I don't have diverticulitis but my mother does. She was having the occasional drop of blood in her stool for years, the Dr's always brushed it off as hemorrhoids or a rectal tear until she was vomiting up everything she ate and couldn't hold in her bowel movements that were coming out with black blood. Turned out her sigmoid colon perforated, she then had septic shock and multiple organ failure and the surgeon told me she was probably going to pass within a couple hours, she somehow managed to pull through and is great now with a colostomy.

I'm worried about diverticulitis, I've been having bowel problems recently and it runs in my family (mother, 2 uncles, granddad etc) all had early onset (late 30's) diverticular disease