Kim Van Atta
My journey with Diverticulitis began on March 24th 2005 before this time I
had never heard of this condition. I thought I had a touch of the flu. My
stomach hurt and I had cramping on my right side. I took over the counter anti
gas tablets that did not seem to give me much relief. My pain increased to where
I ended up in the emergency room.
My right side was pretty swollen so I was sent in for a CT scan and ultra sound.
I was given morphine and a drug to ease my nausea. They kept me over night. In
the morning they were admitting me indicating that they thought I had a pretty
bad case of diverticulitis…still did not know what this was. They placed me on
an IV that pumped two very strong antibiotics into me. I could not eat or drink
anything. The next afternoon I spoke to a gastrointestinalologist who was going
to confirm my condition by doing a colonoscopy. Once the results came back they
explained to me that I had the condition on my right side which was unusual for
someone living in the United States. I also was not over weight and exercised
regularly. I was in the hospital a total of 5 days. Once I was sent home I could
only eat soft foods like pasta & Jell-O and stay on a course of antibiotics for
10 days. I followed a strict diet of no chips, nuts, corn and other things they
say aggravates this condition. My next attack was 3 months later this time I was
bleeding and had diverticulitis on both sides of my colon. I was in the hospital
for 5 days and again pumped full of antibiotics. Two week after I was released
from the hospital I had another attack this time they wanted to do surgery. Not
only did I have it on both sides but I had also developed scare tissue that was
starting to block the left side of my colon.
During this time Ginny Harper was recommended to me. I was told she had success
with helping people heal from these types of conditions. The last thing I wanted
was surgery. Surgery does not address the cause and there is no guarantee it
won’t come back. I am 40 years old and did not want to face a future that could
mean further surgeries.
I was pretty weak when I first consulted with Ginny she told me what I would
have to do and we agreed that I would start immediately. What is interesting and
made me a believer is that the very next day I had another attack. I called
Ginny and she rushed two different types of liquids to me. At the time I had no
idea what they were but trusted and drank them. Within a couple of hours my pain
was gone and my temperature subsided. At that point I began my macrobiotic
journey to health. I attended cooking classes, stayed 3 days at the center to
get myself grounded in this practice. As I concentrated on chewing my food and
experiencing food in a different way I could feel myself getting stronger.
A year later I had some pain on my right side, thinking my diverticulitis
returned I went in for a colonoscopy. My test results came back showing no sign
of diverticulitis or losis. The scar tissue was gone. The pain was from an ovary
that was nothing serious. I continue to do a maintenance program “this is what I
call it” because I like pizza from time to time.