How did I get SIBO?

It seems like no one really knows for sure.  For me it has been a perfect storm.  My digestion has always been sluggish.  8 years ago I had a c-section that left me with surgical adhesions and pain prior to bowel movements.  I found an ND who specialized in visceral manipulation who helped me break the adhesions and stop the pain.  About 6 years ago I had 2 bouts of gastroenteritis within 6 months.  Over the last 10 years my bite has continued to open more and more making it hard to properly chew food.  We started growing our own food and our diets got really clean, hello FODMAPs!  I eat pretty seasonally and it wasn't uncommon to spend my spring eating asparagus by the pound.  All summer long I ate HUGE salads.  My winters were full of sweet potatoes to the point where my sister complained because my skin gets an orangish hue.  And don't get me started with beans.  I love beans and ate them every day.  It took years of going to different Naturopaths getting different tests, trying different diets, before one of them put me on Heather's tummy fiber and when I reacted he said, "I think you have SIBO". 

My NDs think it's important for me to work on any of the issues I can resolve.  So I went to see an orthodontist this morning about my bite issues.  I've been putting it off because my dentist thought they were going to have to break my jaw in 3 places.  But if I can't chew my food properly then things are never going to get better.  The orthodontist thinks he can resolve my issues with braces and rubber bands and that I won't need surgery (yay!).  I really, really don't want to have my jaw broken and wired shut so was happy with the news. Maybe by the end of July I'll have braces.

I started working with an acupuncturist a few months ago to see if he could improve my sluggish digestion.  But I didn't feel like we were getting anywhere because he was just fighting against the methane producing bacteria.  I don't have a lot of acupuncture benefits so decided I would stop and wait until the bacteria was cleared or at least significantly knocked down to start back up.  For now, the low dose erythromycin is doing the trick.