Just out of hospital. Sigh. UC and diverticulitis. REALLY?

Well, I just typed up and lost a whole big post so I'll condense this time. Just spent three days in the hospital with diverticulitis flare. I have UC that I felt was doing really well. I KNOW that my flares of both UC and diver are very stress related. Friday was the last day of school (I'm a teacher and a grad student) and I was in the ER on Saturday.

I'm wondering if the fact that I had tapered back on Rowasa enemas in any way contributed to my diver. flare. I"ve read where mesalamine is sometimes used to prevent diverticulitis. I know that there are a very few folks here who've dealt with both conditions, so I'm just trying to piece out where to go from here. Obviously I'll be following up with my doctor in about a week and a half, but I'm just wondering if anyone else out there has found themselves in these same shoes with both conditions.

I don't want to go for a CT every time I feel pain, and I don't think they can do a resection and just remove the sigmoid and reconnect when a person has UC???

I wonder if there is a connection between the two conditions for me? Are they possibly two different things on the same spectrum? How is this all connected and how should it impact what I do? Those are the questions I plan to ask my doc.

I just find all of this really frightening and frustrating, and was hoping someone out there may have info or have both conditions. I'm certain someone else did on this forum.

Thanks-you all are always so very helpful.

Chinamom

I've been hospitalized for 3 days too for my DD and have been to the ER 4 times for it to get pain control. Each time I had to have a CT scan. I'm in remission from my UC but the DD seems to be the bain of my existence nowadays. Btw, I have one pocket on the left which hurts off and on regardless of what I do and one on my upper right.

Personally if it got to the point of having to have a resection, I would just opt for colon removal since I've already have been dealing with gut issues for 22 years.

There is a diagnosis of diverticular colitis that two people that posted in the past on the board had. They were rediagnosised from UC. I think one of them had both diagnoses at Mayo in MN. Wonder if that is what you actually have? One article I read stated that it could progress to UC. They don't know much about it. I would say there is a very good chance they are overlapping conditions. I have diverticulous and had a large pollup removed and wonder if they are connected.

My dad had diverticulitis starting in his 20s. Much worse than the UC typically is. He was hospitalized 3 times over 20 years. Infection and major blood loss. The first time he almost died. In the 1980s he had his sigmoid removed when that operation became safer and never had a problem again. I did run into a couple studies involving 5ASAs used for diverticulitis. One involved probiotics(yogurt if I recall) and a 5ASA. The combo was better than pills alone. I would see a surgeon and ask your GI about surgery. Maybe see another GI for a second opinion. I would think that if the condition of your colon was good other than the area of diverticulitis that a surgeon might do a resection. I think surgery is normally done after a second severe flare these days.

It's Always Something--my first bout of diver. came a couple of months after a colonoscopy. I bled like a stuck pig after the scope, and I think my colon really suffered from it.