I should have eaten my vegetables

I developed diverticulitis about five years ago and its ruled my life ever since.  At first it was an attack, but even with careful diet, enough daily fiber to upholster a couch nothing ever seemed to seemed to work.  SO now the doctors call it "Chronic" and if I have a good year I get sidelined by two attacks.  If its  a bad year, its three or more.

2009 was a very bad year.

This recent spate marks four for 2009, and unlike the other three which I knew "were coming on" this one surprised the hell out of me at nine AM on Boxing Day.  No warning.  Just the most excruciating pain imaginable.  And thats the thing with one of these attacks - the pain is constant and it is amazing.  On a scale of one to ten, this attack was equal to kidney stone. 

But because I am silly about a fear of hospitals, I went for the emergency Cipro prescription that my doctor has me keep in the medicine cabinet, and between that, the Advil and a lot of sleep, I'm starting to come out of the attack.  I saw the doctor today, he poked, I screamed and I got an Rx for an anti-spasmodic that seems like its starting to let left side relax after three days of being rigid in pain.

The good news is that the infection didn't eat away at anything, or fuse my intestines to any other vital organ. And I just may get to sleep tonight instead of breaking sweats as my body tries to fight the infection.

The worst part of living with this is that I have ballooned in weight because of the restrictive diet.  No nuts, no fresh fruit with seeds, did I mention no nuts at all?  No strawberries.  The only safe food bets are proteins and starches.

But I still think I'm lucky.  I haven't been filleted by the surgeon's knife - its just a matter of time.  But for the sake of conversation, lets hope it isn't in 2010.