare and others, some NHS hospitals have private wings. You could phone your consultant and see if he does private work then see where he works, I have two colectoral surgeons and they both have clinics in private hospitals

If your consultant does private work he may see you during his NHS clinic ( and charge you) so he can have a look at your notes etc.

I would seriously think about the GP route first although if does get you an appointment elsewhere you may have to wait for it and then you could wait for the elective surgery date which could be approx 18 weeks or so.

I would appreciate you coming back to me and letting me know what you decide but certainly come back to me on the pouch issue and we can have a little chat about it but you should still be getting attention from your stoma care nurse.

Have you thought about an ostomy support belt that is made especially for sports activities like going to the gym, the belt that springs to mind is one that would be made especially to fit you by a company called SASH you can have a look at their products on the following link   https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.sashstomabelts.com/&ved=2ahUKEwjTkorc8_bkAhULUhUIHTxQAhcQFjABegQIBhAJ&usg=AOvVaw17LxbO0T_5Hn3l9y37e-Q-&cshid=1569790087558

They do ostomy support belts and hernia support belts.

I hope I've been of some help and hope to hear how you are getting on.

Regards

Ian