That's a good idea. If you wait and rupture it's a terrible ordeal. I was not so fortunate as I was misdiagnosed for 2 years with food poisoning when all the time it Was diverticulitis. I ruptured and nearly died in my home. Had emergence surgery, wore a colostomy bag for six months and suffered a lot. Had 4 surgeries all together between 2007-08.
Even after surgery, you can get it again. Watch what you eat, drink A LOT OF WATER DAILY. Hope all goes great for you.

stay positive your quality of life is about to get better.Go into your surgery as health as you can. get your weight back on.

GO TO FASCRS.ORG AND FIND A SURGEON THAT IS BOARD CERTIFIED IN COLON SURGERY . ALL DOCTORS ARE NOT EQUAL.
i I HAVE HAD 3 SURGERY AND HAD TO HAVE MY COLON REMOVED. THE CALLED IT MALIGNANT DIVERTICULITIS , NOT COMMON BUT I IF YOU PUT OFF HAVING SURGERY THIS COULD HAPPEN.
BEST WISHES FOR A QUICK RECOVERY.

About 4 years ago when I was 39 I was diagnosed with diverticulitis. I was relatively young, in good shape, very healthy with no other ailments ever otherwise. After several ER visits and antibiotic treatments every few months I was urged by my doctor to have the surgery. As an executive who has to to travel and give speeches frequently, this condition became a nightmare for me as I never knew when it was going to hit me.

I had the surgery almost exactly 1 year ago. The best decision I've ever made! I got my life back. My surgeon was amazing and he was able to fix me up with only about a 4 inch incision. They took about about 12 inches of badness. Recovery is not that bad either. Especially if you are healthy otherwise, you will be able to leave the hospital in 3-5 days and functioning fine within a couple of weeks. My surgeon told me that if I didn't have the surgery, my colon was about to burst with the base case scenario ending like the westpalmguy's situation and possibly death...

During my suffering, I've done a tremendous amount of research ranging from any and all herbal remedy to hypnotherapy. Here is the bottom-line with acute diverticulitis: there is no cure, period. The only solution is surgery. Don't let anyone else make you believe that some pill or a certain diet will make it all better. It's a physical condition and no pill can ever fix it.

For me, ultimately, I looked at the as how I would make a major risk assessment decision for my day job: no surgery= life long suffering & stress with a high probability of needing an emergency surgery and possibly death. Or, surgery= a couple of weeks of annoyance that will result in a certain cure. It becomes a no brainer if you think about it.

I had not had coffee, red mead, berries and slew of other foods for years because I just couldn't handle them. Now, I eat anything, I mean anything and nothing happens! No growling, no pain, nothing! I sometimes still can't believe it!

I highly recommended you get your surgery as soon as your are able to. You will not regret it. All the best.

When I was 28 yrs. old my intestines burst due to colitis which developed into Crohn's. I asked my doctor about the surgery before hand but they didn't want to do it. He said there would be too many complications after such a surgery. Mine was not handled correctly back then and I didn't know what questions to ask. I had terrible pain off and on. I now have an Ileostomy . About a month ago I was diagnosed with diverticulitis. Which was treated successfully with antibiotics. Go ahead have the surgery and good luck to you.

I just had surgery 5 days ago. I just got home from the hospital yesterday. I'm hoping the problem is solved. My surgeon said 95% of patients who have the surgery never have a problem again.

hope you don't mind I can comment - but its my hubby that has D. he had 2 bouts before treated with antibiotics, hospitalized, pain meds, etc. and released. 3rd time, he was CT'd and seen to be perforated. However they waited, said it was a "contained perforation" - it wasn't, and 2-3 days later, he was in sepsis, fever, and shock. 5 weeks later he was released from hospital with an ostomy, and in 6 months they'll put him back together again. in the 5 weeks, he threw clots, heart attack symptoms, seizure, everything he could possibly do without dying. he wanted to die.

I had diverticulosis for 13 years with flare-ups of diverticulitis at least once a year during that time. The last flare-up nearly killed me. Literally! I decided to have surgery though my doctor didn't actually prescribe it without my asking.
My entire sigmoid was removed and the surgeon said it was in the worst condition he had ever seen in 18 years of doing this operation and was amazed I wasn't dead from it.
I was in the hospital for 7 full days, leaving on the 8th. Four days after the surgery I had a deadly complication (ileus bowel) which was a portion of my intestines that didn't wake up from the surgery. Fortunately, my surgeon was on the ball having seen this many times and knew exactly what to do.
Long story short, if you have recurring diverticulitis, you don't want to do nothing. IT WILL KILL YOU! Not everyone has recurring itis though the osis is always there and I still have the osis. But it has been 5 yrs and 9 mos since the surgery and I have not had another flare-up of itis. I would not hesitate to have the surgery to remove the infected area if I had the decision to make again.

Surgery is really a good idea - I twice had portions removed. The incidence has dropped to maybe once or twice a year, and I have generally learned to manage the attacks so I don't end up in hospital or on antibiotics.

Thanks for all your supportive comments. Surgery went well I am now two weeks into rcovery. They removed a my of colon I feel better that it has gone and praying for it not to return. Fingers crossed. I would recommend Surgery as an option if you are struggling as I was.

I had diverticulosis...due to so many other "fires requiring immediate attention," it went into diverticulitis.
I had 6 surgeries, suffered horrendous neglect in nursing homes who said they were "wound care specialists" (3 to be exact), resulting in numerous ambulance runs between 2 hospitals. One of those "wound care specialists" was actually recommended to me by my Top Ten Hospitals in the Country.
Thank God my Endocrinologist also was in the Top Ten. She fought for/with me to change the recommended "wound care specialists."
For my self, I guess I had to have it done. However, I still am affected by Diverticulitis. Once diagnosed, it is a part of my current medical history - no matter how long ago and when last I had surgery.
I have had a colonoscopy last September which led to 3 polyps being removed. All were adenomas(non-cancerous). Now I have to have a colonoscopy every 2 years. I have a terrific PCP who sent me to an Gastroenterologist who knew his stuff and talked w/me every step of the way.
I have extreme bloating and gas to this very day. I will see a brand new Endocrinologist in May.
Hopefully, he can also help me with being DM II and we'll go from there.
I had to see this through because my Diverticulitis will always be that. Healing is going thru the surgeries, doing the "bags," mine was an Ileostomy(temporary - no thanks to poor care in nsg. homes).
In fact, when my Endocrinologist heard about all the bs, she hugged me....asked gently, "OMG, what did they do to you??!"
There's more, but I concentrated only on the surgeries, recoveries and problems that I HAD. I wish you all the BEST.
The trauma surgeons did their jobs up to certain limitations that were involved.
Good luck.

WestPalmGuy - I feel for you. I have also been 'fobbed off' by g.p. and A&E with pain-killers., That was up until 9th February (when I phoned a nurse - who told me to call ambulance to get right treatment!) On arrival at my local A&E they X-rayed me (for 2nd time in 1 month) and THIS time saw air/gas in abdomen. This, along with fact that my urine was a 'milky coffee' color that smelled weird,suggested my condition was a burst diverticular cyst. I was admitted straight away and the following day they washed me out and placed catheter in bladder to drain puss etc fr 9 days. I was given strong antibiotics via I.V. and told they would operate to remove sigmoid colon & cyst and repair bladder; put stoma bag in place for approximately 3 months until infection completely clear and then reverse this. I was senthome after 9 days on drip with catheter on wrong antibiotics (which I had bad reaction to) then 3 days later my g.p. gave me correct antibiotics which made me vomit & have diarrhea for 4 weeks. The surgeon said he would see me 1 week after discharge; but I did not hear anything from hospital and had to phone and complain and go back to A&E - who said surgeons had 'discussed' my complicated case and I would be having specialist CT scan and ECHO before 'fast-track' operation within 2-4weeks. I cannot see this happening, as to do the operation they would have needed to read CT results beforehand - AND after 1 week I still havent been sent appointment for CT!?? I feel so let down and fed up with feeling nausious and in pain.

@ JDJules, Have you thought of changing Doctors. Your experience isn't something you play around with. Best wishes for good health.