Ruth Benziger

Good morning!

I wanted to share my experience with taking a breath test.

To give some background: I have been experiencing bloating after eating, slow digestion, pain, and fatigue. I have also recently been diagnosed with iron deficiency. I already take a supplement, so it is a bit off. I went to see a GI, and she suggested I get tested for SIBO or Small Intestinal Bacteria Overgrowth.

The day before, I was given instructions to eat a low-carb, no-dairy diet. Here is a list of foods I was allowed to eat.

For me, the diet wasn’t all that hard. I stopped eating at 6:30. Only water is allowed in the evening and into the morning. So, last night, I drank water until bed.

When I woke up this morning, I drank some water before arriving to check in at the hospital.

They took me up to my own room, where I was provided a chair and access to TV.

I then had to give a baseline breath. You breathe out from a tube, and they take a sample.

I was given an orange glucose drink. It was sickly sweet and made me nauseous. But I’m not a fan of sweet drinks, and it did not taste good.

Then, while I spent time in my room, they came in every 30 minutes to take a breath test. They have you sign discharge papers, and that’s pretty much it.

I did experience some nausea and had a headache later in the day from crashing. Other than that, it went well.

I can’t guarantee you’ll get results as fast as I did, but I got my results later in the afternoon. My results were negative.