BCIR Surgical Procedure Changes Patients' Lives

Aug. 16, 2012 - PRLog -- Trade show entrepreneur and Event Planner from Littleton, Colorado, Lisa Kim, was diagnosed in her early 20s with Ulcerative Colitis (UC). She lived a healthy routine with exercise and a carefully planned diet. By the time she was 42 years old she had not suffered much because of her healthy lifestyle.

However, after some pretty intensive road biking, she ended up with a pretty serious UC outbreak. So Lisa ended up in the hospital where they rebuilt her colon with a J-Pouch made from her small intestine to store her body's waste products.
According to Lisa, the J-Pouch was a complete nightmare. She hardly left her home during a trying two year period. She couldn’t bike and couldn’t ski. She had no energy, hurt all the time, and recalls, “I was deeply, deeply depressed.”

Her internist gave her an infusion medication called Remicade, which cost $13,000 a treatment and is administered every 6 weeks. The Remicade actually stopped the bleeding, but it didn’t deal with her pain and discomfort and constantly having to go to the bathroom.

Lisa says that the six months that she had the J-Pouch bag were probably the most miserable months of her life. “I had to be careful wherever I travelled and had to be sure to use clean water, especially if I was visiting a third world country and needed to clean out the catheter with the local water supply.”

So I thought, “If this J-pouch doesn’t work,” says Lisa Kinn, “what are my other options?” When she got some of her energy back she began researching on the Internet for an alternate procedure to the j-pouch surgery.

“I googled ‘alternative to ileostomy,’ and the first thing that popped up was Dr. Schiller’s website about the BCIR procedure. I started looking at it and I am going to cry just talking about it, because it was like a ray of hope for me!

I am a fashion conscious single woman and I couldn’t dress the way I wanted to -- it was embarrassing. I read the information from Dr. Schiller’s website and discovered that I could wear form fitting clothes with this alternative procedure (The Barnett Continent Intestinal Reservoir or BCIR).

This alternate procedure required the surgeon to remove what was left of my intestines and build an internal pouch which I could empty periodically.
It took me about three months to decide to do it.

It was after a miserable trip to Italy. I just thought the Remicade is not working and my only other option is the BCIR procedure. I decided to take the chance and contacted Tilly at Olympia Medical Center and said ‘I’m ready.’

“I had the surgery and it was the absolute best decision I have ever made in my life,” says Lisa.

“My experience at Olympia Medical Center was absolutely incredible. I mean Dr. Schiller runs a tight ship and those nurses… I have been in the hospital a lot over that last seven year with all of these issues between blood transfusion and everything I have had to deal with and the care at Olympia was just unbelievable.

I just felt so safe and well taken care of, the nurses were just wonderful. I’m traveling now. I am skiing again, I am biking again. I do everything I that I was able to do before.

Now I can eat anything, I still stay away from sugar and even though I can eat everything I don’t because I am very health conscience. I’m basically able to eat without thinking ‘well I’m going to suffer for this.’

I would say don’t even consider the bag if you have got this option. There is absolutely no downsides to this, none. I am someone who it has experienced it all, I haven’t had a colon. I’ve had the J-pouch, I’ve had the bag and I have had this. Short of not having my colon it is a piece of cake. I would tell someone who is considering doing the J-pouch to not even go that route.

If anybody wants to ask me any questions or talk with me about it, I am happy to do that. Email me: Lhuntington43@msn.com.”