View Full Version : Diverticulitis, Anyone?
I just got diagnosed with this today. According to my doctor, I have "sacs" (?) on my large intestine but no infection, though I've been having mild adominal pain and other ... ahem ... bathroom issues for months.
I haven't done much research yet, but wondered if anyone has experiences and/or resources to share.
Many thanks in advance,
Elizabeth
I do not, but after being tested for every GI issue under the sun and then having it be a sensitivity to gluten (today is my 1 year anniversary off gluten) I feel 1000% better. How does he know you have the sacs? Were you scoped? Wish I knew more, am quite disheartened by the over-specialization of medicine (looking only at one small part of the body, not the whole picture) and so I'd continue to keep an open mind about solutions to your issues even with this diagnosis. I had one of IBS and it turned out to be wrong.
And above all, hope you feel better soon.
Sad Eyed Lady
1-6-13, 9:52pm
DH was diagnosed with this illness a few years ago. Take it seriously - if not treated and taken care of it can lead to surgery for removal of a portion of colon! No one wants that. The treatment seems to be to fight the infection, (and thankfully you haven't gotten there yet it seems), with strong antibiotics. While helping the infection they can also cause some serious side effects however. Watch your diet - the old adage was "nothing with seeds or nuts", but now the newer thinking says that doesn't matter. To some it still does. DH ate some strawberries, (while talking with someone, just picked them up and snacked at a social event without thinking what he was doing), and in a couple of days we were back in urgent care. He is now, (after several bouts), taking a very pro-active stance: watching what he eats, and having organic yogurt and/or kefir daily. I grow the kefir culture and make smoothies for him and he feels this has helped him avoid another bout of diverticulitis. ejchase, do all the research you can and now before you have experienced a full blown attack with infection & fever, take preventive measures. And, not to be too gross, one very important thing is to KEEP EVERYTHING MOVING! Not going to the bathroom is a bad thing with this. I hope all goes well for you!
I do not, but after being tested for every GI issue under the sun and then having it be a sensitivity to gluten (today is my 1 year anniversary off gluten) I feel 1000% better. How does he know you have the sacs? Were you scoped? Wish I knew more, am quite disheartened by the over-specialization of medicine (looking only at one small part of the body, not the whole picture) and so I'd continue to keep an open mind about solutions to your issues even with this diagnosis. I had one of IBS and it turned out to be wrong.
And above all, hope you feel better soon.
Sorry, Elizabeth, I don't have any specifics on diverticulitis, but my story is almost exactly like fidgiegirl's. Except my gluten free anniversary is in 6 days! From being in the hospital on IV fluids and morphine, to being told I have IBS (cause they don't know what else to say and have no solution), to being prescribed anti-anxiety meds for shortness of breath, to seeing a GI specialist for full scoping/biopsies (never again!) I went gluten free on my own best guess and my whole range of symptoms are gone. Obviously not the cure for everyone, but certainly don't believe everything the doctors say - sometimes you just have to experiment on your own.
Thanks, all.
I had a CT scan and that apparently showed the "sacs."
The doctor I saw today was in Urgent Care so not a GI specialist, though I am aiming to see one of them soon. This doctor said I might need to eat more fiber, but then just gave me some prescriptions of things to keep things moving. I will be doing more research and will take to hear the advice about trying going gluten-free!
I've been diagnosed - had my 2nd colonoscopy about a month ago and it got noted again, but everything looks ok. Just got the standard "high fiber diet" line - it does help. Also staying away from or limiting foods that cause intestinal irritation, bloating, etc. For me staying regular is very important - not just for my colon. I've noticed a definite correlation between intestinal issues and back pain - one aggravates the other.
I think alot of people have diverticulosis (having the sacs, but they aren't infected....which then becomes diverticulitis).
I have those sacs too. I agree with the comments about gluten. I've noticed that mine seem to hurt when I eat too many carbs (which are usually full of gluten).
I can eat all the things you're not supposed to eat with diverticulosis (seeds, fiber) if I haven't been eating too many carbs.
I have lots of pains everywhere (chest/abdomen/joints/muscles), when I eat too many carbs/gluten.
So try reducing that, ejchase, and you might find that your pain goes away. (along with your other GI symptoms).
I don't know why most docs aren't aware of this.
I also have diverticulosis. I've generally only had problems eating (of all things) lettuce!
bicker, interestingly, lettuce was one of my main enemies when I was still having problems, and now I can eat it with impunity because I have calmed whatever inflammation or whatever was being caused by the gluten in my diet. Took a few months, but now I can eat and enjoy lettuce . . . turns out I'd been avoiding the wrong thing all along!
Interesting.
However, it begs the question: If I'm okay just avoiding lettuce, then perhaps that's what I should do, rather than giving up bread! :)
To be fair, I'm not sure how much other raw vegetables adversely affect me. Carrots and celery I'm pretty sure I'm okay with, but bell peppers are a no-no. However, I don't know if that's related to the condition or just a natural "getting older" response to bell peppers that many folks I know have developed.
bicker..........I think we have to sort of "custom make" our diets. We all seem to be able to tolerate or not, certain things that others can/can't. Its sort of trial and error.
You could try just avoiding lettuce and see how you do.
For me, I can eat alot of carbs/gluten for awhile, then it seems to hit me systemically a month or 2 later. Then I avoid certain things, and all is good again..........but if I start eating alot of the carbs/gluten again, the bad stuff shows up again about 1-2 months later.
I guess what I'm saying is that you might not necessarily be making the right connections, since there seems to be lag times for certain things.
Maybe eating alot of bread might make your GI tract less able to digest lettuce, and then you think you have a lettuce problem.
I better stop. I'm starting to confuse myself. hahaha
Cathy,
Your situation makes sense if you think about it in terms of some of the research that is showing the important role that gut flora play in our overall health. It sounds to me like carbs/gluten are fueling a kind of boom and bust cycle with some particular organism in your digestive tract. As you eat more of those things, that particular organism thrives until eventually it pretty much takes over and throws everything else out of whack. It may be producing some kind of toxin or waste product that you are particularly sensitive to. So you don't notice it until the system is really out of balance. Kind of like an algae bloom effect. removing the foods that sustain that organism cause it to die back. At least that is what I imagine might be happening, based on your description above. Disclaimer I am not a scientist -- I don't even play one on TV! But I'm really fascinated by all the new research that is coming out that tries to think of the human body in more systemic terms, as a biome of sorts. I think we are going to have some amazing discoveries in the next couple of decades that will lead us all to much better health.
lhamo
The three attacks I've had that required antibiotics all followed eating popcorn. That's my personal trigger food. So I don't eat it anymore. But I miss it. I even tried, once chewing it very, very well, but still got the attack. Bummer. Nuts, seeds, lettuce, bread don't bother me at all.
HappyHiker.......maybe your gizzard just isn't working right. Oh.....never mind, I was thinking of my chickens. ;)
That's a real bummer about popcorn. its funny how different seeds/nuts bother people differently.
lhamo.......I think your right on about that. What fools me every time is that delay. I think I'm doing okay, then bam. sometimes it seems to be quantity over time. I mean I can tolerate various things, as long as I don't overdo them. But your notion of finally doing-in all the good flora makes alot of sense.
I do sort of look at it in terms of leaky gut also. I know most conventional docs don't believe in it, but it sure makes sense to me.
Funny you say that the new research tries to think of the human body as a biome of sorts...................Its about time! I mean, really? DUH! :)
Cathy and lhamo! That's exactly what I mean! It took me probably a year from the first time anyone floated the wheat idea until I was willing to try going off of it. I didn't see how there could be any connection but lo and behold, when I cut out the wheat, I can now eat all the veggies. I think like you said - whatever was flaring up the gut had to be removed first. Worked for me, of course it wouldn't work for everyone, but bicker, I thought it was so funny that you named the very trigger food I had! To be fair I also couldn't eat oranges, apples, any leafy greens of any kind, broccoli, oh geez, probably more . . . .
Anyway, Elizabeth, hope you will continue to update us . . . I think a lot of people are suffering with poor GI health and don't always know what to do about it. Any info helps.
For me it was onions and garlic, and pretty much anything spicy, citrus, stuff like that that I thought I couldn't eat until I went off gluten. Now I can eat (cooked) onions with impunity. It was the weirdest thing, when I cut out onions completely (I love onions) - I could smell them on people, like all the time. Taking the bus was very difficult. I guess it's the same as when you eat garlic, everyone else should too, otherwise you'll smell it on people if you didn't eat any yourself. But this was extreme. I've never experienced anything like that.
Also, if you cut things out, remember there can be a significant withdrawal period. When I stopped caffeine (cold-turkey) and gluten (small amounts to zero) at the same time - that was really bad. I was so sick for the first few days and sort of sick for a couple weeks. You have to give your body time to adjust. And if you remove a trigger food completely, expect your symptoms to be worse when you eat it again (if it is a trigger). It seems (with gluten at least) the less you eat, the more you notice a tiny small amount.
fidgiegirl
1-7-13, 11:28pm
Yes, Kestra, I notice when I get "glutenized" now - almost always has been from fryer oil, but sometimes I think I have had some in unlabeled salad dressings that I chanced to eat. And before, to think . . . I was shoveling in bucketloads. Amazing.
Very interesting, Everybody. Thanks for all your thoughts.
I went gluten-free today and will try to keep it up for a week or so just to see if I notice anything different. My abdominal pain does seem to have lessened somewhat, but I've been a little headachey and nauseous. Maybe this is the withdrawal that Kestra was talking about. Though, Kestra, I'm sure if I quite coffee cold turkey, that alone would give me horrible withdrawal! Has anybody else noticed withdrawal symptoms when giving up only gluten?
I did not, that I can remember. I will say this though - might be scary to hear it! - it did take me more like a month to really start to notice a big difference.
Good luck!! Lots of GF expertise on this board if you decide to stick it out to see. I know Rosemary has a lot of knowledge about elimination diets in general - which involve cutting out a lot more than just gluten, then adding it back in to see how you do on each thing.
Obviously, the caffeine withdrawal was part of it, but I'd given up caffeine before, and this was much worse. If you Google gluten-withdrawal you'll find lots of symptoms that some people have had. I suspect as fidgiegirl said, that a week is probably not long enough as you'll still be in the withdrawal stage, and should try it a bit longer if possible. Of course, this is all speculation whether gluten bothers you or not. But it is very common to just not buy into how much gluten is affecting one, when you are still eating it. It took the doctors a long time to convince my sister, who was literally dying from Celiac disease. But then if you find that it is a trigger for you, it's so awesome to be off of it. I never thought I'd be this healthy. I've had abdominal pain since childhood and always thought it was from stress or eating too fast or whatever. Now that's virtually gone. Gluten-free vs eating gluten is so night and day for me that I'm not even tempted when the co-workers bring baking into work.
It irritates me that if a person's Celiac blood test is negative, that the docs usually rule a gluten problem out. I think its a long continuum of what one can tolerate as far as gluten goes. Some can tolerate it all the time, while others health can really be compromised, and even lead to cancer.......but there's a whole lot of area in between those extremes, where most of us probably fall.
It irritates me that if a person's Celiac blood test is negative, that the docs usually rule a gluten problem out. I think its a long continuum of what one can tolerate as far as gluten goes. Some can tolerate it all the time, while others health can really be compromised, and even lead to cancer.......but there's a whole lot of area in between those extremes, where most of us probably fall.
Absolutely. My sister has full-blown diagnosed Celiac disease. I was negative for it, but am 100% sure I am sensitive, luckily not to the extent my sister is. My father has also had lifelong issues with IBS type stuff and now eats gluten-free as well.
But you're right, the GI doctor was happy to test me for Celiac's but had no recommendations once the test came back negative. It's all or nothing to them. Which is of course not my experience at all. I think most people could benefit from a decrease of dietary carbs, including those containing gluten. We seem to eat a carb heavy diet in North America, as it's cheap and delicious, but don't have an active enough lifestyle to compensate.
I hear that I should probably give giving up wheat more than a week and will try. It's, as you all know, a little bit of a logistical challenge to make the change on the fly as I've been trying to do this week, and I'm sure I'm getting some gluten from some source or other that I don't suspect has gluten in it. But I'm off bread and crackers and all the other obvious sources.
I totally agree that not testing positive for celiac disease would not necessarily mean I shouldn't give up wheat. I don't test as hypoglycemic but have always had a really extreme reaction to eating sugar. I remember eating a donut one morning at work and literally ending up in tears 30 minutes later when I couldn't seem to figure out how to work the xerox machine properly. Fortunately, I had a smart doctor who said, "Just because you don't test as hypoglycemic doesn't mean you're not hypoglycemic," which should have been obvious but wasn't.
In any case, I will get tested for celiac disease just to see.
Today, I've had bad digestive issues again. They started this morning after I ate some egg salad with onions and celery in it. I doubt the eggs are the problem since I had them alone yesterday and had no issues. So maybe the onions or celery.
I'm going to stay off wheat for a while and also keep a food diary to try to figure out what foods are triggers.
This thread has been super-helpful. Thanks so much. And any additional thoughts are welcome!
Wheat is hidden in all kinds of places you wouldn't expect it--like modified food starch that might turn up in light mayonnaise.
It's slowly dawning on me that the symptoms I am having could be any one of many, many different things - celiac disease or gluten intolerance, lactose intolerance, etc. - and that medical tests are not necessarily going to provide any answers. Can any of you recommend resources - books, websites, whatever - that can help me figure out some systematic way of tracking down the source of my issues?
Many thanks in advance.
There are many elimination diets that can help figure things out. I have never done one, though maybe I should.
Rosemary has good advice in this area.
and that medical tests are not necessarily going to provide any answers.
This was my conclusion for some other issues I've had. Sometimes, the years and years of fruitless diagnosis is worse than the cure.
Hi I was operated on 3 years ago in the middle of the night .I did not kmow that I had diverticulitis wich had perforated nearly died .But I have been fine ever since.
Anita
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