Washington, D.C. can have a magnificently strange effect on people.
Four weeks ago, Jason Roe — a San Diego GOP campaign strategist who’s running Kevin Faulconer‘s San Diego mayoral race and frequents our fine city on business — was in Washington drinking and eating peanuts and popcorn. No joke, he was more focused on drinking than eating one night. Upon returning home to California, he began experiencing sharp stomach pains.
Initially, the doctors suspected appendicitis. But it was diverticulitis, a hereditary condition he didn’t know he had. He was diagnosed with a punctured polyp and it wasn’t pretty. Doctors put him on an all-liquid diet, and six days in the hospital later, he’d dropped 15 pounds.
“Fortunately, I didn’t need emergency surgery which would have required removal of part of my intestine and up to six months with a shit bag,” Roe said over breakfast this morning at Open City, where he dined on coffee and fruit — the fruit is part of his healthy diet, but he’s supposed to be cutting down on the coffee as well as popcorn and peanuts that set off his condition like a firecracker. “My tailored shirts don’t accommodate shit bags,” he deadpanned, while wearing an immaculate black and white pinstripe suit.
He reasoned, “It was unusual that I was eating nuts to begin with.”