On edit: someone needs to cut and paste this into another reply. cherokeeprogressive and I got into an awful tangle over the whole Aurora gun thing and I'm pretty sure I'm on his ignore list. I'm not going to get along with him any time soon but I still want to help out anyway.
It's the result of a lifetime of low-fiber diet. Without the fiber assist, more pressure has to build up in the colon to push stool on through, and outpockets form from the colon. This is called diverticulosis. Diverticulitis happens when one of these outpockets gets inflamed and infected from a blockage. The biggest problem with treating diverticulitis is that it's hard to get antibiotics to the area to fight the infection.
I was in the hospital twice with it 3 summers ago. I actually had a small perforation in my colon - and barely escaped major surgery to remove about 7 inches from my colon. I was in the hospital for 5 days, then went on a course of antibiotics. I ran a fever after the antibiotics were done. My gastroenterologist put me right back on the same antibiotic, not listening when I told him I thought that I would be back in the hospital because surely all the bacteria in there were resistant to that antibiotic. Sure enough, several days later, severe pain and high fever and I was back in the hospital for a second time. During one of those visits, a gas bubble hit the perforation. It felt like someone had taken a piece of steel rebar and jammed it straight through me below my navel. Astonishing, intense pain. I'd had an MRI just before it and a nurse who saw it said that I'd been through natural childbirth level pain. It made me want to kiss the feet of every woman on the planet in pure respect.
Unfortunately, if you've had a pretty severe case, you're going to get repeated flareups from lymphatic tissue in that region called Peyer's patches. It'll feel like a particularly bad gas pain and then go away. The biggest thing you have to watch for is fever. Stress can trigger inflammation, so watch for the fever. I know it's hard to not want to go straight to the ER but you're going to have to distinguish between an inflammation and an infection. They do feel different and I had a false alarm and had an expensive ER trip for nothing once.
Many doctors will tell you that you have to avoid nuts and popcorn. Some will tell you that you need a high fiber diet. Some will tell you that you need a low fiber diet. It's really confusing, and I can only tell you what's worked for me. I've got a biology background, and I figured that the beneficial bacteria that normally inhabit the colon would have their own mechanisms for eliminating competitors for their environment, including pathogens.
This is going to sound gross, but if you're developing diverticulitis, your stool has a very characteristic smell. If you've got pain in the same area, you've got to give the toilet paper a sniff. I've had that happen several times in the past 3 years. I keep a couple of boxes of Lactobacillus acidophilus (beneficial bacteria) capsules on hand at all times, and when I get the pain and that odor, I immediately take a couple of capsules along with milk (that bacterium loves milk). Alternatively, you can eat a bunch of yogurt, but I hate yogurt, so I just take the bacteria capsules. I haven't varied my fiber intake, and I've had nuts and popcorn repeatedly. Only occasional flareups, and not correlated with nuts/popcorn. The main thing is the beneficial bacteria - taking 2 capsules has never failed to resolve the pain/odor. Now I just take the capsules a couple of times a week and I don't even get the flareups.
I have no idea whether this would work for you. I do know it's worked for me, and my explanation is that the beneficial bacteria kill off the pathogens, the inflammation goes away with the pathogens, and the blockage of the diverticulum probably resolves with the next 2 or 3 stool passages.
Hope this helps.
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It might not be a bad idea to have one of the capsules the day you're eating corn on the cob. The thing is, everyone's different on this because the diverticuli happen in different places in the colon, and the colon goes up, then right, then down on its passage. My problem spot is at the sigmoid area, which means that with a big enough perforation, I'd have to wear a colostomy bag after they chopped 7 inches or so out of the colon. But I've had corn - hell, I've had everything. I've been told the very worst thing is popcorn, and I've eaten quite a bit of that.
