Is a routine colonoscopy screening appropriate for 72 year old with history of diverticulitis?

Imho, you should discuss these issues with your specialists. Btw, I am 74 years of age and DO get my routine colonoscopies.

A "virtual colonoscopy" is non invasive. No toxic drink...no instruments inserted. The pre procedure drink has caused serious kidney damage, and in some patients kidney failure. A radiologist reads the colon ct (aka virtual colonoscopy) to identify any polyps. Polyps 'may' be malignant, however usually are not. I got my Grandpa to start having colonic irrigations weekly at 74. He's 85 now and still going most weeks. The times he doesn't go, he gets down, depressed, muddy illogical thinking etc etc. He knows himself the difference the colonic irrigations make. ..and catches the car service across himself. your md will no doubt speak in strong negative tones about colonic irrigations if you bring up the subject. despite the fact he/she will have no training or experience in this regard. The Max Gerson MD program for the used primarily for ill, & cancer patients is structured on daily coffee enemas & raw vegetable juices. It is also an excellent preventative and health building program. The Gerson program has been in existence for over 80 years now. Gerson wrote a clinical book on his experience of excellent results with 50 patients using the above. You can watch videos on youtube about the program if it is of interest. "The bowel is the first thing to get sick, and the last to get well" Hippocrates

I just read through everyone's replies and found it interesting that several folks will choose to forego colonoscopies at around my current age of 69. To me, that seems too young for otherwise relatively healthy individuals to stop having the procedure. 

Colorectal polyps may turn cancerous in 10 years, while today's 69 year old woman will average living an additional 17 years to age 87. (https://www.ssa.gov/oact/population/longevity.html.) 

My mother had never had a colonoscopy when she was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer at age 82. Surgery and chemo were successful in her case and she lived cancer-free to age 99.  Her last colonoscopy was at age 89, probably influenced by her own mom's age at death being 98.

The ideal cut-off age for colonoscopies is probably a decision best made jointly with your doctors, considering health, medical issues, family longevity, and the very small possibility of intestinal perforation.

Regarding colonoscopies, I wanted to add what had happened to my late uncle. He was urged to get a colonoscopy especially since he had a hereditary factor as my FIL (his brother) had colon cancer. My FIL then passed from Parkinson's Disease. But my uncle refused to get a colonoscopy at about age 77. He passed away from colon cancer.

I was reading some of the answers that people have given you here. When it comes to cancer screening you should take it seriously, no matter what you read in these forums and even what doctors say to you. Some doctors brush it off believe it or not and those patients have been found to have cancer. You should not put your life at risk by letting someone else decide for you. Cancer is a killer which doctors cannot control when it is in an advanced stage. Doctors have made mistakes by ordering tests that will not pick up the cancer. CT scans or a " CT enterography " or virtual colonoscopy as it is commonly called will not pick up polyps or obstructions by cancer. I have been told this by other doctors and I have seen it first hand. A local GI did this to my mother and he made a mistake, a big mistake. He told her the test was negative and to continue with the mild laxative. He was wrong. She had a blockage in her rectum and the tumor was causing her to bleed in the stool and causing her lot of pain in addition to those changes in her blood such as low hemoglobin, low red blood cells, etc. He was an idiot !!!!!!!!!! She was having these changes in her blood before and as a GI he should have foreseen this. This was a red flag. He only ended up causing more harm to my mother. A good doctor would never choose a virtual colonoscopy because of the reasons stated here to you. A good doctor will choose the regular colonoscopy because that is the " Gold Standard " as some of them call it. To you I say if you want to play with fire just because the procedure is heard to be uncomfortable for some go ahead don't do it. You will only have yourself to blame later on, or may be you are just tired of life or don't want to live anymore. I dont know. I had it done two years ago. I am 50 now and they found two small polyps in my large intestine. I plan to have another one soon because I want to live. If by chance they find 20 or 50 polyps then I might even having my colon removed if that is what it will take to stop it. People have done it. My grandmom lived beyond 100 and she had it done three times incredibly all three times she was negative for polyps. You have to be vigilant about your health. No one else will give a crap and if you bump into a boring and indifferent doctor who thinks you have lived enough he will of course say to you why do you need it . A lot of doctors discriminate if you are old, if you are too sick, if you are in a wheelchair, etc. Believe me I have been taking my parents to them for many years every single week. I have seen it. They prefer to see only young patients with not too many problems or else they will say to you to go back to the hospital. I have heard everything. When it comes to cancer screening you don't have time to play because cancer does not play no matter what you hear. Cancer is death. Period. Don't play with Cancer. You may play around with other diseases, but with cancer once it declares war on you it will not stop. Good luck.

For goodness' sake.

The OP IS taking screening seriously. The recommendation is that he should have a colonoscopy every ten years, his last was seven years ago, he was clear. So, conclusion 1, it can wait three years at least.

Any symptoms, any changes, any weight loss, any clinical signs causing concern? No. Even the family history, which often would be a reason for extra precautions, has been ruled out as an issue - there are no genetic factors in the other family members' disease.* So, conclusion 2, no occasion for a (non-routine, actually) colonoscopy.

In the absence of any clear reason to go ahead with a colonoscopy now, the OP should cancel this appointment.

If he is still concerned, and I agree that we all of us should be alert to risks, there are other things he can do.

He could consult a dietitian about minimising his risk.
He could ask for a stool sample to be investigated.
He could ask his PCP to keep an eye on basic statistics including, I agree again, his blood count.

*Just a thought: genetics has been ruled out, but what about other factors these family members and you yourself might have in common? Traditional foods, environmental exposures, anything like that?