Well, I finally moved on from my “clear liquid” diet, that started last Wednesday night, to a “low residue” diet to rest my colon from my infection caused by diverticulitis. Not the best and most exciting way to lose weight, but I’ll take it. I’ll do anything to get rid of the pain diverticulitis flare-ups bring! If you don’t know what it is, I hope you never need to experience it yourself. I used to think I had a high pain threshold… until diverticulitis.
I’ve been punched, kicked, elbowed, tripped while running full speed on a rough concrete basketball court, hit by a rock on the eyebrow, hit by a a piece of coral thrown from the beach (No thanks to my brother :)), slid and cut my feet and toes on sharp pool tile (Pansol memories), hit my head on concrete after fainting while laughing (it happens), stepped on a four inch piece of broken softdrink bottle while running in “Beach Walk Sandals”, unfortunately rammed my wrist down (full-force) those diamond shaped steel spikes on gates (In my defense I was trying to catch a falling Macopa first. I was hungry.), punctured my right foot with a piece of “Dragon Sandals” inside by stepping on similar steel spikes, and voluntarily paddled and hit by the hardest types of wood and bone on all possible sides of my body. Yet none of these match the pain a “flare-up” brings.
What’s it like, the pain diverticulitis brings, you may ask? It feels like having several “inflamed and infected” wounds across your abdominal area where your stomach meets your waist, plus the sensation of someone’s elbow rubbing into these wounds without warning and the pain is a CONSTANTLY sharp, stabbing-type feeling… except that it’s on the INSIDE of that area, right where the colon is. I’d rather have an external wound than an internal one.
My wife asked, “So it’s like a C-Section wound that’s inflamed and infected while our eldest son continuously props himself up using his elbows ON the wound itself AND it’s on the other side where topical medication can’t help?”
Close. Except for the sharp, stabbing-type pain when something needs to pass, which I found out is almost every 10-15 minutes, yes it’s pretty close. 🙂 You know that pain on Paul’s side that he references in some of his letters? This may be as close as I get to that.