So a year ago I started experiencing SIBO symptoms that went from occasional bloating on random days to bloating all day after every meal and even after exercising.
My country offers a SIBO test that takes about 40days roughly to come back with results which seemed insane, considering we all know how depressing and discouraging living with SIBO is. I went to a GI that diagnosed me with chronic colitis and gastritis but soon after I realized that stuff that should cause discomfort if I truly had those conditions wasn’t a thing… I had no issue with coffee and no issue with hard liquor (however any sugar, milks, potatoes or any carbs really or any other alchohol would send me into a week of fighting brain fog and sever bloating accompanied with burping) Throughout this entire time I could not pass gas downward. I never experienced true constipation but it would alternate between hard to pass and way too easy…
So I took it into my own hands to treat it with antimicrobial herbals. I added motility agents and I upped the doses slowly. However end of February I was diagnosed with an ovary infection which required me to take a 9 day course of Azytromicin. I was also given an antifungal to take with it. On the second day I was already in the ER with what appeared to be a bad allergic reaction. However this incident made me rethink the way I treat my body and how many stuff I’ve been putting in my system the past few months. So I dropped everything apart from the antibiotic.
After the antibiotic I felt surprisingly better gut wise even tho this is not even close to a first line treatment with SIBO. However soon after i found myself bloating up again until I realized that my stomach had shrunk so much that it was due to “overeating” (not in the standard sense but more so that my body couldn’t keep up with the amount of volume even though it was regular meals). I’d also like to say that I kept a strict diet with only eggs and meats for a while after stopping the antibiotics as well.
After some time, my new GI told me it was time to reintroduce gluten and test for celiac as I also suffer from Hashimoto. However on the 3rd day I was already fighting for my life with symptoms and discomfort… So I guess what I am getting at is that I accidently cured my SIBO and also accidently found out what caused it in the first place and that was that my stomach was so severely damaged from untreated celiac diseases that no enzymes were being produced to digest my food which in turn sat and fermented and so on.
Honestly I was pretty discouraged and depressed for a long time and felt incredible guilt for weighing down on my family for emotional support and if you think there’s no way to get better, honestly just give it time.
I also want to encourage people to stick through all of the treatments BUT also listen to your body. If your body is too tired and physically tells you it’s bad enough off all this stuff that goes inside, listen to it.
In my opinion we as humans were meant to be able to self regulate our bodies without crazy external help but sometimes in the times that we live we need to add an extra hand and help it out (however not poison ourselves)
I also found out that stress and anxiety were so deeply routed in my stomach issues which I assume is the case for so many people here in this ever repeating cycle of eat -treat - look for symptoms - be afraid of this food forever.
I would also like to say that I do still struggle with occasional bellow belly button bloating that comes and goes unrelated to food but it’s only been a couple of months and it surely is nothing like my symptoms before so it does get better!