It's baaaaaack! On Sunday morning, I woke up with the standard symptoms of diverticulitis, and the same familiar sensations that I've had so many times before. The pain was severe, and I spent most of the day in bed. I considered going to Quick Care, but frankly I am tired of paying 200 a pop for a doctor to tell me what I already know, and my regular doc isn't in on Sundays. I thought it might be best to wait until I could get in to see him, since he has only seen the reports from the Quick Care and seems skeptical that the diagnosis is correct if he didn't diagnose it himself.
On Sunday, I took Tylenol for the pain, and then I decided to try something new: I took a strong pro-biotic. Not the kind you find in the drug store - I took the live kind that you buy at the health food store and have to store in the refrigerator. I bought a very strong variety. The label said to take 1 per day. I decided to take 1 every 8 hours, for a total of 3 times per day.
I also went on a modified version of the SCC diet. It was more like Paleo with some exceptions for things like the rice flour that was added to the antibiotic. But I stopped all breads, beans and lentils, pasta, and starchy vegetables.
I continued to monitor my temperature, but the fever came and went. I didn't want to go into the doctor's office without a fever, because the doc has already said that he can't diagnose diverticulitis without an elevated temperature. Each day in the afternoon after work, I didn't have a fever, possibly because I was taking Tylenol for the pain.
I continued to feel some pain after that, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't sleep, and by Wednesday, the only remaining pain was a tender and sore feeling in the abdominal, which is understandable after days of strong spasms.
By Thursday, my body was starting to release the infection. I'm not going to describe that in any more detail than that. I did need to take some time off from work.
I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll be able to eat normally by Christmas.
I've been thinking about what triggered it. The Friday before, I had a huge, devastating blow in my personal life involving a family member. The next day, I spent a good part of the day cooking, and I remember that my entire body was starting to hurt - all the muscle and joints hurt like I had the flu, even though I had no other flu symptoms. It felt like what I imagine a full body autoimmune disease would feel like. Also, in the weeks leading up to the flare, we had been moving to a more plant based diet, and I had been eating more legumes than normal, and had also introduced some meat substitutes like the Impossible Burger. I think the dietary changes and stress triggered it, but I still want to be able to eat a plant based diet, so I'm hoping that if I continue the pro-biotic, I may have a good result.
