Posted: 1/12/2013 9:55:12 AM EDT
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Doctor tells me i have diverticulitis. I went to bed monday night with the beginnings of a fever and chills along with mild diarrhea. I woke up around 2am with a fever that got up to 102.8 before i took some tylenol to bring it down. I went to the immediate care that morning and got sent for a ct scan and the doctor confirmed it was diverticulitis. I don't think i have ever felt that bad. The doctor gave me cipro and told me to follow up with a primary care doctor.
For you guys that have had the same thing, what are your experiences with it and what steps do you take to keep yourself feeling o.k? |
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I've had it three times. First time I was in the hospital for a week with not food or dink, only IV antibiotics. Second time I was in the hospital for a week and had 5" of my colon removed and I lost 30lbs. Third time went to the emergency room and was sent home in a couple of hours with a script for antibiotics. Guess I'm prone to get it. Hurts like hell.
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Lots of times, diverticulitis flare-ups are attached to one or more types of food. Not all seeds/nuts will cause them. Once you're well (you should eat a low-fiber diet until you're better), start keeping a food log. If a flare-up happens again, check at what you ate a few days earlier. With repeated flare-ups and an accurate food log, you can find the offending food. Some folks its stuff like raspberries, some folks it's popcorn, etc.
Good luck. But do follow up with a primary care doc, and probably a GI doc too. |
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lay off the peanuts, seeds, corn, okra, popcorn etc and start eating lots of fiber along with a fiber supplement.
flagyl and cipro seem to be the antibiotics prescribed for infected guts. if it's bad enough you'll eventually have to get your guts re-sectioned (cutting the affected area out and re-connecting your guts); that some nasty shit, one of the board members had a thread going about his resection with complications. |
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Sucks OP. I developed it in my mid 30's (bad genetics) and eventually had 18" of my colon removed (which pretty much "cured" the attacks). A very high percentage of people that have diverticulitis for the first time will not experience it again. Hopefully you are one of them. Eat a LOT of fiber. Metamucil is your friend. Your goal is to have large bowel movements without constipation or straining. Try to eat 30 grams of fiber or more daily.
The old advice was to avoid nuts and seeds (and other things that aren't easily digested). Current science doesn't really back up the old advice. My surgeon told me to eat whatever I wanted as long as I was getting my fiber everyday. He said if I was going to advoid anything, it would be popcorn due to the hulls. Its one of the most common diseases in the United States because of our shitty diets. Apparently, we're supposed to eat something other than meat and potatotes. 
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Apparently, we're supposed to eat something other than meat and potatotes. that sounds like pinko commie lib talk to me  No shit, thats what I told my doc when he said it to me. I mean fuck, I'm screwed coming and going. Southern heritage pretty much dictates that we eat meat and things that are battered and fried. I still remember the look on my buddies face when my Mom was frying corn, LMAO. |
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I've had it several times, always resolved with antibiotics, flagyl and cipro.
This is what was described to me by a surgeon I was seeing for another minor issue. He said they've done hundreds of resections on colons for diverticulitis, and NEVER did they find something like a seed or piece of nut that some imply would be the cause. He said you should eat a low bulk diet for a while when you get it to make it easy on your intestines and not irritate things any more. Then slowly work more fiber back into your diet as you get better. And that there was no reason to normally avoid healthy foods because they contain small seeds for instance. Once you were better to eat a normal diet, plenty of fresh veggies, nuts, etc... . Once you're over that, I would suggest staying away from wheat before worrying about eating some nuts. |
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Follow up with the docs. I didn't know what it was; but I had it. Had the lower left pain and fevers. One day my intestines ruptured. I lost 23 cm of my sigmoid colon and ended up with a rotten abdominal wall.
I've had four 8 to 9 hour surgeries in the last 5 years and my surgeon told me I am an abdominal wall cripple. His term I am recovering now from the last one and will never be the same as I was before 
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