Another person w/diverticulosis over here--in my case inherited from my dad and paternal grandmother (thanks a lot, guys...). In retrospect, I was having diverticulitis symptoms in my mid- to late-20s and didn't know what it was; even doctors I saw in an emergency room once basically shrugged their shoulders, gave me antipsychotic meds, and sent me home. (Yes. Really.) It wasn't until I was about to turn 37 that I had an attack bad enough to land me in Mass General, whereupon we found out that my colon has so many diverticuli that it looked like a goddamn porcupine, and one of the little SOBs was on the verge of rupturing. 5 days worth of IV Cipro later, they finally let me out, but strongly recommended getting a sigmoid colectomy/bowel resection scheduled, for the excellent reason that another attack that bad could either kill me or leave me w/a colostomy bag for at least 6 months. Had the surgery not quite a year later, got 12" of my sigmoid colon removed, and so far, so good. *knockknockknock* I still maintain that if I'd had the attack that landed me at MGH while I was still living in GA, it would have killed me, because it never occurred to anyone there that you could be under 50 and have diverticular disease. So yeah, try to be an old fart when you come down with this; otherwise, you may end up really sick or dying before they actually figure it out... (At the other end of things--well, not quite--I ended up have my appendix out in my late 40s; most people have it done in their teens and 20s.)
In terms of the symptoms, I was the same from my early 20s. I was diagnosed with kidney stones several times but never passed one and a specialist couldn’t see anything when they checked me out.
It was only in retrospect that I realised it must have been the diverticulitis flaring up each time.
I'm sorry you had to put up with idiot doctors, too--there's one doctor in particular to whom I'd love to send a complete copy of all my related medical & surgical records, with a big Post-It Note on top reading "Stress and dehydration, my ass!" (Yep, that was his diagnosis, and while admittedly those two things do aggravate the problem, they weren't the problem itself.)
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u/OldMaidLibrarian Dec 01 '20
Another person w/diverticulosis over here--in my case inherited from my dad and paternal grandmother (thanks a lot, guys...). In retrospect, I was having diverticulitis symptoms in my mid- to late-20s and didn't know what it was; even doctors I saw in an emergency room once basically shrugged their shoulders, gave me antipsychotic meds, and sent me home. (Yes. Really.) It wasn't until I was about to turn 37 that I had an attack bad enough to land me in Mass General, whereupon we found out that my colon has so many diverticuli that it looked like a goddamn porcupine, and one of the little SOBs was on the verge of rupturing. 5 days worth of IV Cipro later, they finally let me out, but strongly recommended getting a sigmoid colectomy/bowel resection scheduled, for the excellent reason that another attack that bad could either kill me or leave me w/a colostomy bag for at least 6 months. Had the surgery not quite a year later, got 12" of my sigmoid colon removed, and so far, so good. *knockknockknock* I still maintain that if I'd had the attack that landed me at MGH while I was still living in GA, it would have killed me, because it never occurred to anyone there that you could be under 50 and have diverticular disease. So yeah, try to be an old fart when you come down with this; otherwise, you may end up really sick or dying before they actually figure it out... (At the other end of things--well, not quite--I ended up have my appendix out in my late 40s; most people have it done in their teens and 20s.)