Diverticulosis.

[Salcombe27Green]

Diagnosed with this in September after a colonoscopy. I have been back to the doctor a few times with ongoing diarrhoea. Some days between 4 - 8 times a day. Prescribed mebeverine but after only 2 sachets found it made it worse instead of bulking things up. A pharmacist said to continue but use Imodium also. Has anyone persevered with the fybogel mebeverine and does it bulk things up eventually and should it be necessary to take Imodium as well?

[Luisa22]

Forgive me but it sounds crazy to me. This is just me, sounding off. So remember I don't know everything!

They give you stuff with high fibre, and fibre is known for "making you go". Well, it might not work that way as well as expected for IBS C, but it certainly does for IBS D. It makes you go a lot more !

Of course, fibre is supposed to be the healthiest thing in your diet ! Er....not so actually. Like we should all be eating large amounts of it daily, and it's "good for gut health/heart health...etc etc." Not necessarily so at all. And this thing abouit "bulking up stools" and "firming stools" by using fibre, I can tell you straight up is a fairytale, in my own experience!

So anyway, they give you stuff that makes you "go" times five. Then they recommend some other drug to "stop you up". What is this??

The only help I ever got was moderating fibre to suit what my body needed at the time, and extending or lessening that with each day, depending on how my body responded. It takes a bit of awareness and devotion, without getting obsessed. But I started to feel a lot better naturally while doing that. And I've now been abkle to include more healthy fibre foods into my diet. But it can take time and be a work in progress.

I need a little more when I swing slightly to the "C" side of things for a day or two (that happens sometimes.) I follow my body's response, and gauge how much fibre I need, each day.

I started with a very bland diet indeed which was low fibre. That settled my tummy. I took vitamin and mineral supplement daily too. Over some time I could introduce more "healthy" foods and focused on any food which suited me. But I still do have to be careful of too much of anything really high fibre. But my tummy and my life are both much happier!

[Letsfixit1 in reply to Luisa22]

That is exactly the same as me. The last month since I started cutting out the fibre, and re-taking 1 immodium per day, has been my best month for years, and that includes travelling abroad, change of water and diet over there, and Christmas junk food. I feel much better. I have never found fibre to bulk the stool at all, it just speeded up the evacuation process! And I felt rotten.

[Purplewoman]

hi i have same condition, my mebervine is white tablet. For taking before food or whenever i feel sick and bloated ?

[Salcombe27Green in reply to Purplewoman]

It is the sachets I have been prescribed to be taken in water 30 mins before eating.

[Purplewoman in reply to Salcombe27Green]

I never knew there were any Sachets mine are 20 minutes before pills

[gussmithy]

Hello. Totally agree with Luisa22 - lot of good sense there.

[Angrybelly]

I have diverticulosis and ibs-d and fiber is the only thing that helps. Without fiver I just have poorly formed stools that are diarrhea like and I got 8 to 10 times per day. I've tried going bland and it didn't help. I need to bulk with psyllium or cellulose fiber or I end up in the toilet all day passing thin stripes of poorly for stools and horrible gas and cramps. I've been like this for 15 years. Take kefir every day and psyllium with bran and that keeps my stool together. Yes I poop like he'll but there's relief after each bowel movement. Immodoium, just gave me more pain, pressure and tenesmus. My GI doc said there's no answer unless I get surgery and cut off my sigmoid. Diverticulosis not diverticulitis can cause ibs like symptoms in some people not all. It's living hell and diet is very important. I wake up every morning sitting in the toilet for hours. .

[Coachmanbythesea]

Hi, I was diagnosed with diverticulosis 4 years ago along with something my GP referred to as ‘fast transit IBS’.

I too tried beating it with enormous amounts of fibre to slow things down but nothing seemed to help. When I had my latest colonoscopy earlier in the year I had to stop everything I was taking (probiotics, bulking agents etc) and my guts immediately behaved normally!

That was when I worked out that I was giving my guts far too much to deal with. Now I try to avoid fibre as much as I can, eat a normal diet that includes fruit & veg. I take Loperamide once a day to keep things at a slower pace.

What’s also happened is my body is now able to absorb nutrients properly from food whereas before it just used to pass through so fast I was constantly fatigued and unable to do much.

I guess a ‘less is more’ approach could be worth trying but this is just my experience; it’s taken me a long time to understand how my body works- along with the collective knowledge of this forum! Good luck with your journey!

[Salcombe27Green in reply to Coachmanbythesea]

Thank you for your helpful reply. I am thinking along these lines and will try the Imodium.

[Boxroad]

hi I have had bs for over 30 years and three years ago after a colonoscopy was told I had diverticulitis and internal haemorrhoids, from the start of 2020 until start of 2023 I had constant diarrhoea well into double figures a day, I found out that there are two types of fibre one soluble and one insoluble, soluble helps soak up liquid in the colon and bowl while insoluble does not.

Then we had a water filter fitted to our house as I had been on bottled water for many years as tap water didn’t agree with me, when I was talking to our water softener engineer he told me a lot of people with bad guts can’t tolerate or suffer from our tap water due to the chemicals the water company puts in it to kill the bugs, I told him I only drank bottles spring water, he then said spring water also has chemicals in it from wash off from roads farmers fields etc, that’s when he told me about a filter that filters water for drinking, so we had one fitted, witching 24 hours my toilet habit started to improve within a week I was only going 2-3 times a day, now a year on I still get the runs now and then if I forget and wash fruit with wrong tap or something, I can now after over a year with the filter smell the chlorine in the tap water, when I have to change the cartridge every six months it a horrible colour and very slimy, as it approached the first change my gut was not behaving I think it was filter getting clogged, so we try to change after 5 months not six, it removes 99.9% of impurities from the water, even my wife’s cough stopped after we had it fitted. We use it for anything that we ear or drink.

As for bottles water it took me a long time to find one that I could use, some bottles waters are just mains water in a bottle, and it depends what the water has been naturally filter through like sand,clay,rock, soil etc.

I hope you find this info helpful in some way

[Salcombe27Green in reply to Boxroad]

Thank you. Interesting information.

[Luisa22]

I had a think about what I said yesterday. With diverticulosis (not "diverticulitis" which is different) it is better to eat regular amounts of fibre. to keep things gently moving along. But it's probably best to feel your way about what suits you and what is too much.

A low fibre, low residue diet is best, to put less stress on the colon, if there is a diverticulitis flare up.

[Salcombe27Green in reply to Luisa22]

One doctor (never the same one twice) said it might be IBS. There are so many avenues you can go down to try to be in control of a system I have taken for granted all of my life. It's a bit of a minefield and you wonder why things change so suddenly. I'm pleased your problem seems to have settled for now.

[Luisa22]

I was just talking to someone in an email about our "sick healthcare system". To a great extent we are left on our own. Oh we can get referrals to specialists so long as we nag the GP or the GP happens to be very conscientious. But we could wait for months, or longer, and I think it's getting worse.

It would be possible to have both Diverticulosis AND IBS. Diverticulosis is very common so I hear, the older we get. So managing that is a good idea, to make sure it doesn't get to be a Diverticulitis flare which is pretty painful so I hear. I hope whatever doctor you get can be helpful for you.

Yes, I am not too bad for a while now, though do still have some foods that can upset me a bit if I'm not careful. (re: cauliflower cheese at Christmas ! aarrghh...though I enjoyed it very much indeed for a change. I've no idea what the mixed roasted nuts I ate tonight will do to me tomorrow, but I enjoyed those too. What a treat.