• Welcome to Crohn's Forum, a support group for people with all forms of IBD. While this community is not a substitute for doctor's advice and we cannot treat or diagnose, we find being able to communicate with others who have IBD is invaluable as we navigate our struggles and celebrate our successes. We invite you to join us.

GI doctors in Arkansas

This ended up being quite long just warning in advance but maybe someone will actually read it all. Ok so I guess there is no one on this forum from Arkansas. Can anyone answer this question, It would be a GI that I am looking for right? I have been searching HealthGrades and going over and over reviews but it just does not seem anyone in this state is very experienced with treating Crohn's. But on healthgrades when I search for IBD or Crohn's doctors it will list general practice and all surgical. Does Memphis have any good GI doctors??

Ok here is the long and short of our story.In 2012 my husband who was almost 57 got what he called a fissure but was really a fistula. Went to a doctor recommended by our pcp (wrong move). While he was in first "surgery" which this doctor done was what others considered the old old way. I was reading brochure on setons but he dismissed it. Did not get better done it again and my husband got sooo infected the doctor just said you need a specialist. Well trying to get to the right specialist took almost 4 months and what is soo messed up is that the first specialist we had an appointment with was the one who done the seton surgery and all was great great but it was such a run around that by the time he got to hospital was because after a colonoscopy done in a teaching environment his colon got perforated and he massively bled out. Took 4 pints of blood and tons of intravenous meds to even think about getting better. The one doctor was so hard up WANTING to cut his colon out he didn't think of anything else. Husband did not want that. So he was put on all the basic Flagyl and rectal foam and mesaline etc etc nothing worked until he got the Remicade. Eventually he was on the highest dose he could get and had to move to every month and not every 2 months. All went perfect... The the doc that wanted to cut colon out STOPPED ALL meds because my husband was really having way too many skin cancers cut out (he is a red head with super fair skin and began farming when he was 9) To date it has been a total of about 35 skin cancers cut out from his face and head. He did blue light and it helped with the pre-cancers. But they did progress from basal to squamous and then one was pretty deep and he had to do radiation on it. ON TOP of this he does have CLL a blood cancer (very slow growing, unless you are on Remicade). So now he is in denial about the Crohn's, he blames it all on that very first Doctor. The Remicade does help skin cancer progress much faster and it does up your wbc's which he would have to take infusions of Bendamustine about once every 2 years (about two times at two infusions each time). When he stopped all meds he got really bad. In ER other doctors done colonoscopy and said he did not need his colon removed and gave him back the remicade.

Fast forward to earlier this year. We finally had appointment with his GI and after knowing what dosage and how frequent he took Remicade. She up and says hey I'm going to put you on Stelara, (this was the time the patent ran out on Remicade and the price of it dropped to a cool $5 grand, Stelara is actually more than the Remicade was per infusion/injection). Sooo I had serious mixed feelings on that but the Stelara worked GREAT!!! So great actually that my in denial hubby tried skipping a month because he felt so good and also the covid was going strong. Wrong wrong wrong move.

Now he is on Medicare and even his BCBS supplement will not pay for Stelara but his BCBS before the Medicare would pay for all of it. Someone explain that to me. His GI up and left to teach at Moorehouse College in Atlanta and was not even going to bother telling him. So we have this other GI who has not requested any kind of blood work, has n ot even requested any kind of scans to see what he is dealing with. Hell he did not even care about seeing any of his patient portal stuff to actually learn what his new patient has. Because the patient is in a constant state of denial.

And only because of this forum I have learned he was experiencing "silent" Crohn's. Well after these last sets of Bendamustine for the CLL and wbc's being so high (doc put him through 3 sets of two this time) after the third set I believe it threw him into full Crohn's flare up and is now dealing with everything Crohn's. He thinks it is gonna go away but it is not. He is so incontinent on his bowels and had such bad awful smelling diarrhea I think it is c-diff. But has any of his doctors requested any kind of blood work NO they haven't. I can not get him to the doctor much less in an ambulance (and they are literally just across the street).

He is laying in the bed (two months now) living on popcicles and water and I have no idea where all this diarrhea is coming from. And he is dying in front of me but fights me tooth and nail and calls me names and even tried to kick me out when I try to talk to him about what I think is going on and what he should really do. All I get is go ahead Sandra and just tell me what I need to do and then on to name calling etc etc etc. The reason he won't go to the hospital is because this ambulance service will take him to where that first Doctor to him caused all of this. Now granted this doctor has had at least 3 other people since he operated on my hubby actually die on his operating table from stupid mistakes made by him. The whole county does not know why he is still able to practice. One was a police officer for a simple procedure and the doc snipped something and he bled out with a quickness. These are FACTS not just hearsay. I done my homework on him and keep up to date with what he does.

This whole thing is ruining our marriage and everything because it is like he is trying to also blame me too and all i am trying to do is help him. I read and read and read until my eyes hurt. I keep notes of this and that. And I am so thankful for this forum and one other one.

I'm sorry I ended up doing the long version and vented in the process.

Please help us. Somebody!! Also now he has this weird massive growth on the side of his neck. I will post a pic
 
Top