For those of you who don't know the story, I'll try to give you a brief recap. A little over a year ago, I experienced severe abdominal pain. A CT scan revealed that I had a perforated bowel, the cause of which was diverticulitis. I spent nearly a week in the hospital, with no food or water, and was pumped full of antibiotics and subjected to more needle pricks than I care to remember. It took me a good 3 weeks to recover my strength and go back to work, albeit only part time for another 3 weeks. It was, shall we say, unfun.

About 3 weeks after that, on my birthday no less, I went in for a barium enema, and a week later, into the doctor's office to discuss the results. Low and behold, everything had healed and looked wonderful. At this time, the surgeon told me that I could either have the surgery now (to remove the effected section of colon) or wait to see if I continued to have problems.

I chose the latter. As it turns out, I drew the short straw.

I have had several bouts with diverticulitus since then, and generally, have not been able to kick the problem completely for about the last 4 months.

I couldn't ignore it any more, and finally made the appointment with the specialist after much gentle shoving from my family, most especially, my brother.

The doctor told me in no uncertain terms that I needed surgery. I was way too young to be going through this, and over time it was only going to get worse. He was brutally honest. He also told me that the next time I had a severe attack, I may not be so lucky.

I valiantly fought the tears, and did pretty well for the most part. Why? Because I pretty much knew what he was going to say before he said it but damnit, it was still a hard pill to swallow.

The idea now is to give me some antibiotics to knock out the current infection as best as possible. I'll go in for a colonoscopy (up periscope) on November 7th, and find out the extent of the damage. He wants to see if it's in a general area, or if it has spread at all throughout my colon. That will determine the type of surgery it will be.

His main concern is to make this an elective surgery. He wants to avoid emergency surgery, in which I'll end up with a colostomy.

So now I'm dealing. I'm accepting. I'm taking it one step at a time. And by God and all that is righteous, I am NOT going to let this turn me into a blubbery mass of hysteria. On November 7th, I'll have the colonoscopy, and then? I will work on the next step of acceptance, whatever that might be.

Oh look...a shiny penny!