My Experience with Diverticulitis

No one really knows what causes diverticulitis/diverticulosis, but the biggest theory is lack of fibre in your diet. At the time I first developed this condition, I admit, I didn't have the healthiest lifestyle. I was head chef of a small restaurant, working a split shift, living the life of a bachelor.

As a chef, you'd think I'd have a very healthy diet, but really, you get so busy cooking food for other people, that you don't get a chance to eat much yourself, aside from sampling of a dish, tasting of a sauce and so on - picking really. I'd work the lunchtime rush, go home for a couple of hours where I'd maybe cook up a frozen pizza or something else quick and easy, and then I might go down to the pub and play a game of pool before heading back to work for evening service. Then about 10 pm, 11 pm or later, I'd be done for the evening, whereupon I'd usually hit the pub for a pint or two and some more pool, and then home to do it all over again for 10 am the next morning. Apparently the barley and hops in beer don't count as high fibre...

So one day, I was in the middle of service, and my stomach started to hurt, not ache, not act-up, but hurt. It had been kind of dodgy for a few days, but this was a deep down hurt. Me being me, of course I ignored it, finished service and went off to the pub for a pint and a game of pool. I actually had to go home before I finished playing pool - not something that happens with me - I was in a lot of pain. In retrospect, I should have asked my mates to just drop me off at the hospital doors. The next morning, and an ambulance trip later, I was in hospital anyway. At first they thought I had appendicitis, but when they opened me up, they discovered a burst abcess on my colon. So they removed that and cleaned things up, and took out my appendix as well... just because they were there (yes, really, it wasn't inflamed) - gotta love the UK health system. They sent me home with a tentative diagnosis of diverticulitis, and instructions to eat more fibre. Well, actually, they released me from hospital and I had to have my parents pick me up, and I convalesced with them for a number of weeks. Being 30 some years old, unable to lift anything and living with your parents isn't the most fun in the world, but we all survived. Thanks Mum and Dad!

I actually ended up in hospital again a year or so later due to an errant sesame seed, but I cover that in another part of this lens. Chalk up this second experience to my learning how to cope with the disease, and figuring out what really affected me and what didn't.

After I was diagnosed with diverticulitis, I was a lot more careful with my diet. I had more boys nights-in with my friends. We still consumed a fair amount of beer, but I'd usually have them come over with a bag of groceries (or I'd have some there myself) and I'd do my impression of Ainsley Harriot on Ready, Steady, Cook... they brought the ingredients and I came up with a dish! Oh, and I'd met my wife at that point... and since she lived in Canada and I was in the UK, I had to be home by midnight so we could call and talk every couple of nights :)

That was my nightmare. Half the time, I'd be doing up a particular dish, and I'd have to have someone else taste it for me, just to confirm the right seasonings, etc. Imagine my frustration.

It was silly little things, like tomato sauce. I couldn't taste that because of the tomato seeds... yes, tomato seeds. Most people don't even notice that there are seeds in tomatoes, do they? But those seeds are there and a bit hard to digest... and small enough to get caught in the pockets in my colon. At home, I could still enjoy tomato sauces as I just adjusted my preparation methods - I used passata (pureed tomatoes) for the sauce, but at work, I didn't have that luxury... not my restaurant... I'm one of the sous-chefs...

So, obviously if a low fibre diet contributes to getting the disease, then a high fibre diet should cure it or at least control it, right? Well, kind of. Yes, high fibre food definitely makes for a healthier colon, but I was also told to avoid raw vegetables, seeds and nuts, oh, and rarer meats? Why?

Nuts and Seeds: Seeds have husks and especially when they are raw, they are hard to digest. Same with nuts. It just gives them more of a chance to wander down your digestive track and find their way into a pocket and fester. They are also quite small, so again, it is easier for them to be trapped. I found that tomato seeds bothered me, and when I discovered that I also took the precaution of cutting the seeds out of courgettes (that's a zucchini for you North Americans). Oh and don't forget about coarsely ground spices - a lot of those of are seeds (think peppercorns). My worse nightware? Sesame seeds... I had an encounter with one that put me in hospital for almost two weeks. I've put that lovely story into its own module. Oh yeah, this category includes brown/wild rice (and most other whole grains) - they have quite tough husks. Some people I know with diverticulitis say they could tolerate brown rice, but I stayed clear of it.

Raw Vegetables: Raw vegetables take a while to digest, so again, they have a higher chance of getting caught in the diverticular pockets. I tended to take the precaution at home of slightly overcooking them, although when we went out for dinner, I'd have them al dente sometimes, and didn't have any problems. I think I was overly cautious, just because the pain is horrible when you make a mistake.

Rare Meats: Like above, rare meat takes a while to digest, so you risk it getting caught in a pocket. So, again, as much as it hurt me as a chef to eat well-done meat (well, I found I could get away with medium-well), I did it.

I've included a module below with some decent cookbooks.

I alluded to my encounter with sesame seeds earlier. Yes, it put me in hospital. It was a little less than a year after I was first diagnosed, and I was doing all the right things - I thought. I still had some pain, but not as bad as before. I'd come to Calgary (Canada) to visit my girlfriend (now wife) and she took me to a place called the Japanese Village. She loves Asian food. I'd been told to be careful about seeds and such, so I ordered the chicken - it didn't say it had sesame seeds on it. They were cooking it in front of us, and then suddenly the chef sprinkled sesame seeds on it.

"Okay", I thought, "I'll just pick out most of the seeds. A couple won't hurt me." and commented to my girlfriend (wife) - "Well, we'll find out in a week if sesame seeds are okay..."

Wow, I was wrong. A week later, when I was back in the UK, I once again had shooting pains, went to the doctor, who thought it was a "liver complaint" and sent me the hospital (again, gotta love the health system there... I told her about the diverticulitis diagnosis and she was still insistent it was my liver...). Anyway, they reconfirmed diverticulitis, put me on a liquid diet and antibiotics, and kept me there for about a week or so to see if it would pass, or if it would abcess and I'd have to be operated on again. Luckily, the seed or seeds worked their way out of the pockets and I was okay. Haven't touched a sesame seed since, or rather not until I had the bowel resection (yup, I talk about that a little in here). I also started supplementing with Fybogel (that's essentially Metamucil in Canada/the US) and Lactulose, which is a kind of laxative that I'd use to clean out my system if I thought I'd eaten anything dodgy... like a (green/red) pepper seed, a tomato seed or the like.

Every once in a while, we order chinese food now (or go to the Japanese Village) but I make sure to ask for no seed or nuts. That always causes a big fuss - they think it's an allergy, and I end up having a good 10 minute conversation about what diverticulitis is and isn't. We haven't ordered out or gone to that restaurant since I've had the surgery, but I am definitely looking forward to it! No more long-winded explanations.

The photo is of us (my wife was several months pregnant and craving Japanese food) and a friend about a year ago, just outside the Japanese Village. I made sure that time that there were no sesame seeds anywhere near my plate...

A few months ago, I started having a weird symptom. I had "bits" in my urine and seemed to pass air at the end of urinating. Bizarre, to say the least. So I went to the doctor who thought it might be a fistula - a connection between my urinary tract and my colon. She said in rare cases of diverticulitis, you can get this complication. If you read through the Wikipedia article, it has a link to "Fistula" which will tell you a bit more about what it is. As I said it's rare, and happens when you have fairly severe diverticulitis. So off to the specialist I went, and after a lovely look up my poop shoot, he stated my diverticulitis was quite advanced, the lower part of my colon was quite lax... and yes, I likely had a fistula. And he recommended a bowel resection.

So what do you do when your diverticulitis has progressed despite your best efforts? The Specialist tells you need a bowel resection, and you wince. Not the most fun I've ever had. It's a pretty major operation (I was in the operating room for 3.5 hours), and they removed about six inches (the lower third) of my colon, and then reattached things. Recovery in hospital took about a week, and I've been at home since then (it's now mid-May 2009). I can't lift anything heavier than 10 lbs still, but I'm getting better every day. I should be able to return to work (and to lifting huge vats of stock, etc) in June.

The photo is of me in hospital a couple of days after surgery, along with my (then) 8.5 month old son, and my scar. Rather large, huh!? No, not my belly (although it isn't insubstantial, is it?), the scar - about 8 inches long!

I'm happy to report that since the operation (April 2009), I've been able to eat formerly forbidden foods like rare meat, al dente veg, (a gasp from my wife here) sesame seeds, and all sorts of nuts. One of the first things I asked my wife to buy for me was a Snickers bar!

Seeing my frustration at trying to type out things here, my wife helped me... well, she wrote most of this out for me. She types a heck of a lot faster than me, and knows where things are on the keyboard! Thanks babe!