Anyone know about diverticulitis?

[Okapi]

We just found out DH has this. Thought it was appendicitis. It ruptured. They haven't decided if they're going to operate or not. I've never even heard of it before, so I really have no idea what we're dealing with. Briefly looking it up, it looks like it can be acute or long term. Does anyone have much knowledge about this? How likely is surgery? If it is long-term, what things can he do to manage it? Could you point me towards reliable sources of information?

[JaneS]

This is a good overview but I disagree about the mainstream causes that are cited:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/diverticulitis/DS00070

Bacterial and yeast overgrowth due to multiple antibiotics or food allergies/intolerances can cause the normal intestinal flora to be shifted and inflammation to develop. I think parasites also?

This type of inflammation is similar to Crohn's and IBD. I would be very careful about developing something in hospital like C. Difficile b/c he is going to be put on some very heavy duty antibiotics. I would ask for the probiotic VSL3 to be prescribed and given in between the antibiotic doses (not at same time). I hesitate to mention the beneficial yeast Saccaromyces Boulardii which is normally excellent for concurrant antibiotic usage as I'm not sure how it would be in this case.

I would have a CDSA Comprehensive Digestive Stool Analysis by Genova Labs and complete food allergy/intolerance testing done with a functional medicine doctor (one who has alternative learning).

Has he had longterm digestive issues (that you know of, as sometimes they hate to talk about it!) or is this something that appeared out of the blue?

[Okapi]

Thanks! I will look into the things you mentioned. And yeah, they are giving him a ton of antibiotics.

As for your questions, his digestive system has always been pretty sensitive (at least compared to my experience). He says that now that he knows what the feeling is, he's felt it coming on for a while. Several months ago he'd gone on a mostly vegan diet and was feeling really good, and then 2 months ago he was sent to a very small town for a month for work and he had a lot of trouble keeping on the diet. He couldn't find a lot of the things he was used to, couldn't cook the things he could find, and due to his training schedule didn't have time for much beyond fast food anyway. The whole time he was there, he said he felt horrible almost every time he ate, so we are assuming that that's when it got bad. Since he's been back he's been eating better, but not back to where he was before he left.