Dealing with pain of diverticulitis

[araminta]

Does anyone have any tips for this?   Paracetamol seems useless, aspirin is not advised, cocodamol can cause constipation which can worsen diverticulitis.   Apparently it's not a severe attack, as I don't have fever or nausea, but the pain is a darned nuisance to put it mildly.   Pharmacist suggested a hot water bottle, but of course I can't go around all day clutching one!

[meirish]

I am assuming that you have been diagnosed with diverticulitis which is actually an infection of the colon pockets in the wall of the intestine. Diverticulosis are the pockets that form in the wall of the colon and when digested food settles in these pockets an infection can happen. These infections can become extremely serious and life threatening that is why I asked if you had been diagnosed by a doctor.

Generally if seen for an infection one usually is given IV fluids, IV antibiotics and oral antibiotics and then sent home. Tests are done to check the colon. My husband had this diverticulosis/diverticulitis and was seen several times in ER and received this treatment. One time he was not as sick and he just received the antibiotics to take by mouth. Our one son had 12 inches of his colon removed during one of his severe illnesses and was laid up for much of 5 months. This involved earlier (25 years prior) surgery by a bad surgeon to remove his leaking appendix and sent home with 102 temperature. Lots of problems and surgery over the years. Laid up for much of 5 months one time.

One of the best things you can do is to make sure you have fiber in your diet. You will have to talk with your doctor and also research foods, fruits, vegetables, etc and see which fiber fits into your diet the best. Also, over the years my husband was advised to take Metamucil which is a stool softener fiber  that is over the counter and gives bulk to the stool. I do not advise you to take anything for your colon unless you have spoken to your doctor about it. 

Our American diet is very low in fiber due to all the fast foods plus the processed foods that we consume at home on a daily basis. Our family didn't eat much fast food but my husband had Celiac sprue which is an autoimmune gluten intolerance and he also had a colitis that made eating fiber very difficult. My son had a very bad surgeon remove his leaking appendix and sent him home with a 102 temperature. His colon was a mess as it healed and resulted in several colon surgeries.

So many people have this health issue and I think there should be more information made available to the public concerning the cause and the way to prevent it plus how to eat after one gets it. I hope that you can find a diet that helps. I can't help but think that you should not be having pain all the time or even a lot of the time. Have you seen a Gastro-intestinal doctor as they usually are able to help people deal with the issue. Good luck and I hope that you can find a solution. meirish

[araminta]

Thank you very much for all the useful information, meirish.   It seems your family had a lot of experience with this type of problem.

Yes I saw a doctor yesterday.   Maybe these things are treated differently in the UK to how they are treated in the US.   He thought it was a mild attack as I did not have a high temperature, and on that basis felt antibiotics were not indicated.   He said to come back if it continued for another week (I don't think I'll wait that long).

What happens is that I wake up in the morning feeling OK, have breakfast, then an hour or so later the pains starts.   I must say that although it is bad, I have had worse pain - for instance when I had a kidney infection.   But I do have to keep sitting down a lot till it eases.

It's interesting what you say about diet, and I will certainly look into that.   But I feel my diet is quite healthy - I'm vegan so don't have the dairy things that can cause problems, and I rarely eat fast food.   I'm wondering if this is yet another side effect of Sjogrens, something to do with how the gut is affected by the generaly dryness?

[meirish]

Generally diverticulosis is found is all of the population. However, Sjogrens is a collagen disease which means the it affects the tissues held together by collagen.(you can do a search on that) 

Because the soft tissues can have times when they are weaker because of the collagen issues it would not surprise me that Sjogrens could be involved. I would bet a lot of doctors would not agree with that.....but if they had Sjogrens they might have a different opinion. We Sjoggies can have a lot of issues with every part of our body and often it is really weird unusual stuff!!

It is felt that making sure that we have enough fiber in our diet is helpful in moving stool along so that we are less apt to have diverticulitis or infection of the diverticulum. Constipation is more prevalent without fiber also. You can look up what foods have fiber. Be aware that every person with diverticulum probably have certain foods that they may not be able to eat as they cause too much gastrointestinal upset, diarrhea, pain, etc.

Another thing doctors may differ about is eating foods with seeds. My family members just avoided seeds as much as possible, They just felt that a person could get along much of the time but if the seeds could cause troubles they would just as soon avoid the possibility. Some people have problems with corn so they avoid it.

I think that there are probably a lot of ways to treat these problems and so often doctors will have their own ideas on how they choose to treat it. Where I live they are more aggressive in their treatment. Also, it would not surprise me if Americans have more problems with these diverticulum as we have lousy eating habits in the USA. Since I have gotten older I swear that people eat a lot more junk food and less healthy foods with fiber. Good luck with this endeavor. meirish

[araminta]

Thank you for your further thoughts about this, meirish, and happy New Year! 

I have stopped eating nuts and seeds for the time being, as it makes sense that they might irritate sensitive tissue.

I really do feel that this is probably a spin-off from Sjogrens, as I don't seem to have the other risk factors associated with diverticulitis.

[meirish]

I just reread one of your posts where you said that you wondered if the sjogrens and dryness were some of the problem with the diverticulum.

I am certainly not an expert but the main reason that people end up with diverticulum per the doctors is because we don't eat enough fruit, vegetables and fiber in our diet. This stimulates the intestine to move the stool along. When the intestines are not stimulated enough to do their job they tend to develop the outpouchings in the walls of the intestines.

These outpourings will then fill with the digested food moving through the colon and just sit there and eventually that area will become infected. So diet is huge part of the problem. Also, making sure that we drink enough fluids is also extremely important and most people do not drink enough fluids because of working and being physically on the run during the day.

I also mentioned the collagen tissue that is affected by the Sjogrens. This collagen tissue can become weakened, less strong or sturdy, and the problem with thickened mucus in the colon probably plays a part also. That is one reason why the fiber and fluids are so important. I would bet there is a huge number of people in this country with diverticulitis just because of the lack of fiber and fluids.

Really a hard problem to solve. I had a neighbor man that was on vacation and had a really bad attack of diverticulitis and ended up in the hospital with surgery and for many weeks. He almost died. I know the family and he ate what I would consider to be a good diet. Sometimes I think some of the ailments that many of us get are just the luck of the draw. So many times we do blame them on autoimmune disease and low and behold there is another reason and it is treatable.

I just have been on a long winded post on the diverticulitis because as a Registered nurse I am aware that many people don't get much information about this problem even when they are being treated for it. But remember, I don't know it all. Thanks for putting up with me!!!! Take care and have a Happy New Year. meirish

[araminta]

I don't think of this as "putting up with you" !!   Many thanks for all the advice.