Hi,
I have been under Gastrology specialists for some years now and they have taken it seriously and doing everything they can for me in the last 3 years.
I continually felt I had consumed acid with a constant acid / burning feeling in the lower abdomin area and taste in the mouth, occasionally it acid would find it's way back up into my mouth stripping a layer of skin off my lips. I would blow up like a ballon with a simple cup of tea. I guess I kind off know what it might be like to be 9 months pregnant! I originally got to a point where the belly skin was so stretched to the max and hard with no more give to give. Most uncomfortable not being able to sit folded but rather semi lay down. Everything I consumed just flared up stronger and the only thing I found that could help was wholemeal bread and margarine spearingly to try and soak up the stomach juices. I'm told it is not good to have the bread but as it sort of works for me I continue with it. Currently living on bread and water to try and exstinguish this current flare up. Just a mug of home made veg soup sets it off or a spot of anxiety stirs it up. I suspect I won't be successful but I have to try first.
Before I knew I had SIBO I just figured it was an IBS flare up and I used to restrict my food to fresh chicken or fish only and that used to help over 2 months of it. These days I can't eat the volume of food I used to be able, and it wasn't even a normal size meal. The volume of food is what can trip me up with the slow digestion, the excess flows on into the lower intestine where it shouldn't be, and ferments causing the SIBO.
A typical intake of food for my day would be 4 slices of wholemeal bread with two thin pieces of shaved ham, margarine as thin as I can spread it, two sandwiches, 6 cups of tea no sugar and slim milk, sparingly, if I think about it 2 eggs and I don't as often as I should think about them. Sort of out of sight out of mind for me. Or I can trade off 2 slices of bread for half a small palm of grilled or dry roasted chicken. I find anymore than that and I'm in trouble, just one extra cup of tea or another sandwich and I'm exploding again, with a full gut and unable to digest it quick enough waking in the morning feeling full and still bloated. Now I skip food when ever I feel like it as it is more comfortable. I have been known to survive on just cups of tea for many weeks trying to get comfortable. Longest I have survived was 3 months before I could start slowly reintroducing bland foods again. I have to say you can shed a lot of weight this way. I became fearful I would be blown away in the next wind gust! One thing I have to watch out for not eating is it can induce anorexia and I have to force myself to start eating again. My best answer to the gut problems is still to stop eating, it is when I feel the most comfortable but it is not sustainable in the long term. I can't see I will ever get back to regular eating habits now with ANS controlling the digestive system 24/7. It is totally messing me about, I'm just in survival mode, eating just to preserve life as best I can.
Cheers