Towards the start of my journey when I was at my absolute worst and experienced a real lack of support from medical professionals, I began to avidly read various articles and follow a number of blogs discussing IBS and digestive health. The term ‘SIBO’ popped up quite frequently but this was mostly referred to by American writers and there did not appear to be much mention of it on NHS websites.
It stands for Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth and is a condition that causes similar symptoms to that of IBS including Abdominal Bloating, Cramping, Diarrhea and Constipation all of which I have been regularly struggling with at one point or another. It was also a condition that was briefly mentioned during one of my sessions with my dietitian and something that she suggested I could get tested for if I felt that my symptoms were not getting any better after following a strict Low FODMAP diet.
I begun to do a little bit of reading up on the condition and what I found out fascinated me. I know, I am such a geek! Apparently bacteria is only supposed to be found in the large intestine and colon with very little existing in the small intestine of healthy people. However, for people like me whose digestive system is a bit up the left (to put it rather nicely) bacteria can begin to populate particularly due to slow digestion of food and therefore cause a bacterial overgrowth.
As I was keen on carrying out the breath tests for Lactose and Fructose anyway, I decided that I might as well complete the SIBO breath test too. I needed to follow a similar diet to the Low Residue Diet which I had to follow prior to my Colonoscopy and then fast for a minimum of 12 hours prior to the test.
I arrived at the Breath Test department and was greeted by a waiting room full of other people. There, I was given some crazily strong mouthwash along with instructions on how the breath tests would be collected. It seemed simple enough but I did need to repeat a few of the samples as I wasn’t completing it properly. Basically, they need to collect a sample of the remaining breath when you breathe out so my head got very dizzy with taking lots of deep breaths every 30 minutes. Having eaten very little over the past 36 hours did not help either so I spent most of the time in the department suffering from a headache. In between the breath samples, I needed to keep a note of any symptoms that I was experiencing too marking them on a scale of 1-10.
I was given my test results before leaving the department and THANKFULLY, I do not have SIBO which is such a relief as I wasn’t up for a course of antibiotics. Having spent almost a year and a substantial amount of money on Symprove trying to make my gut happier, I am not keen on going back to square one!
Back in on Monday for Lactose Test. For now – I think I deserve a weekend of looking after me!!
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