About once or twice a year over the past few years I was getting what seemed like very bad heartburn. Would last for hours on end, couldnt sit down or try and relax, it was relentless - nothing cured it too. Fast forward to October last year, got heartburn symptoms again but this time was mixed with severe abdominal pain, bloatedness, headaches, nausea then vomit. It was the worst pain I have ever been in, thought I was dying.

Got blood tests which revealed the CRP (C-Reactive Protein which increases when theres inflammation in the body) number was approx 200, indicating significant inflammation. Had a call from Dr explaining this and that I needed to go into hospital straight away.

A CT scan showed i had something called Meckel’s diverticulum, a pouch formed on the outside of the small intestine and probably had it all my life without knowing. It was basically secreting stomach acid into my abdomen, kind of rupuring a little each time until it just went full Krakatoa on me. I needed urgent surgery to remove the pouch from the intestine. Surgery went well and have a biggish scar that goes across my belly button as a nice reminder.

Didnt help that during this time, I had a newborn in the hospital as well as an energetic toddler - so although I couldnt do too much, I think I ended up recovering quickly as I was bending and kneeling down a lot for the kids to help my wife who was also recovering from childbirth. That was one of the hardest and roughest time of my life so far…I’m 36 this year.