Around August last year I was diagnosed with Diverticulitis.
Similar story to yours. Sounds like I went in a bit earlier than you did though. My colon wasn't perforated.
I had severe stomach cramp in lower belly. I thought it might be an appendicitis attack. I'm a tough guy who never goes to hospital, but I've known others who've had their appendix rupture, and that shit is life threatening.
I talked to some co-workers that day about appendicitis symptoms. I was doubling over in pain through out the day and during meetings. My boss advised that going to an urgent care facility might be a better option than waiting in ER waiting room all day to be seen.
That was a good call.
The doc checked my prostate. (FUCK THAT EXAM), then poked and prodded. Based on the side of my abdomen that the pain was on, he didn't think it was appendicitis. I felt relieved. He could see I felt relieved and added, "you're not in the clear yet here man. I think you have diverticulitis, but we have to give you a CT Scan."
I was already on phone googling it as he was trying to explain. He said, "yeah, that picture right there:"
He continued to explain that most humans get diverticula "pimples" or "balloon sacks" on their digestive tracks by their late 60s or 70s, but Americans are getting them in their 40s due to the American Diet. We eat shit, not enough fiber, and basically: "push too hard when we poop".
If a popcorn seed, or other small in-digestible particulate passes through the your digestive track and gets lodged in the pathway leading into the pouch, then the diverticula can get infected. The inflammation causes severe pain. No-joke 'stabbed in the gut with a dagger' type pain.
So next, I drank some liquid, got put on an IV for the first time in my life, got shot full of dye, and got scanned.
The next day when I go in for results, it's confirmed that I have diverticulitis in the lower colon. The inflammation was so bad that the imagery was cloudy in that area. They couldn't count how many were inflamed.
The doctor also added a nice tidbit of trivia to the results. "So, did you know you only have one functioning kidney?"
WHAT THE FUCK? "Yeah, the other is atrophied. It might have atrophied a few years ago, or it might have been undeveloped your whole life. Hard to know since you've never been scanned before."
So now I have all kinds of end of year tests to go through.
The 10 day antibiotic recipe they put me on to stave off the inflammation sucked balls. You're going to be very nauseous. You can't drink alcohol with it. You are told not to lift anything heavy because you can rip a tendon in half (bicep or Achilles.) You can literally feel the tendons in your body while you are on these antibiotics. Take the doctors advise. No alcohol. No heavy lifting.
My pain started to go away the 2nd day in the 10 day program. But I stayed on it, because this stuff was no joke. If a diverticula ruptures, surgery is required in most cases, or it can be life threating.
Next, you get to be violated with a colonoscopy.
You prepare for one of those, well hell, I still have the instructions:
Don't stress too much about the colonoscopy procedure.
They put you on conscious sedation. Which means you get to be on an IV again. But this time administered by 3 very sexy, attractive nurses. It is a very "happy" drip. You won't have a care in the world.
When the 3 hot nurses wheel you into the room for the "procedure" they stay in there with you as you are rolled on your side. You won't notice that you are being grossly violated by a middle aged Indian doctor scoping out 30 feet of your colon and intestines.
There are websites you can visit about the change in diet you have to live with the rest of your life to avoid future flare ups. Also, now that you know what diverticulitis is, you'll be surprised how many people you know in life who also have it. You're in a club now.
I feel like this is a lot of info for you to "digest" for the time being. Happy to chat more about my close call return flare ups. You can almost feel that you've cheated on your diet, and another attack is almost coming. I do liquid diet again for a few days, and I use softeners instead of laxative. So far, I haven't had another full blown attack.
Good luck man... you'll get through this.
