Diverticulitis Nightmare

I kept a journal in 2007 but it seems to have vanished from here so, I am rewriting it here in the hopes when it is read it will be a lifesaver for some of you.  What happened to me in 2007 is something I would never want anyone to go through.  Please read my journey carefully:

  After going to the doctor for over a year with severe abdominal pain, he diagnosed me with Food Poisoning.  This was my fourth (4th) time to his office and each time he prescribed me medication for food poisoning and to follow a liquid diet for a week.

March 2, 2007.  I was found unconcious at home and was taken to the ER at 4pm.  I sat in the emergency room for 9 hours before they took me to a room and only because I passed out again.  I was given a drink to finish and was taken for an MRI.  The results showed that my intestine had ruptured and at 2:15am I had emergency surgery. 

  When I woke up that morning I had no idea what took place until I saw a colostomy bag attached to my left side.  I must have cried all day at the sight of this alien attached to my body.  The surgeon came in to see me and explained that I will have the colostomy bag for  months and then she would do the reconnection of my intestine.  I was depressed and in so much pain that I just wanted it to be all over.

 Three weeks after my surgery my surgeon told me that my stoma had died and she had to redo the operation.   A set back that would keep me out of work for 5 months.  Unlike the first surgery, this was so painful that it would take m over a half an hour just to get out of bed in the morning.  The incision, unlike the first time, was left opened and had to heal from the inside out with it having to be cleaned 3 times a day and repacked.  I cannot even begin to tell you what that pain felt like.

  The months passed slowly and in September I had the reversal surgery and the colostomy bag was removed at last.  This was an easy surgery and I was able to go back to work within 2 weeks.

  Two months later I was feeling something hard in my stomach and was told I had excess scar tissue and once again I went under the knife. Again, not a painful procedure and I was able to function pretty quickly.  It was a few months later that I saw a lump forming near where my initial surgery was but ignored it until, i March of 2008 I went to the doctor and was told I developed a hernia due to the 4 surgeries I had which weakened the wall of my stomach.  May of 2008, I had the hernia repaired and was finally on the mend.

From the 5 operations, once again I developed another hernia, this time in my lower intestines.  The surgeon, after reading up on my chart of all the surgeries I had had, felt it would be a risk to do surgery for fear that it could disrupt the meshing that I had from the previous hernia. So, I'm living with the new hernia and following her orders on how to avoid an attack of pain.

  It is Very Important that if you feel your doctor, as mine, isn't doing right by you, that you go for a second opinoin.  I came close to dying due to the fact that my doctor did not send me for an MRI or a colonoscopy. 

LISTEN TO YOUR BODY; it just might save your life.  Don't let happen to you, what happened to me.