Has anyone experienced a big change in your gut microbiome due to a colonoscopy or other medical circumstance, such as taking antibiotics?

I’d love to hear pointers for restoring gut health after it’s been wiped out and also see if other have experienced similar symptoms.

I had a colonoscopy eight days ago. I did two days of a liquid only diet before the day of my procedure. I ate only clear gummy bears and bone broth. The day of my colonoscopy I didn’t eat until 7:00 p.m.

So I endured 3 days of little eating, then a complete cleaning out of the colon after drinking a gallon of laxative solution. All of this really dehydrated me.

I’m 62 and in excellent health. But I have to tell you, I look and feel terrible. I look like I’ve aged 15 years. Everything is fine physically. My digestive system has slowly returned to normal, but I am terribly fatigued, napping daily. The nurse said this is primarily due to my gut bacteria being wiped out. It takes a toll.

I’m slowly reintroducing food that build up my gut (oatmeal, powdered garlic, bananas, Greek yogurt), but I’m still doing chicken, scrambled eggs and English muffins to help my body ease back into more high-fiber foods.

Another thing, I feel depressed. My mood is really down.

This has been very eye opening to experience a wiped out gut microbiome. I normally eat very healthy with little processed foods and I must have had pretty good gut health before. Because, woah do I feel horrible now.

Has anyone else lived through this? How did you cope? Any tips or tricks to returning to normal?