I feel great!

It's been a while since I posted but I had to tell you what happened to me. I had been posting with my concerns over not being able to eat what seemed about the amount of food that everyone else seemed to be able to eat. I felt like I was dumping on everything. I was very constipated and bloated. My stomach would get real hard after I ate and it would stick out. I went back to the surgeon and he said that I needed my gallbladder removed. It didn't feel right to me so I went to my primary care Dr. She typed a few things in and said that she disagreed. She said I had SIBO-Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth. She gave me 10 days of antibiotics and strong probiotics. After 5 days, I can eat anything! I feel great. I know now what the rest of you feel like! I can eat more than 5 bites without feeling stuffed. I ate half a chocolate chip cookie without getting sick. I ate half a cup of slow churned ice cream without spending a hour on the couch rolling around! WOW!!! Now I need to keep my portions under control and work out. I promise, I won't mess this up. I've been going through a lot but I believe its finally coming to a end. I can enjoy things without over indulging. I can  eat off of the regular menu! So for all of you who don't feel "right", keep trying. Your fix is out there! Praying with you!!!!

That's a new one for me but I'm glad your PCP got it figured out and glad you are feeling better.  Now to stay there and keep the weight off.  You can do it but sounds like a lot of your previous "controls" are gone.

Thanks Price for all of your support and encouragement. I am going back to everything you all taught me about keeping the weight off. I even learned how to make protein coffee. LOL I have had that and protein lemonade this week. I have also joined a gym and am trying to squeeze weight lifting and water aerobics in my busy schedule each week.

I lived with SIBO for nearly 8 years.  I know how miserable it is.  I think mine was because of the way my surgeon did my surgery.  I think he did something strange because it isn't normal to have that all the time.  I would take antibiotics and probiotics and get a little relief but it always came back.  I hope that yours is gone for good.  It is a miserable way to live.  Stay on top of the probiotics or eat cultured yogurt everyday and you should be fine.  I know mine was due to the way my surgery was because the day I was revised was the last day I ever had it.

Lady Tazz, I love your new picture. Thank you so much for telling me this. It makes sense when you say that because I am the only one in my support group/friends that had the single incision surgery (not at my request but at the Dr's). I seemed to be the only one with these problems. I pray that I won't suffer flair ups often. They did tell me that the symptoms could return and that I will have to return to antibiotics if they return. Thank you for the reminder about the yogurt. The only yogurt that I used to be able to eat was carb master made by Kroger. They closed Kroger in my neighborhood so I stopped eating it. I only like Greek yogurt when I make a smoothie. I thought Antivia had too much sugar for me to eat it but I can try it. I want to stay normal so I will try whatever I have to. The Dr. had me get a stronger probiotic. The one I'm taking now is 5 billion cfu's. Why did you have to get a revision? What did you have before? What was your final surgery? Just asking, if you don't mind. Your advice and support are always helpful to me.

Probiotics are good, I just like eating yogurt better :)  I am attempting to make my own.  My first batch came out pretty good so I got an automatic temperature to help with the process and I am getting my boyfriend to get me so raw milk to see how that comes out.
To make a real long story somewhat shorter, I had a DS in 2002.  Back then it wasn't that well known (it's barely known now) and my surgeon hadn't been doing them long or often.  I would guess I was within his first 20 DS patients, if that many.  I really don't know what he did or how he measured things but from day one I had terrible gas and diarrhea.  I was diagnosed with SIBO about a year later when I got an autoimmune disease from the toxins.  I got reactive arthritis and dermatitis and was very sick.  Antibiotics helped but I continued to get it and my doctors wouldn't prescribe them anymore because of fear of antibiotic resistance.  Constant diarrhea causes other issues, too, as I am sure you are aware.  I also had malabsorption problems and I was sick and fatigued to the point of being nonfunctional.  I also managed to regain 100 lbs by eating a lot of refined carbs, which are the worse things to eat with SIBO.  Unfortunately no one explained these things to me.  I didn't learn about them until I had my revision and started posting online.  I could have probably managed my symptoms by changing my diet and taking stronger probiotics but I didn't know that then and my doctors certainly didn't suggest anything like that.  I had absolutely no pre op education or post op support so it was like I was thrown out in the deep end and expected to know how to swim.
Along with my other issues my surgeon was also very conservative when it came to sleeve size and left mine way too large, probably to compensate for the malabsorption which he didn't like doing.  So I was able to eat large amounts of food and  of course what goes in must come out.  And it did all day and night long.
I got to the point where I was so miserable that I begged for a reversal but they told me that they couldn't reverse my surgery, only revise it so it wouldn't be so malabsorptive.  They also suggested making my sleeve into a RNY pouch so I wouldn't gain any more weight.  The revision worked in that it ended the SIBO.  I was also able to get a handle on my carb addiction and I have been sugar and gluten free, which has really helped my weight loss.

Thank you Lady Tazz for sharing. I am actually one of the rare people who experience constipation. I was so constipated that my stomach bloats out after I eat and gets hard as a watermelon. I look pregnant and if my shirt was too tight, it look scary. I had really bad gas, lactose intolerant, pain when I ate almost anything, etc. I kept posting on here and everyone gave me suggestions but they didn't seem to help. I finally went back to the Dr after several months of discomfort and he said it was my gallbladder. My research didn't match gallbladder so my friend who also had this surgery, with no problems, told me to try my regular Dr. She typed a few things and came up with this. I started the prescription on the Wednesday, the 15th and all of my symptoms were gone by Friday the 18th. I still have a week of medicine to go but I feel so much better. I will try the yogurt but I've always taken a probiotic so I just got a stronger dose. I want to manage it as well as I can so I will try the Greek yogurt with things added. Problem is I'm so busy that I would prefer a grab and go kind of yogurt. I love making my smoothies so I may have to make a batch of those to last a couple days. Thanks again for sharing. I really appreciate knowing that I'm not alone but since I'm not as advanced as you seem to be, I may be able to control it with yogurt and probiotics.

So glad things are better for you. I'm believer in using Flagyl followed by probiotics just as a matter of course. Things would be unbearable if I didn't. Sounds like your PCP is a keeper.

--gina

Thanks Gina! It's funny because I caught her right before she went to take a 90 day leave of absence. I told her that I didn't want another Dr. She told me to look her up on the Internet if I'm told that she didn't return to that practice. She has been really good for me. She doesn't know anything about weight loss surgery but she knew it didn't sound like gallbladder issues to her. LOL I will try Flagyl but I thought I was to keep sugar under 10 grams. Not a big fan of plain Greek yogurt, I need some flavor. LOL Thanks for your advice and support Gina.

Koko,
Glad things are getting back to normal for you.  The way I eat greek yogurt is to get a big container and add stevia and almond flavoring until it is sweet and almondy enough.  Yum!  I like it best with fruit.