Lower belly has been playing up again since late yesterday afternoon. Couldn’t stay seated watching TV. Went to bed very early feeling feverish and holding my lower belly.

Thinking about what I ate yesterday. Salad and ham for lunch with freshly picked mulberries and some fresh pineapple and a pear and a slice of hot bread that was straight out of the bread-maker with jam. Quite a bit of coffee. Grilled cheese on toast at tea.

None of the doctors I have seen about this have asked what I’ve eaten. Diet doesn’t seem to figure.

I wonder about the bread and the mulberries though. This has been flaring up a lot recently and I have had a lot of fresh mulberries.

I particularly noticed the bit in the information sheet about diverticulitis that questioned nuts but said it probably wasn’t the problem. I have been keeping off nuts but if I have any chewing them very fine. Nuts are also high in phytates. The literature on phytates is pretty damning. There is a strong correlation between phytates and roughage yet a diet for diverticulitis seems to be to get off roughage while it has flared up but gradually raise roughage quite high later which would be a high phytate diet which you’d predict would cause problems. I’m confused!

None of the doctors have talked about roughage at all neither to get off it or how much is in my normal diet.

The other thing I’ve been paying more attention to is how it hurts to press my tummy. It seems there are different ways tummies hurt to press. Doesn’t seem to hurt more when I press down (although does when the doctors do) but some parts feel more tender (but they move – not always the same spot). Pressing down then suddenly (sharply) releasing does hurt.

It is more a deep malaise type hurt that makes me lay down in a fever. Another issue is whether the belly is hard (bloated) or soft. Mine is soft.

Sometimes my liver gets sore but it isn’t now.

I’m very interested to get the results of the blood and urine tests and would have liked an iron test because I do get very tired. I feel I should have taken note of what the types of tests were. I’ll ask when I see the doctor today.

I want to ask too why I was prescribed two types of antibiotics at once. I was asked whether I am allergic to anything (the answer is always ‘yes’ – there is always something we are allergic too and I could never know if I was going to be allergic to something new) but there was no discussion of what a huge dose of 2 types of antibiotics would do to my bowel flora which are so important to health. I am very worried about it. I feel like it is a major life decision to do something (taking all these antibiotics) which would kill off all my established bowel flora.

But at the same time what I read about diverticulitis makes it quite clear it is potentially a very severe or even life-threatening condition.

I’ve been wondering what they do when they operate on it. I’ve had a colonoscopy and there were about half a dozen little diverticula pockets (I was awake through it and saw them). They looked neat and small. Does a surgeon close them up individually or remove a whole section of bowel with them in?

One of the things that is worrying me is how this recurrs intermittently and so the question of taking all these antibiotics is not a one-off question. It is the only thing I have taken antibiotics for in many years. If it happened once or twice a year it would be very destructive.

I’ve got a busy day today and I don’t know whether I’ll make it through or whether this will stop me in my tracks.

The other thing I’ve been wondering about it is what is the role of exercise. I’ve been doing a lot of sitting (computers TV sitting talking to visitor yesterday) and my lower belly is cramped up. When I’m in pain and feverish it is very hard to walk but that doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t be a good thing to do.

For other reasons besides my belly I’ve had a lot of trouble walking in recent years. It worries me but I don’t know what to do about it. I’m feeling I have to find a way to walk to whatever capability I am able. I’ll see if I can find anything about diverticulitis and exercise on the net.