Diverticulitis....

Well it is just a piece of calcified stool (poop! sorry if that offends anyone) that is connected to my colon. The funny thing about mine is that normal diverticulitis happens in people twenty to thirty years older than me and it is found in the lower left quadrant...mine is in the upper right (the hepatic curve or arch or something like that). I also have another one that is lower down my colon on the right side as well. They can be described as almost like a little hemorrhage of the colon...and they hurt! I came into the ER yesterday night with pain identical to that of appendicitis...and now I am wishing that appendicitis is all that I had, it would have been less serious and much less time consuming. But, for some reason lucky me - I get to spend a few days here in the hospital until the infection I have surrounding that hard piece of calcified stool clears up. The plan is that I will be here until the infection and pain go away and will then be sent home with oral antibiotics. When everything has stabilized I will have to have, gasp, a colonoscopy so the doctor can really see what is going on with my fussy colon. From there the most likely thing that will happen is that I get surgery to have a section, probably 4 to 5 feet of my colon removed. FUN stuff, huh?!
On a brighter note, I want to say thank-you to everyone for all your support. I felt lucky to have family (mom, dad, wynn, leanna, emily) with me yesterday while waiting for the results...and really just providing general cheer. I think we were all in pretty good spirits and generally totally surprised by the diagnosis. Thanks everyone for coming. Apparently diverticulitis is hereditary but nobody in my family has ever had it as far as we know, guess I get to be the first to that claim to fame. Mark has been so very sweet through this whole thing...he takes such good care of me. Last night he went home around midnight to get my books and things. When he came back he had brought me this wonderful colorful quilt Cindy had made him for my bed (it really does cheer things up in here), one of our pictures at home of us, my sound machine that I sleep with at night and toiletries, computer etc. I think it was just a lot of emotion built up but it made me cry, the sweetness of it all. I am one lucky girl!
I guess that is about it for now. I'll end by saying that by far my favorite feature of my hospital stay has been the calf squeezers. Calf squeezers are these cloth things they put around your entire calf and they blow air into them to create pressure, creating a massaging sensation. It is so that I don't get any blood clots but I think the device is amazing. I actually wish it went up my whole leg.
I will try to keep everyone posted...I will have plenty of time here in this bed the next few days. Again, thanks to all for your support and prayers. This is sure to be an interesting experience...