It begins with slight nausea when you wake up in the morning.  Your stomach feels queasy and you wonder if you really want breakfast.  You think, may be it's just an upset stomach and will go away with some flapjacks and sausage.  Yeah!  That's the ticket!  Except that would make it even worse as you would later find out.  Then you start experiencing these slight pains in your lower-left of your abdomen that you think are probably just pulled muscles from exercises.  Except that is not what is causing the pain.  It's diverticulitis once again.  The pain is due to small pockets in the wall of the colon that fill with stagnant fecal material and become inflamed.  When you have a bowel movement, you will notice what appears to be little rabbit pellets in the toilet bowl.  This pain can become quite severe as I found out when I first had my initial experience with how terrible diverticulitis can be.  I was hospitalized that first time due to massive diverticulitis.  I had one doctor tell me that when diverticulitis shows up on a CAT scan, you definitely have diverticulitis.  I was in the hospital for nearly five days as a result.  Since that time, I have had minor bouts with diverticulitis.  It is a sickening experience (pun intended).

It is possible I will have to eventually undergo surgery to rid myself of this pocket or pockets in my colon that is causing so much distress in my life.  I drink plenty of water, take Metamucil as required, and now I'm on oral antibiotics (augmentin) to try and stave off the inflammation so that the nausea doesn't get any worse.  The current fight with diverticulitis is not going well for me.  I'm doing everything in the past, that worked, to get over this bout with this dreaded disease.  You pay for your sins, of youth, when you are older.  I ate a lot of hot, spicy food that I am now paying for with interest.  I love hot spicy food.  Unfortunately, it doesn't love me.  So, once again, I have to avoid the hot spicy cuisine I favor so much.  I'm not sure how this latest episode with diverticulitis will turn out for me.  Hopefully, it doesn't mean I have to go to the hospital.  I have to remain optimistic that the antibiotics I am currently taking will do the trick. That's my goal right now.