what kind of questions should i ask?

If you're considering surgery then the questions you want to ask will be of the surgeon. Your GI won't be much help in answering questions because they aren't familiar with surgery and recovery. The only question I would ask of your GI is to recommend the very best surgeon in your state for this surgery. I don't know wher you live but if you are in a small town you will need to go to the closest city for the best experienced surgeon.

You can ask your friend's friend things like, how often do you empty your bag? how often to you change it? how much are ostomy supplies? how active are you (if that's an issue for you, it was for me), how do you bathe?

Sue

Is he pretty new to the surgery, though? If he is, I'd say it's REALLY worth it to travel further away from home to get a more experienced surgeon. Maybe look in Texas?

suebear knows more about this than I do. I think it's important to know how many surgeries he's done and such. You want someone who does these all of the time, not someone who just does them every now and then. That website isn't really specific enough, IMO.