What My Attack Was Like
 

Hello. New here. 53 yr. old sedentary female workaholic, occasional smoker/drinker, 80lbs. overweight, "pre-diabetic," on Metformin.

I was diagnosed with diverticulitis last weekend & have received alot of good info on this board. I gather there is a wide variety of presenting signs & symptoms & thought I would share my experience:

I travel alot for work & work(ed) way too much. All that travel led to constant sitting & poor choices to eat alot of fast food crap.

When I am out of town I commonly experience disruption to my otherwise regular bowel pattern. 2 back-back wks. wreaked havoc on me.
I kept taking laxatives without much success, traveling & eating crap.
At the end of 2 wks. I felt really bloated, crabby & uncomfortable. I worked all day & couldn't wait to get home. After taking a bath & eating a little soup, I began to have chills & low abdominal discomfort, not exactly great pain.
I began to wonder if I had a bowel obstruction & of course, Googled the topic.
Reading through the signs, the words "medical emergency" caught my eye.
I decided to check my temp & indeed was feverish @ 100.4.

So: off to the ER I went.

The newbie resident promptly diagnosed me with constipation & I could tell he was blowing me off. The nurse could tell something more was afoot & pulled the Attending MD in more quickly.

He was very concerned with the (now increasing) pain & fever & ordered a CAT scan. He wanted w/contrast but something about a "med match" not being able to be done quickly, made them go w/o contrast.

By the time I got to CT the pain in my entire lower belly was much worse & I screamed out as I moved onto CT table & my left flank hit it.
From this scan I was diagnosed w/diverticulitis & admitted.

I couldn't pee at all & needed a catheter. I was treated w/ Flagyl & Cipro & clear liquid diet which I could barely look at let alone try to eat. Nausea & pain very present all the time.

I was kept 5 nights & then discharged on Cipro, Flagyl, Vicodin & Ducolace.

Long story longer, I included the demographic & lifestyle info for a reason: I truly believe I brought this on myself & I NEVER WANT TO GO THRU THIS AGAIN! Major lifestyle changes already undertaken. Wish me luck & I hope that maybe this presentation anecdote will help someone else decide: GO TO THE ER-ESP W/fever! This disease is nothing to mess with. I consider
myself lucky to not have perforated & hope I can stay on top of this. I still have a Barium enema & colonoscopy in my future!