Diverticulitis and anemia

Hi Ive just had this diagnosis too after years of being told it was IBS by previous GP. I also found out from a pre op test that too have anemia and I think its got something to do with the inflammation not allowing your body to absorb all the nutrients it needs, in this case iron. I use Floradix which you can get from a health food shop as I cannot tolerate prescription iron. How are you doing now? Despite my diagnosis I still have immense pain in the colon area so Im not sure we have completely come to the right conclusions yet as my understnding is that DVlitis doesnt cause pain when there is no active infection.

Hi thanks for the response. I have yet to go back to the consultant for the follow up appt tosee what I can take for my iron levels as I know the iron tablets can bung you up and that wont help the divetcultis at all. I have got a lot of info off google. I still get the odd pain so i know i need to go on a high fibre diet to help to sort the pain.

Thanks for heads up on Floradix I will try and get some to see how that does.

Cheers again Lou

As I've said a while back, I'm an engineer not a medic - and forgive the semantics, but - 'diverticulitis' is the acute phase of the chronic disease 'diverticulosis' aka 'diverticular disease'. Pretty much by definition, diverticulitis is painful! If there is an aim in the management of diverticulosis, it must be to avoid ever getting the acute phase. Assuming I was correctly diagnosed following colonoscopy, I can gladly say that my diverticulosis has never moved(!) to the acute phase. I questioned "if" the diagnosis was correct, because small amounts of pocketing might be evident in a great many middle-aged people, but the alternative of the neurologically-based 'intractable colon' might be more costly to differentiate - so it might not be done, perhaps. Either way, I suspect the treatment is very similar, so maybe it doesn't matter which is the dominant factor.

My strategy is to use one 5 mg Bisacodyl (eg 'Dulcolax' ) tablet every 5 - 7 days (depending on convenience - or availability thereof!). In my case this gives me (after an overnight medication) one day of needing to be close to a loo, followed by 4 - 6 days of trying to keep a routine for daily passage - but ultimately missing a day or two - and then medicating again, in the 5 - 7 day period.

'For me' (an important rider) keeping to this routine avoids pain, guarantees a 'reset' of the accumulation and keeps forward planning a bit more predictable. In my opinion, the important thing is to clear the gut well within 10 days. In my more optimistic times, I tried to lengthen the time between 'resets' - but that just causes more bloating and discomfort - which would no doubt lead to painful diverticulitis.

If this methodology sounds a good idea for you, then I suggest you print this out and talk it over with your GP.

Hi Cauli. yes it is all about management. A gentler way I've used in the past is colon cleanse available from holland and Barrett. I think what some of us are unsure about is whether the pain comes from the diverticulitis or whether in my case I'm wondering whether the pains related to too much ibuprofen and having diverticular disease is a red herring! Also whether having anaemia is related to it all. I will check out the intractable colon on google thanks for your input.