My diverticulitis story

Okay I had a flexible sidmoidoscooy in 2010 as I had internal hemorrhoids. I was told that I had diverticulosis in my sidmoid colon which was an incidental finding . I was given a leaflet about this condition which said it's a very common disease and most people go through their life without any symptoms and not even knowing they have it . I was not concerned about it at all .

7 years on I have never had any symptoms until a few weeks  ago where over the course of one evening I developed pain in left side of my stomach which was gradually getting worse and i started to get a fever .

I decided to go to A + E as it was uncommon for me to experience this kind of pain . After a nine hour wait I was finally seen by a doctor who examined me and withing in ten minutes I was admitted into the surgical triage ward at the hospital . I had several blood tests that day and an X ray . The following day I had a ct scan , about two hours after the scan a doctor and a surgeon came to my hospital bed and said its not good news as you have a diverticulitis with a localised perforation . This was all a shock to me I asked what does this mean the surgeon said you have a perforation in your bowel albeit it's small and localised meaning that it had not completely  perforated and it was confined but they would have to monitor me to make sure it did not get any worse as if it did they would have to perform surgery and remove part of  my bowel . They said that I would be put on anti biotics through a drip and they should start to work within the next 24 hours they would continually check my bloods to see if inflammatory markers have gone down . I asked how serious is this the surgeon said it's likely that the anti biotics will work but said I'm not out of the woods yet .

 I had intravenous anti biotics for a week whilst I was in hospital and was only allowed clear fluids for the first five days . As the first few days went by whilst having blood tests done everyday my pain started to subside and doctors said that the blood test results show that the inflammation is going down .

After seven days   days I was pain free and allowed to go home . 

So from never ever having any symptoms to all of a sudden having pains one evening then then the next day hospitalised with a perforated bowel with a surgeon on stand by in case I needed emergency surgery . Very frightening .

I'm. Still unclear why this has happened and if it will happen again as the doctors and surgeons did not seem to explain it to me . I have a follow up appointment in a few weeks so I will hope I get a better understanding when I see my surgeon .

Has anyone else been through a similar ordeal ? 

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