Anyone with breast cancer and diverticulitis?

Nicole, here is my story. I found out I had right-sided diverticulosis when I had my first routine colonoscopy at age 51. I was told to eat a high-fiber diet and not to get constipated. I followed that advice and my diverticulosis never bothered me. But then I received the BC dx and things changed...

3 days after my 2nd round of chemo, I experienced (pretty severe) abdominal pain. I also alternated between bad diarrhea and constipation. The pain would last for about 8 days then would completely disappear. Same thing happened for rounds 3 - 5. I would have pain for 8 days then it would go away. But after the 6th and final round, the pain went away but I still had discomfort. So my MO sent me for a US, and then an abdominal CT. The CT showed an abscess near my colon so I had to go to the ER and get admitted. In the hospital they inserted a CT-guided drain and gave my IV antibiotics. They kept me for 4 days. The internist at the hospital said that she's pretty sure it was caused by chemo cause she sees this fairly often.

I recovered and thought everything was OK. Then 10 months later I sort of passed out at DunkinDonuts and went to the ER via ambulance. Another CT scan showed that I had another abscess. So they inserted another CT-guided drain and gave me IV antibiotics gain and kept me for 5 days. After I was released I had to stay on IV antibiotics for another 10 days then switched to oral antibiotics for another 2 weeks.

It's unlikely (but possible) that the 2nd abscess was really the 1st abscess that never went away and that's why they put me on a longer antibiotics protocol. I had another colonoscopy that only revealed diverticulosis/diverticulitis -- no polyps or anything else. I really don't know what caused the 2nd abscess -- I didn't even have pain.

The surgeon assigned to me in the hospital insisted that I have surgery to remove the damaged part of the colon. I got a 2nd opinion (who said the same thing). Because I never had the typical signs of diverticulitis and I really don't want another attack (and CT scans have alot of radiation and the heavy-duty antibiotics can have serious SEs) I decided to have surgery.

Last month I had a laparoscopic colectomy. The surgeon removed about 9 inches of colon. I recovered fairly quickly (4 weeks). He thinks I won't have another attack.

I'm pretty sure that chemo caused my diverticulitis. Maybe not the drugs themselves, but their SE of constipation.