My SIBO Journey is a multi-part series. If you haven’t read my first posts, please take a look at my introduction, week 1, week 2, week 3 and weeks 4-7 to get caught up.

Welcome back to My SIBO Journey. This update covers weeks 8-13. I have a new character enter into my story during this time. I call him the man. The myth. The legend. Dr. Rahbar from L.A. Integrative Health. He is about to take me in a whole new direction…

Personal Disclaimer: My SIBO Journey is just that, my very own journey. I cannot stress enough that everyone treating SIBO should have an individualized plan towards healing since it is so specific. I am a unicorn among unicorns. I have multi-layered diseases that can make my journey not look like the typical one. Please keep that in mind as you travel down this road with me.

Recovery Is Long & Hard

I left off on my last update with not a lot of answers. Nothing really changed. During this time I was taking no medication, no supplements, no nothin’. My body was so up, down and all around that anytime I tried to support it, it just seemed to reject it and mess me up some more. I basically don’t even remember the entire month of November 2016. I was house bound, but had a husband who was traveling for work so I did what I could to at least take my daughter to school, pick her up and get her to dance. I couldn’t some days. I needed help from friends. Some days just making the 6 minute round-trip drive to school had me in tears feeling as if I wouldn’t even be able to make it home alive. It was so traumatic having to semi-function. I was glad that I had the sense in September to take a hiatus from work through the end of the year. Even though I work from home, it was still work and there would’ve been NO way. NO WAY. I could’ve done it.

Me and the hubs at my best friend’s wedding

Then The Inexplicable Happened

December was approaching and I had A LOT on the books! My best friend was getting married, my daughter was in the Nutcracker, I had an event with my husband to attend, plus all things Christmas, going out of town for a few days, etc. The calendar did not stop even though my body had. I had feelings of dread with hope.

Guess what?! I made my best friend’s rehearsal and her wedding! Besides some GI issues, not a lot of sleep the night before and some unexpected and weird neurological issues (my left foot went numb during the ceremony and didn’t go away for many days and still occasionally acts up), it was a fabulous day! I remember at one point after 6 hours of getting ready, taking pictures, and the ceremony itself, my body was D.O.N.E. I felt like I was going to collapse and truly need medical attention. You know what saved the day? Prayers and Honeydew! For the last week I decided intuitively to have honeydew and it totally helped me! I went from, I just need to get through my Matron of Honor speech, to being the first one and the last one on the dance floor! ME!!!! ME!!!! PEOPLE! I have no words. The day brought so much joy that I think I was on a high for the whole month because not only did I meet all of my obligations in December, we also did spontaneous things with friends and so much more and I was truly present and feeling good! What the what?!?! But, I’ll take it!

 My First Appointment With Dr. Rahbar

Well, Dr. Keller had wanted me to see Dr. Rahbar for many reasons. Unexplained constant diarrhea and all of my other mystery healthy challenges that weren’t able to be identified or even treated because of my sensitivities. After an amazing and thorough 2 hour long appointment (I don’t even think we covered ALL of my issues!), he basically suspected Lyme, Virus, Bacteria, Parasites, Yeast. I had already identified the parasites, bacteria and unknown viral component and yeast (this one drives me nuts because I literally eat no fruit or any kind of sugar!).

He also wanted me to have a few different stool tests, a nasal swab to detect any bacteria or fungus in the nose that could be going down my throat and sitting in my stomach and causing diarrhea and other issues, tests for lyme, the Shoemaker mold panel. He also suggested getting 2 other Lyme tests done that would cost about $1,000-$2,000. I asked to defer that for uhhhh, you now obvious reasons!

My Results

There Was More But Basically…

C Diff – Negative

Lyme – Maybe but would need very expensive tests done to find out for 110% certainty

Wonky blood work -Still a mystery

Nasal swab – Large amounts of staph!

Other tests- Basically show that I’m susceptible to every autoimmune disease under the sun because of a genetic marker (I knew about this one already HLA-B27 Antigen)

From Here

Some of these tests took a month or two for the results to come back. I scheduled a follow-up with Dr. Rahbar for three months later in March to go over these results and find out what my next steps were. In the meantime, Dr. Keller thought I should go in for a Heidelberg Test. Oh…you won’t want to miss my update on this next time! Like O.M.G. you’ll probably laugh uncontrollably at my craziness surrounding this, but it was CRAY!

For more of how I processed the emotional side of this period, take a look at my emotional and spiritual journey as it paralleled to my physical journey during weeks 8-13.

UPDATE: To continue reading about my SIBO journey, check out the next article in the series.

SIBO SOS Summit

For those of you with SIBO or suspect that you so, there is an amazing SIBO Summit starting on June 24th, 2017 that is all online and FREE. You can get your FREE ticket here to the SIBO SOS Summit.

To stay up-to-date on all things SIBO and much more, join our sleuthy community so you don’t miss a thing!

Do you find yourself in the waiting room with your illness or illnesses?

Disclaimer

The medical information on this site is provided as an information resource only, and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. This information is not intended to be patient education, does not create any patient-physician relationship, and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment.

Please consult your health care provider before making any healthcare decisions or for guidance about a specific medical condition. Kacy Anacan of Sisters Undercover expressly disclaim responsibility, and shall have no liability, for any damages, loss, injury, or liability whatsoever suffered as a result of your reliance on the information contained in this site. Kacy Anacan of Sisters Undercover does not endorse specifically any test, treatment, or procedure mentioned on the site.

(Note: Some links in this post are affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy here).