Recovery from Divertiulitis

Hello -- any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

A few months ago, my mother was diagnosed with pneumonia. After a round of antibiotics and breathing treatments, she was pronounced well. Since being cured of the pneumonia, she developed diverticultis. This was quite a surprise. Mom is very healthy -- she is 70 and takes care of everyone else. She is very diligent about eating yogurt and taking her probiotics, often scolding others to do the same, especially while on antibiotics.

Last week, Mom just started feeling bad, very tired, sudden and severe cramping and felt like she could not empty her bowels. She started taking stool softeners with laxative, they worked a little, but not completely. Throughout the week, she felt worse. On Friday, I took her to the ER, they did some lab and a CT scan, determined it was diverticultis, admitted her for two days and administered IV Leavaquin and something else, along with a clear liquid diet.

Mom came home with me Sunday, just until she could get her "sea legs" back. She is on a bland diet, lots of scrambled eggs and dry toast, plain baked potatoes, cottage cheese, etc., and taking Leavaquin and Flagyl -- BUT, she is feeling just a badly as she did even before being admitted to the hospital.

How long does it take to feel better ... and long does it take to recover from diverticultis? Mom figured after being on the IV antibiotics for 2 days she would be feeling much better. Not feeling better is very discouraging.

Could the antibiotics be the culprit for her feeling bad? She started a seven day supply of oral medication today.

Just wondering! Thank you in advance for any input, advice, encouragement ... Thanks.

[davemc53]

The antibiotics will take a while. Last December I had a severe infection caused by diverticulitus. It showed up when they gave me a CTscan. I was admitted to the hospital on IV antibiotics for 10 days. Then I had to stay on them for another 6 weeks until it was cleared up completely. Then I had a Laparoscopic Sigmoid Colectomy, which means that they removed about 8" of my colon - the area that had a lot of diverticuli.
I don't know if your Mom's situation is this advanced, but I would think any major problems would show up on the CTscan she had.
So, my answer is - in my case, the antibiotics took a long time to clear things up.
Feel free to email me if you have any further questions. ***@****
I'm also an "expert" when it comes to having colonoscopies.:>)

[red7777]

I agree the antibiotics take a while to work.  AND you can still feel miserable while you are on them.  I've been on and off antibiotics for the last 14 weeks and am going to have bowel resection surgery tomorrow.. I had seven attacks of diverticulitis over the course of 6 years and the disease seems to run in my family (brother had surgery 2 years ago).  Your mom should do fine and recover well over the next few weeks - but tell her to never ignore the symptoms because that can really get you in trouble.  I hope that she feels better soon.

[Sue357]

Hi.  I had laproscopic colon re-section ( sigmoid) in January.  They removed 7 inches due to repeated episodes of diverticulitis which were not clearing up the infection, plus was causing lots of scarring.  When my surgeon finished, he told me that I was starting to stricture from it, so I am glad that I had the surgery.  Now, almost 5 months later, I am feeling better but have been the biggest baby through this whole thing!  Of course it didn't help that I found out I was also going through menopause and was just placed on hormones.  I have a low pain tolerance combined with a high med tolerance, so was taking pain pills much longer than surgeon and GI thought I should.  How were your pain levels after the surgery?  I was in the hospital for 5 days and off work for 2 and a half weeks.....Thanks.

[Sue357]

Good luck on your surgery.  Please keep us posted....