Better to wait and hope for the best or due surgery?

[silverstein25]

Well, my father was admitted to the hospital on day June 21st and prior to that he was scheduled to have part of his large intestine removed due to diverticulitis. I can't think of the term but he had a tube running from his intestine to his bladder and a second one to his kidneys. That was going to be taken care of at the same time with his diverticulitis surgery was taking antibiotics to prep for surgery at home. Now, he has developed toxic megacolon due to a new infection of c-diff. Over these last few days the surgeon has wanted to delay surgery, if possible, because he is showing signs of improving. His white blood cell count has been coming down and he no longer has a fever. A lot less pain than when he was admitted. He wants to avoid doing an ileostomy if the colon is showing signs of improving. My question is this. How dangerous is it waiting should I be pushing for surgery more? I do trust the surgeon but I just don't want it to burst and him end up dead because he wanted to hope for the best possible outcome over safety. He said emergency surgery isn't out of the question and it does appear that he is getting better slowly. I guess when I get down to it I just want to know how likely it will burst without much notice?

[Dr Santos]

Hi,
How is your father? I agree with doctornee that you need to trust your doctor's judgment. Conservative management is usually indicated prior to surgery . Determination of how long before it bursts will also depend on a lot of factors such as the medical history of your father and direct clinical examination results of his attending physicians. Take care and do keep us posted. Warm regards.

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
Actually this is a situation where you will need to trust your doctor’s  judgment. Generally this is managed conservatively. Urgent surgery is indicative in case of perforation, massive hemorrhage, increasing toxicity and dilatation. Since your father is improving the surgeon may have taken a decision to manage conservatively. Once your father is stable, the original surgery may be planned then.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!