Brief Answer:
Diverticulitis is not serious in most of the cases

Detailed Answer:
Hello and thank you for asking Healthcaremagic.

I have gone through your symptoms and the report of the CT that you have describe.

I will try to answer at all your questions one by one.
I assume you did blood work before doing the CT with contrast. (kidney function) If there was any kind of problem with your kidney function,or if the levels of creatinine were above normal range,than probably the doctors would not have injected the contrast. Usually the contrast is eliminated in a couple of hours from our body.In a healthy person,with normal kidney function,it will not damage the kidneys. Even in your case we are safe here.

CT is the standard of reference technique for diagnosis of diverticulitis because it is able to demonstrate the wall of the colon as well as the surrounding pericolic fat. In the case of cancer, the wall of the colon are very thick and pericolic fat in most of the cases has lymphnodes. So every experienced doctor can make the differential diagnose of diverticulosis vs cancer. If your doctors said that it is diverticulitis than probably it is.

The antibiotics that doctors prescribed to you work great vs diverticulits, so in a couple of days you will feel better.

Diverticulitis is not serious in most of the cases. In rare cases it might give blood in stools,fever, or even peritonitis due to the rupture of the diverticul (strong pain + fever + vomiting in this case)

Since you are diagnosed with diverticulosis, than your diet will need to change also
-low fat diet
-plenty of water
-no spicy,no fast foods, no fries
-fresh fruits or vegetables
-a walk,or a run 3 or 4 days each week
-low alcohol in your diet

I understand that since you are on metformine (for diabetes) you have done changes in your diet,but the advice that I gave you is to help your colon get clean and to not irritate the diverticulae.

Wish you good health.

For any other question,don't hesitate to contact me.

Dr.Endri Katro

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Brief Answer:
No,you will not need a colonoscopy....

Detailed Answer:
Hello back.
No,you will not to do a coloniscopy for the disgnosis. CT is one of the best exams for this diagnose,and since you did it,I see no reason to do the colonoscopy.
Colonoscopy is performed if the doctors are suspicious about the diagnosis. So i would say to not to be worried. It is benign condition.

Studies have been performed to find if there is a correlation between diverticulosis and colon cancer. Diverticulosis does not increase the probability to get cancer.

For the last question that you asked (does colon n.Am ER cause dicerticulitis)... please retype again the question,because I am unable to understand this question.

Regards.

Dr.Endri Katro

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Brief Answer:
No correlation between diverticulosis and colon cancer...

Detailed Answer:
Hello.
As I mentined above,from a lot of studies that have been performed,doctors couldn't find a correlation between these two disease (diverticulosis and cancer)
Of course there are patients with diverticulosis that get colon cancer,but it is not due to diverticulosis.

If the doctors are correct with the diagnosis from the CT than personally I see no point in doing the colonoscopy in this moment. Maybe,in the future,lets say after 1 or 2 years you might do it to determine wich part of the colon has diverticulosis. (all colon,right or left colon,sigma ect)

The area that you describe for the pain,correlate with diverticulosis of sigma and left colon. The medication that you are using will just help with the symptoms. (you have the symptoms when one of the diverticuls gets infected/inflammated) so the antibiotics will get rid of the infection wich is the reason for the pain.


Right now there is no medication that can heal the diverticulosis,so patients just treat the symptoms. There are times even months and years painfree,but there are times when a patients has pain for a lot of days or weeks.

Usually pain and other symptoms go away 5 to 7 days after the treatment,but sometimes it might need more days.

Today,colonoscopy can be done while you are sleeping and you will feel nothing after you wake up. The only reason that I would recomend the colonoscopy is for:
-If doctors that performed the CT are suspicious about the results
-if they suspect colon cancer (in your case they don't)
-if the procedure would make you not to worry any more about having cancer.

The reason that you have been given both the options by doctors( some recomend to do colonoscopy and some don't) is because medicine is not an exact science. We need tests to confirm the diagnosis.

I hope I answered at your questions.

Wish you good health.

Dr.Endri Katro

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