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Removal of sigmoid colon due to diverticulitis: How to deal with pain?

Digestive Health | Last Active: Jul 12, 2023 | Replies (50)
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@lynnkeith

I just had my sigmoid colon removed on the 4th of September due to diverticulitis. I'm 55 and have never had a symptom until the day before the emergency surgery. In the past I have had issues with constipation and diarrhea with bloating and cramps but the symptoms would clear up and go away for months at a time. As I have been reading these were probably signs that I had diverticulitis all along and didn't know it, so I never had it checked. On the morning that my husband rushed me to the ER I had such terrible pain I could barely stand up and sitting in the car to the hospital almost made me pass out, we are 45 minute from the nearest hospital. The pain was also different from any other episode I had had and it was my entire stomach area both left and right and it was a deep pain that would not stop. Sitting made me feel as if I would explode. As it turned out I had a perforated gut from the Diverticulitis it was leaking and causing infection. I am home now and healing well. As I had Covid right before this attack I sometimes feel that this may have brought the attack on, any thoughts or information you have on this would be welcome. I have also been told that I need to have Colonoscopy when I have healed. With no history of colon cancer or any other cancer in my family is this really a necessity? Are there less evasive ways to check my guts? I am having an issue with this because I feel it in itself is dangerous, especially if I have to sign a waiver that relieves them of any responsibility if they make a mistake and harm me in the procedure, unless it is absolutely necessary I really don't want it done. What are your thoughts?

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Replies to "I just had my sigmoid colon removed on the 4th of September due to diverticulitis. I'm..."
dianecostella | @dianecostella | Sep 21, 2021

I would do it but not wait too long after you get the go ahead. You want to do it before the adhesions and scar tissue build up. I have had plenty of colonoscopies and they have been fine and I don’t have colon cancer in my family

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bbarbiee | @bbarbiee | Jul 7, 2022

Lynnkeith
I can relate on some level. I didn’t have emergency surgery but I did have history of diverticulitis which I was having colonoscopies every five years. I was always able to avoid too many flareups by making sure I never got constipated and dealt with it right away. That was up until February of this year. I ended up going to the ER spending five hours where they concluded I had a diverticulitis flareup and released me with medication to take. Eight hours later I was back at the ER with severe stomach pains. And after a painful time in the ER waiting room and being brought back in the ER bed they admitted me for four days and gave me IV antibiotics. so after spending all of Saturday in the ER and half of Sunday when they admitted me they did a Covid test and said I tested positive. After I was released it was every 2 to 3 weeks I had a flareup and was on antibiotics I’ve been told I ended up having a sigmoidectomy at the beginning of June and had my sigmoid colon removed. It was smoldering. Even after all the antibiotics I took and how careful I was with my eating it still showed signs of infection and abscess seen. I to believe that Covid had something to do with this flareup because that is a weak point in my body. The hospitalist doctor I saw in the hospital said it was just a coincidence but I don’t feel that it was. And never well. I don’t think they know a lot about Covid other than it does attack weak areas in your body. I’m glad to hear that someone else has the same feeling. Sucks to hear this was an emergency visit for you. I think so many times our body tries to tell us things but we are so busy with our lives we don’t always know what is going on. But as we get older these things seem to be hard to avoid. I hope you are doing better now and get back on track. As I say I want my life back. And that’s why I had the surgery. I had to do a lot of fighting with my G.I. doctor to get Results that led me to getting a appointment with the surgeon and getting surgery set up. Few letters and drop them off at his office. But you have to push these doctors to make them realize how much pain that you are in.

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