Disclaimer: I will be discussing some sensitive stuff in my posts…. If you cannot handle blood, mucus, bowel movements and other bodily functions, this blog may not be for you. For the guys reading, menstrual cycles will be discussed. My hormones were so affected by this that it must be added. Fair Warning! Also, remember I am not a medical professional. I am writing about my own experiences and what has worked for me. Please consult a medical professional with your own health concerns/needs.
Growing up, it was very difficult for me to sit through classes at school because I found the topics too broad and boring. One example would be history class…like who wanted to learn all those dates, events, and places? As an adult, I began to appreciate history (although American History still bores me). I discovered that I enjoy when I read about people and their personal lives at a particular point in time. It prompts me to want to know more. I hope to do something similar with this blog. There is so much information about health, wellness, diet, and mental health that people can get overwhelmed (like I do with history events and dates) and do not want to go any further with it. I want to put that personal component to it. I will tell you about my experiences trying to navigate it all. I hope it inspires you to want to know more about all the topics that I will discuss. I want to start those conversations. I want you to be armed with the right resources for you and your family. No one should have to go through what I did.
I must admit I have thought about doing this blog for a while but just could never bring myself to do it. Something came over me this past week and I knew that it was the time to start. So, after I posted my first post, I was like “Oh shit…where in my story do I start?”. I could start from the beginning…you know “A long, long time ago” in the 1960’s, but I think I will get my point across better if I start with something more recent and work the background in from there.
So today I will talk about SIBO (Small Intestine Bacteria Overgrowth). There is a lot of information to cover, so I will start with what it is and how it has affected me. This SIBO discussion will be done in multiple parts (I need you to keep coming back, but honestly, I want you to be engaged and to be able to digest what I am writing). I will try to keep it simple and hopefully we can have a few laughs along the way. I can laugh about my struggles now, but at the time…there was no laughing.
A quick google search will pull over 11,500,000 results on the topic of SIBO. It is condition that is affecting more and more people. I am on several Facebook groups and it pains me to see two-year old’s being diagnosed. The Mayo Clinic explains that SIBO occurs when there is an abnormal increase in the overall bacteria population of the small intestines. (It is important to note…. your large intestines should have most of the bacteria) It is usually types of bacteria that is not found in your small intestines but rather your large intestines. Some people even have what they call LIBO (large intestine bacteria overgrowth) or what most call dysbiosis. I will list what the typical symptoms are and what you will find on most google searches. Let me be clear this is by no means an exhaustive list. If we followed this list, I would feel better by now.
Signs/Symptoms as seen on the Mayo Clinic‘s webpage:
Loss of Appetite: I wish! This did not happen to me. I was hungry all the time. I felt like I was a garbage disposal and let’s not talk about sugar cravings.
Abdominal Pain: Yup, I can attest to this. Months before I became ill, I had so much pain in my right hip and lower right side. (More to come on this type of pain…it was inflammation of the ileocecal valve area of my intestines) Also, I had pain in my middle back near my spine. Can’t explain this but it eventually went away with treatment. Probably another area of inflammation in my intestines.
Nausea: Not really an issue for me…kind of goes along with I want to eat everything in sight.
Bloating: Hell yea! If I didn’t change into clothes before I ate, my ass was not getting changed. This did change when I became extremely ill (more to come)
Uncomfortable feeling of fullness after eating: Oh, this must be why I felt my stomach in my throat and ears. The pressure in my throat and ears was awful.
Diarrhea: Not at my sickest but I can tell you I think I have had SIBO for years and have had months of nonstop diarrhea and weight loss, but doctors told me there was nothing wrong with me. Hmmmmm!!
Unintentional Weight Loss: Yup, I got down to 95 lbs. at my sickest. It scared the hell out of me.
Malnutrition: I can’t tell you how much hair I have lost through this whole ordeal. The muscle wasting is not much better.
So, these are the symptoms the Mayo Clinic lists. My own personal experiences will tell you there are so many more. I know I have been suffering for years with this condition (undiagnosed) but when things really went downhill a little over two years ago, my main symptom was burping. I don’t mean small burps – I am talking I would put “men having a burping contest after a night of drinking” to shame. They would come out of nowhere. Then came the brain fog. It is a miracle I managed to get up, go to work, and function every day. I don’t know how I did it. This was not the “I forgot something” brain fog…this was the “I’m looking at you and you are speaking but you sound like you are far away and I know I must respond to you, but I do not know what you said or how to speak back” type of brain fog. I wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep but even that took too much energy. I could do a whole blog post on anxiety and panic attacks. I felt like my body was on high alert 24/7. I would wake up in the middle of the night gasping for air. I was an all-around mess. I would get my period for two weeks, stop, and then get it again two weeks later. I never got hives but I would get welts on my skin where I touched.
As you can see there are so many signs and symptoms (and believe me there are more) and it really is not a well-known condition. It took begging and pleading to get doctors to listen to me. Trying to convince the doctors to take me seriously and then order the tests I needed was the biggest fiasco. Now I must laugh over the whole situation but at the time I was absolutely disgusted with the treatment I received. That is another whole blog post. I will let you know when to bring the popcorn because that will be an interesting read.
I consider myself one of the lucky ones. I am not running to the bathroom like a lot of people that have this condition. Each person has their own unique experience with it. However, after speaking to many people who have SIBO, we all agree that it is hell, and we wouldn’t wish it on our worst enemies.
See, the thing is… it is just not that you have SIBO, you can have different types of it. SIBO is a symptom of some other underlying cause. So, you must put your detective cap on and search for the needle in the haystack. Yup everyone has a root cause and believe me it is not always obvious. Could it get any more confusing? Stay tuned… in the next blog post we will discuss:
1. Types of SIBO
2. How do you diagnose this condition?
Live Healthy. Live Happy.
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