r/SIBO

I just found out Almond flour isn't safe for sibo and I've been using it for 10 days straight and I also started taking antimicrobials 10d ago (oregano, neem,berberine) I've been eating almond every morning and evening to substitute sweets and I've been so bloated lately when I searched why Ai told me the reason was "bad bacteria are dying" but now I found out Almond flour is the reason and I'm literally having tears in my eyes,so all these 10 days were a waste?

My take as a Chemist, not a Doctor, note I maybe wrong.

This covers, chemistry, physics and fluid mechanics etc of what I see is happening based on scientific principle’s and my background as a chartered chemist specialising in pressurised gas and liquid for over 25 years.

I touch upon why I think some symptoms occur - flying, scuba diving, exercise.

I touch upon relief mechanisms to temporarily help - pre-Botox.

I touch upon my experience…misdiagnosis, ineffective treatments.

I got my English corrected by AI.

SYMPTOMS INCLUDE…

Based on the medical literature, clinical findings, and chemistry / physics / mechanical principles associated with the inability to burp (R-CPD) and subsequent gastrointestinal gas retention, the comprehensive list of symptoms includes:

Primary Functional Deficit:

Complete inability to belch or burp.
Difficulty or inability to vomit (or doing so only with extreme difficulty/strain).

Upper GI and Thoracic Symptoms:

Loud gurgling/croaking noises:
Socially awkward, involuntary sounds originating from the chest and lower neck as trapped air strains against a closed upper esophageal sphincter.

Chest pain and retrosternal discomfort:
Pressure trapped in the esophagus and upper stomach mimicking cardiac pain.

Nausea and throat tightness:
A persistent feeling of fullness, pressure, or a "lump" in the throat, especially severe after eating or drinking.

Abdominal and Lower GI Symptoms:

Severe abdominal bloating and distension: Pronounced swelling of the abdomen that progressively worsens throughout the day (often described by patients as looking several months pregnant by evening).

Cramping and abdominal pain:
Sharp or dull colicky pain caused by stretching of the intestinal walls and mucosal ischemia.

Excessive flatulence:
The body's forced compensatory mechanism to vent the large volume of trapped air that travels down the entire gastrointestinal tract.

Constipation-like symptoms & obstruction:
Difficulty passing stool due to compressible gas pockets acting as hydraulic shock absorbers, stalled transit, and secondary stool hardening.

Compression of surrounding organs and stricture-like effects:
Massive gas-driven distension creates an internal mass effect, physically compressing adjacent abdominal and thoracic organs (such as the diaphragm, stomach, small bowel, and inferior vena cava).
This external organ compression can restrict diaphragmatic excursion (causing shortness of breath), impair venous return, and create functional "strictures" or bottlenecks where compressed loops of the bowel pinch or kink against one another under intense pressure.

Acute/Mechanical Complications (Advanced Progression):
Intense, acute colicky spasms:
Resulting from the bowel attempting to force contents past functional gas blocks.

Vomiting and reflex autonomic distress:
Triggered by extreme backward pressure.

Volvulus / Bowel Twisting:
Extreme rotational torsion (such as a 540-degree colonic volvulus) caused by massive distension, buoyancy, and mechanical torque - explained below.

Psychosocial Impacts:
Social inhibition and anxiety:
Resulting from embarrassing, loud gurgling noises, uncontrollable flatulence, and severe visible bloating.

Also pressure changes.

External Pressure Changes and Pain (Boyle's Law):

The Chemistry and Physics (Boyle's Law):
According to Boyle’s Law, the volume of a given mass of gas is inversely proportional to its pressure (P_1V_1 = P_2V_2).
When external environmental pressure drops, trapped gas inside a fixed, closed system (such as a patient with R-CPD whose upper esophageal sphincter and GI tract are trapped) must expand.

Flying on a Plane / Climbing Mountains (Altitude):
As an aircraft ascends or a person climbs a mountain, atmospheric pressure decreases significantly.
For a healthy person, this minor gas expansion is easily relieved by burping or passing gas.
For someone with R-CPD or an unvented system, that trapped internal gas expands dramatically inside the stomach and intestines, causing abdominal distension, intense pressure, and acute pain.

Scuba Diving:
During descent in scuba diving, ambient surrounding pressure increases, compressing gas spaces; however, upon ascent, external pressure rapidly drops.
If gas is trapped in the GI tract and cannot escape upward or downward due to functional blockages, ascending even a few feet causes the trapped gas to violently expand, leading to severe, debilitating gastrointestinal barotrauma ("stomach cramps" or "gut squeeze").

Exercise:
During intense physical exertion, internal intra-abdominal pressure naturally rises due to the contraction of abdominal wall and core muscles. When combined with unvented gas and a compromised venting route, this muscular compression squeezes the already pressurised, gas-distended loops of the bowel, exacerbating wall stretch, triggering mechanoreceptors, and causing sharp cramping pain.

BUT WHY…

Henry's Law:
In a healthy individual, excess gas is routinely released upwards via belching.

Because a patient with R-CPD cannot open the upper esophageal sphincter to vent gas, air accumulates continuously in the stomach and esophagus.

As gas volume climbs and becomes trapped, the internal partial pressure of gas inside the stomach increases significantly.

According to Henry’s Law (which states that the amount of gas dissolved in a liquid is directly proportional to the partial pressure of that gas above it), this escalating pressure forces a higher concentration of gases (like carbon dioxide and air) to remain dissolved in solution within the liquid chyme and gastric contents.

As this pressurised chyme moves downward into the intestines and colon, any subsequent minor drops in local pressure or changes in environment cause that supersaturated solution to rapidly "outgas"—releasing micro-bubbles of gas directly inside the lower GI tract.
This compounds the volume of gas already trapped downstream.

Why Trapped Gas Eventually Leads to Severe Pains:

Intestinal Wall Stretching and Mechanoreceptor Activation:
The wall of the colon is densely lined with stretch-sensitive mechanoreceptors (tension receptors).
When unvented gas accumulates and distends the lumen, it forcefully stretches the smooth muscle fibers beyond their physiological limits, triggering pain signals sent directly to the central nervous system via visceral afferent nerves.

Ischemia and Wall Tension:
Driven by Laplace’s Law, as the radius of the bowel increases due to gas distension, the wall tension escalates exponentially.
This severe tension can compress the tiny micro-vessels (capillaries) supplying blood to the intestinal wall, causing localised ischemia (reduced blood flow and oxygen deprivation), which is acutely painful.

Spasms and Colic:
The enteric nervous system perceives the abnormal over-distension as an obstruction emergency, triggering violent, uncoordinated, and high-pressure muscle spasms (colic) as the bowel desperately tries to force the gas and contents past a blocked or non-functional exit route.

The intersection of the colon's normal physiology, fluid dynamics / chemistry / physics, and the physical properties of gas explains how trapped gas severely exacerbates constipation and mechanical obstruction:

The Colon's Water Extraction Role:
A primary function of the large intestine is to absorb water and electrolytes, compacting liquid waste into solid feces.
Under normal conditions, a proper fluid-to-solid gradient allows gas bubbles produced by digestion to coalesce, migrate, and naturally "break out" of the fecal stream to be expelled.

The Compressibility Problem (The "Slurry Pump" Effect):
While liquids and solids are incompressible (meaning muscle squeezes directly transfer force to push them forward), gas is highly compressible.

When peristalsis attempts to squeeze a gas-filled segment, the muscle energy is wasted compressing the air pocket rather than propelling contents, acting like a hydraulic system with an air bubble.

Disrupted Transit and Stool Hardening:
Compressible gas pockets act as dead zones that absorb mechanical pushing forces, stalling the transit of waste.

Because transit slows down and stalls, the stool lingers longer in the colon, allowing it to excessively absorb water and turn into hard, unyielding masses.

The Mechanical Deadlock:
As gas accumulates and distends the bowel, it becomes trapped between segments of over-dehydrated stool.

The gas cannot easily "break out" because it is buffered by compacted blocks of feces, and the stool cannot move because the compressible gas pockets absorb all the mechanical force—ultimately, worst case, leading to severe distension, functional obstruction, and predisposing the bowel to twisting (volvulus).

Upward Venting Relieves Downstream Pressure:

Releasing gas upward (via natural burping, air vomiting or a functional venting route like an open NG tube) acts as the primary pressure-relief valve for the entire gastrointestinal tract.

By venting gas at the top, it prevents the progressive accumulation and downstream force of air that would otherwise travel into the colon, causing severe distension, high pressure, and mechanical complications like a volvulus.

Air Vomiting:

The Phenomenon:
When extreme pressure accumulates in the upper GI tract due to an inability to burp, patients often resort to "air vomiting" (either artificially by putting fingers down their throat or involuntarily triggered by extreme physiological pressure).

The Mechanism:
This involves a forceful retching or regurgitation reflex where the body attempts to relieve the catastrophic internal pressure by expelling a massive rush of trapped air.

Why The Role of a NG Tube helps in Pressure Relief:

A nasogastric (NG) tube placed in the stomach or upper gastrointestinal tract acts as an artificial venting mechanism, allowing continuous pressure release for patients who cannot burp.

Depressurizing the System:
By leaving the NG tube open to the atmosphere (open drainage), trapped gas can continuously escape before it builds up, preventing the gastrointestinal tract from turning into a closed, pressurised system.

Allowing the System to "Reset":
Unclamping or leaving the cap off the NG tube reduces gaseous distension, relieves acute abdominal pain, and allows the bowel walls, fluid dynamics, and pressure gradients to decompress and normalise.

Restoring Normal Bowel Function and Motility:

When an NG tube is left open / or air vomiting takes place etc both functioning to vent trapped gas, it removes the mechanical obstruction of compressed air.

This depressurisation relieves the "shock-absorber" effect on peristalsis, allowing (helping) normal, coordinated muscle contractions to resume, smooth out propulsion, and successfully move stool and fluids forward to restore regular bowel movements.

And here is an overview of the chemistry, physics, and mechanical principles regarding how I see trapped gas causes, worst case, the colon to twist (volvulus) in a patient with an inability to burp (R-CPD):

Creation of a Closed or Pressurised System:
An inability to burp creates a mechanical failure where gas entering normally through eating, drinking, or swallowing cannot escape upward.

When a nasogastric (NG) tube—an alternative venting route—is closed, clamped, or capped, the gastrointestinal tract becomes a sealed, pressurised system.

Gas Volume and Pressure (The Ideal Gas Law):
As gas continuously accumulates inside this closed system without an exit route, the fundamental chemistry and physics described by the Ideal Gas Law (PV=nRT) dictate that pressure, volume, or both must increase, causing the bowel to expand.

Distension and Wall Stress (Laplace's Law):
The accumulation of gas causes physical distension and volume expansion of the bowel.

According to Laplace's Law (Hoop Stress), as the radius of the colon increases, the internal wall stress increases exponentially, leading to a thinning of the bowel wall and a loss of structural stability.

Structural Lengthening and Redundancy:
Chronic or acute distension does not only expand the diameter of the colon; it also elongates it and creates redundancy, which are established surgical precursors to bowel twisting.

Buoyancy and Rotational Torque:
Gas-filled structures have a lower density, making distended segments more buoyant and mobile, behaving much like a gas-filled balloon.

Uneven gas distribution across a partially fixed and partially mobile colon generates uneven internal air distribution, creating "rotational torque" and structural instability similar to how an unbalanced submarine tilts and rotates.

Final Mechanical Torsion:
Worst case - Driven by this internal increasing gas pressure, wall stress, and rotational torque, an unstable, elongated bowel undergoes extreme rotational torsion, resulting in a severe clinical events such as a 540-degree colonic volvulus.

My experience - not personally, but those that know know………

Mis-Diagnosis (as experienced from Doctors not knowing about this disorder) include………….

Hirschsprungs
Tummy migraines
Cyclical vomiting syndrome
Floppy colon
DNA disorder
Aerophagia
Pseudo obstruction
Food allergies
SIBO and IBS
Gastroparesis
Dysmotility disorder
Functional constipation
Colon architecture issue
Neuromuscular disorder
Myopathy

Treatments, investigations etc…….., which don’t show anything….. don’t improve anything………..can included……………………

Laxatives (2020 and 2021)
Ultrasound (2020)
“Rear end” Tube placed for decompression (2020 and 2021)
Two biopsies for Hirschsprung’s disease (2020 and 2022)
Anti-spasm tablets for stomach (2020 and 2021)
Painkillers (2020 and 2021)
Piresteen Washouts (2020 and 2021)
Numerous x-rays (2019 to present)
FODMAP diet (2020 and 2021 and 2022)
Gluten / wheat diet. (2020 and 2021 and 2022)
Greens / onions / dairy / fish / wheat diet. (2020 and 2021 and 2022)
Standard Bloods (2020 and 2021 and 2022)
Genetic Bloods for REN2 (2022)
Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) antibiotics - Rifaximin for almost 200 days, including 60 consecutive days (2021 and 2022)
Numerous Barium swallow / enema x-rays (2021 to 2024)
Multiple colonoscopies (2021 and 2022)
Multiple laparoscopies (2021 and 2022)
G-Tube placed into intestine (did nothing) (2021)
Colostomy stoma placed for decompression (did nothing) (2021)
Anal manometry (2022)
Colon manometry (2022)
Gastric Emptying (2022)
pH impedance (2022)
Upper and lower colon biopsies (again) (2022)

Then, eventually got the Carbonate burp test, which was positive…(2022)

Eventually got diagnosed with an inability to burp.

Colon distended for months needlessly…..

Then his colon twisted and he given an ileostomy stoma in April 2023…….medical instructions not being followed, his Naso Gastric was being clamped closed - stopping the gas from escaping………..gas was trapped inside colon, pressure increased and twisted colon 540 degrees…..he ended up needing 5 hours of life saving and life changing surgery and got an ileostomy stoma in April 2023…….

Close to ending it. Bloating causing back pain now.

Worst part is I feel so fatigued and skin itchy.

Did anyone screenshot the treatment options before siboinfo.com started charging $1000 to access the website? I used to be inspired with the open source info this website provided. Pretty disappointed about the change.

Looking for the hydrogen herbal treatments.

Thanks!

I had been taking *S. boulardii* intermittently for diarrhea; I had another bout starting July 8th and took one capsule daily until July 10th. On the evening of July 10th, while eating, I felt a sensation like a heavy stone in my abdomen. At first, I thought it would pass, but for about 40 days now, I have been suffering from a bulging swelling above my navel (present even in the morning on an empty stomach), excessive gas, an inability to have a bowel movement even when straining (I have been using Macrogol for 40 days), and extreme intestinal sluggishness. I took 1200 mg of Rifaximin, Kreon, and Rabeprazole for two weeks, but the problem was absolutely not resolved. I used to be an active person who exercised, but now I have reached the point of considering suicide; please help me.

Just wanted to see if anyone else had the same symptoms as me. I had h pylori eradicated almost a year ago and my gut has never been fully back to normal. I was ok for a few months then around month 5 or 6 I started getting super gassy with worse smelling stool that would sometimes be greasy and pretty bad smelling like worse than normal. I am either constipated or with diarrhea and the ends of my poop will be rigged looking and a peanut butter brown color. I also am super gassy passing gas constantly sometimes I dont even use the bathroom its just gas. I have been losing weight around 6 pounds in a couple weeks and I have uncomfortable gas pains on my lower left stomach that can radiate down my pelvic area and left leg. When I press my stomach it feels like gas bubbles and will feel a little sore. The last 3 months is when these symptoms really have kicked in.

I have had sibo for 6 years (possibly longer). A year ago I developed insomnia all of the sudden. Nothing changed in my routine, but I can't sleep : my mind is racing, I just toss and turn and I feel I'm just napping even when I sleep. Also I wake up like every 2 hours. I usually fall asleep at 5, 6 am approximately and it's always with a medication. But the medication makes me feel horrible, it's Xanax, so I would like to avoid it. Melatonin does nothing anymore for me unfortunately.

Does anyone have any advice? Any recommendations?

Sorry if I misspelled or wrote something incorrectly, I am very tired.

Consuming fruits specfically like oranges, kiwis, grapes. Basically juicy, sweet or sour fruits triggers loose stools and stomach cramps. Anyone experience something similar?

I assumed its the sugar, fiber but I dont react like this to chocolate, or carrots.

Some type of overgrowth causing this reaction?

I would love to create a thread of detailed SIBO success stories for those of us who are still struggling.

I feel like we often hear, “I cured my SIBO with oil of oregano...betaine HCL..neem, etc” or “antibiotics worked for me,” but we're missing all the information that would actually make that experience useful like what type of SIBO they had, their breath test numbers, exactly what they took, doses, timing, diet, how long treatment took, and whether they actually stayed better.

If you've successfully treated your SIBO, please copy/paste the format below and fill in as much as you can remember.

SIBO TYPE + DIAGNOSIS

• Type: Hydrogen / Methane (IMO) / Hydrogen Sulfide / Mixed
• Breath test numbers:
• Glucose or lactulose test:
• Main symptoms:
• How long you had SIBO:
• Suspected root cause (if known):

TREATMENT

Antibiotics:

• Which antibiotic(s)?
• Dose and times per day?
• How many days per round?
• How many rounds did you need?

Herbals/antimicrobials:

• Exact supplements + brands:
• Dose/quantity:
• How many times per day:
• What time(s) did you take them?
• With food or empty stomach?
• How long did you take them?
• Did you take them together or introduce them gradually?

Other supplements/medications:

• Prokinetics:
• Digestive enzymes/HCl/bile support:
• Fiber/PHGG:
• Probiotics:
• Binders:
• Anything else:

DIET

• What diet did you follow?
• What foods did you actually eat?
• What foods did you completely avoid?
• Did you space meals? If so, how many hours?
• Did you fast? If so, how long and how often?
• Did you change your diet during or after treatment?

GUT REBUILD / AFTER TREATMENT

• Did you do a gut-rebuilding phase?
• Probiotics (please include strains/brands):
• Prebiotics/fiber:
• Fermented foods:
• Butyrate/tributyrin:
• Motility support/prokinetics:
• Other supplements:
• How long did you do this?
• How did you reintroduce foods?

RESULTS

• When did you first notice improvement?
• How long until you felt significantly better?
• Did you retest? If so, what were your new numbers?
• How long have you been well?
• Can you eat normally now?
• Have you relapsed?

MOST IMPORTANT

• What do you believe made the biggest difference?
• What did you try that didn't work?
• What made you worse?
• If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

I know this asks for a LOT of information, but that's the point. I would love for this to become a really useful collection of detailed success stories where we can actually compare what worked for different types of SIBO instead of just hearing “herbals worked for me.” I have searched and searched and read tons of stories but they tend to leave out specifics and I would love something I could actually use.

This isn't meant to be medical advice or a list of protocols to blindly copy. Different causes and types of SIBO can require very different treatment. But for those of us who are really suffering, I think seeing exactly what other people did, and especially what led to long-term recovery, could be incredibly helpful and give people some hope. A huge, huge thank you in advance!!!!!

I did antibiotic treatment 6 weeks ago for methane dominant sibo and it put me in so much severe pain, I could barely eat, I couldn’t stay up, I was in so much pain I had to go to the er which to no surprise couldn’t do anything, nothing was helping my pain, antispasmodics, OTC options, Tylenol, even a damn narcotic that the er gave me (tramadol) . 6 weeks later (now) I’m still having pain but has lessened because I started Nortriptlyine at a low dose. I’m constantly fatigued, I’m tired of fighting my own body, I miss being pain free it’s been 5 months of these stomach issues and the only relieved I’ve gotten was when I practically forced myself to go on a trip to see my long distance boyfriend because I was so determined to see him, I had pain there but I also had moments where I was pain free and it felt amazing. When I got home I practically felt I was at square 1 again, I had a repeat breath test yesterday and I can’t stop stressing because if it’s positive I don’t want to do treatment again, I’m genuinely terrified of how I was bedridden in severe pain and screaming and crying. I can’t do it again. I’ve been trying to find my root cause of sibo and it’s so stressful because it’s a multi cause thing, I know motility is one of the big major ones and I plan to start ginger + artichoke supplements because I tried Motegrity and it put me in way to much pain, I don’t know if I have leaky gut and everyone keeps telling me “oh if you don’t get a gi map test then you’ll never know what’s wrong and you’ll just suffer” and it puts me under more and more stress because I can’t afford a functional medicine doctor at all. I feel so tired and stressed to a point this is making me wonder if I’ll ever be normal again or if I’ll just be a test subject to more and more tests at my doctors offices or if I’ll even ever find my root cause or I’ll be stuck this miserable for years. I’m genuinely at an edge where I feel like this is all to complicated and I don’t even know what to do. Even if my sibo is gone I most likely have months or even years of gut damage to fix and I don’t even know what to fix other then my motility. Low fodmap diets did nothing but make me more miserable and made me practically avoid food if anything , I miss my old life and don’t wanna think I’m stuck like this..

I started on the herbal microbials (for five weeks) and even included a pHase 2 biofilm disrupter product while waiting to get Rifaximin from India to pair with the Neomycin. I switched to this for another two weeks.

I am still very bloated and constipated 10 days after finishing all this, unless I take a strong cup of Senna tea every 2-3 days.

I am on a low fodmap diet since finishing treatment. I am taking ginger extract and artichoke extract at night for motility. I don't hear any gut noises anymore.

I take Miralax every day and am now taking 800 mg of Magnesium oxide at night to help with the constipation - and still nothing.

I called my GI's office and asked for Linzess and another breath test, explaining what is going on. Three days later, the medical assistant leaves me a message wanting more info and saying that the PA thinks my treatment didn't help much.

Now I can't sleep. I don't want to throw more pills at this.

I hope she at least orders me a breath test and doesn't just assume the treatment didn't help much at all - because I am also being assured by Google that bloating can be a lingering problem, even if the bugs were wiped out (or mostly wiped out) due to good bacteria also being wiped out. But this is not normal bloating. This is like 6 months pregnant type bloating still.

I just think I need a motility support first off and I feel like this stupid GI practice should have had some kind of post-antibiotic treatment protocol in place. Instead, I've had to do all the research and try and figure what I need and then explain myself twice.

Did you have extreme bloating still but still found out you actually killed a lot or all of the bugs with IMO? Once you got your guts moving again, did the bloating resolve?

Is this normal? I've never taken Xifaxan before because my insurance wouldn't pay for it, so I had to take Bactrim instead (4 times in 4 years). My SIBO eventually came back each time, albeit I did get a little better each time.

I started having a bad flare back in June that has just never gone away. Fortunately, this year I got new insurance and a new doctor who after hearing my history gave me an IBS diagnosis and a 42-day prescription for Xifaxan (550mg per day). It seems like a long time! My Bactrim scripts were all for 10-14 days only. Also, the Xifaxan cost me $550. Without insurance it would have been $3300, according to the pharmacist. I swallowed hard and paid for it because somehow I still have hope.

I'm looking forward to seeing how well this works, but has anyone else taken Xifaxan for that long? Farewell to my microbiome, such as it was, I guess.

Edit: The label says 550 mg three times per day, not once per day. Also, isn't there a risk of getting c.diff from taking an antibiotic that long?

I have commented on a handful of posts. I have suffered for 6 years, seeing doctor after doctor and they said I’m healthy and maybe just stressed. Well after living with it for so long I decided this year that there’s no way this is normal life so I decided to make a goal to get better. Through AI research and help of a family member we thought my gut was the problem. I went on an antibiotic for a UTI and all of a sudden I felt great for a couple weeks before going right back to normal. The stool test from Genova came back with dysbiosis score of 10/10.

Symptoms:
Brain Fog
Depression
Joint Pain
Loose Stool
Gas
Muscle Twitching (I HATE THIS ONE SO MUCH)
Weakness / Fatigue

I have searched this Reddit page and seen people with similar symptoms but I struggle finding any resolution or things that helped.

I am currently on low fodmap while trying to repair gut with a doctor guiding me though. It has helped but the weakness and twitching is still here.

Have you been able to heal similar symptoms? If so how? The muscle twitching takes over my life and I want to get rid of it.

I’ve been dealing with SIBO since May, and have recently been freaking out over leg muscle weakness and spasms, shortness of breath, heart palps, fatigue, increased anxiety and all sorts of issues. I thought it was maybe MS or GBS. After a go-around with an unhelpful ER and other doctors who did not provide any help or guidance, I went to get tested at a lab on my own and results came back with a pretty severe iron deficiency (11ng ferratin) and a Vitamin D deficiency (28ng).

I’m sure this seems like a no brainer—duh, nutrient malabsorption—but it’s easy to fall behind on nutrients when SIBO bacteria are eating all of them, and when you’ve restricted half your diet like I have. Word to the wise to get your levels checked if you’re having other systemic issues! Unfortunately these deficiencies can make GI problems worse.

So in 2020, I got food poisoning from chipotle. Went to a gastro, got tons of tests done, and was put on rifaximin. I didn't finish taking it because it made me feel horrible. I did get an at home breath test, but I was afraid it would make me sick, so I never did it. They "diagnosed" me with ibs and basically said "glhf". After 6 months I was able to eat semi normally again, but I didn't get mostly better until about 5 years after.

Now, 6 years later, I got food poisoning again (from left out potato salad) in June, and I've had watery stool, nausea, extreme bloating, and mild cramping since. The worst of the food poisoning was over within 5 days, and i never threw up. I will say that the food poisoning this time was not nearly as bad as the last, even though I didn't throw up either time. (I have emetophobia)

My only relief is zofran or imodium, and I'm almost out of the zofran I got from telehealth. When I'm taking imodium, i feel pretty decent, but it makes me constipated for 3 days. If I'm not taking it, I feel horrible and have urgency all day, and I'm basically peeing out my butt.

I'm 2 weeks into low fodmap, and I'm taking ibgard and psyllium husk, but I'm not seeing much improvement yet. Or, well, I kind of was until I ate 2 eggs a few days ago.

Have any of you gotten sibo from food poisoning? If so, were your symptoms similar? I really do not want to go to a doc and go through all of the stress of getting tests done again just for them to not be able to help me.