QuestionQUESTION: My first flare was July 2010 during extremely stressful family problem. Second flare was June 2011 following death of my only young adult child. Third flare just occurred one week ago. First flare was "mild", responded in three days to cipro and flagyl which I was taken off of by my physician since they began to make it impossible for me to swallow. X-ray and blood work showed white cell count normal after only three days of antibiotics. Second flare was acute, very painful vomiting, etc. and my family Dr. sent me to infectious disease specialist for IV daily treatment (Invanz) which cleared up problem with few side effects. Colonoscopy in October showed "moderate" diverticulosis, IBS (which I did not know I had) and two polyps removed (benign). Gastro wants followup colonoscopy in one year.
Now this "mild" flare (again, IV every day) makes both my family Dr. and Gastro Dr. want me to have resection surgery. I am a young 65, in general excellent health except for drug controlled hypertension, but am under enormous emotional and psychological stress due to death of adult child almost a year ago. My fear is that I do not have the emotional stability for this surgery at this time even though I would REALLY like to have it done. My emotional condition (I have two therapists and a psychiatrist) is so fragile that I even had a reaction to the colonoscopy (ridiculous since it's no big deal). I don't want to end up in the psych ward. I am now alone - I gave my daughter my entire life and her mental illness took a serious toll on me in every way, so I have virtually no support network (although since her death I have been building relationships in church). I live alone (my house is empty, for sale, couldn't stay in it) with my small dog. I'm terrified of having this surgery and then having what I read is a "normal" emotional reaction to major surgery (anxiety and depression) on top of the torment I already live with and then having no one to help me when I get home. I don't know what to do. BTW I'm an expert in another area here (for four years). Should I take the chance of a possible nervous breakdown (and this is a real possibility) and schedule the surgery? It is supposedly a very small section of the lower sigmoid colon. Or....should I wait? My family Dr. had this surgery a year ago and said it changed his life, best thing he ever did. I'm just basically paralyzed by fear.
ANSWER: I would stay as unconstipated as possible.... taking Miralax daily and hopefully you won't have another attack and put the surgery off until you are able to.....
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QUESTION: I don't get constipated - ever. That's the weird part. If anything, stress or the wrong foods (like high fat intake) causes diarrhea (loosely formed stool, not really diarrhea) which goes back to normal the next day. I usually have a regular, normal BM every morning with no straining. I haven't been constipated in years. If I take Miralax or Citrucel, the pressure of the stool internally is very uncomfortable - this stuff makes it worse. I eat healthy food, my fiber intace mainly comes from shredded wheat breakfast and vegetables at night. If I take any more fiber, I get loose stool. Without this breakfast, I'm still fine. Is it STRESS? Nothing I can do about it. Could it have been the chocolate chip ice cream I ate? (little bits of chocolate chips)? This attack was so "mild" that the Invanz is starting to cause my stool to be loose, they will probably stop it tomorrow after WBC.
AnswerI would wonder whether this is definitely diverticulitis episodes or could this be IBS episodes (they pass so quickly) or some low grade ulcerative colitis..... talk it over with your GI doctor, but again, I don't see emergency bowel surgery as indicated now.
