Really awful thrush

[sugarlake]

Please can anyone help?

I have thrush that will not go away. I have taken three separate doses of the 'one off' thrush tablet (over the course of the last few months), seen my GP who prescribed two tablets which I took.
Now my vaginal area has completely broken down and is raw and bleeding. I feel as if there is a large dry tampon ripping the inside of the vaginal area.

Is there anything I can do for tonight to alleviate the pain and irritation? It is incredibly painful and difficult to walk. I have taken two painkillers.

I am not diabetic nor have AIDS so cannot understand why the thrush will not go.

God you poor thing. I took a pill once a week for a montha and that sorted mine out.Can't your GP do something? Is there a nurse you can see? Doesn't sound right to me.

Oh you poor thing. I am really prone to thrush (and have started antibiotics today so just know I'm going to be suffering again soon). But you sound like you're in agony.

I'm afraid I have no useful advice at all. Perhaps you should be asking your gp for a referral because this doesn't sound at all normal to me.

I am in a panic now.

I just washed the area with cool water but it is still cut and bleeding and I put some Canestan cream on but it is burning. The itching is intense.

Go and get the Canestan Duo (or Boots alternative). It's a pessary as well as cream that you apply locally.

Avoid using soap/bubble bath, and don't wear close fitting trousers or knickers that aren't 100% cotton. In fact, it's worth buying a whole set of new cotton underwear and/or putting your existing stuff in a boil wash, to help get rid of the fungus.

Stop eating/drinking anything with sugar in it. That includes fruit. Avoid anything fermented, e.g. alcohol, vinegar, soy sauce. Don't eat mushrooms/Quorn. And avoid anything with yeast - bread, Marmite, alcohol (again). If you can really cut down on carbohydrates this should also help.

Buy a good probiotic, acidophilus is one to look for - but get it from a good healthfood shop. It should be stored in the fridge.

You could also try applying natural yoghurt (with live bacteria) wherever it's sore - putting it onto a tampon and inserting that can also help apparently.

Is it itchy? For me, this was a real problem, and I found that I was scratching a lot during the night, when I was asleep, which was really making it worse. If so, try taking an antihistamine tablet before you go to bed (you can buy these from the pharmacy without a prescription).

Bathing in warm rather than hot water can help, along with tea tree oil in the water. You can also buy tea tree cream, which I found was soothing.

And when it was really bad, I used to wrap ice cubes in a flannel and apply these just to cool everything down a bit! (This also has the advantage of temporarily numbing things!).

Are you on the pill? This is also something else that can exacerbate thrush - I used to get it every month, without fail.

It's miserable - you really have my sympathy.

don't put canestan cream on - it really irritates me. You could be reacting to it. Just use the oral tablets.

Natural live yoghurt. Sounds silly, but it works. And eat loads of it, too.

Ditto everything that BIWI said, and the recommendations to get a second opinion.

Plus, the big factor for me was stress. I was being bullied in a job and thrush was a nightmare for me. Since I left, it has been a fairly constant companion, but much much easier to deal with.

Is there anything really stressful going on in your life right now? Is there any way that you could do some yoga/meditation/relaxation tapes, anything like that? Of course, the thrush itself becomes very stressful which doesn't help. :(

Could the canesten be worsening it?

My DH is allergic to caneasten/daktarin etc ... when he applies it he swells up and the skin can crack and bleed.

Try using natural yoghurt and the oral pills.

I'm suffering from thrush loads too at the moment :( its awful :(

Oh yes, I can remember my DH inserting live yoghurt - very soothing and the bacteria in the yoghurt out-compete the thrush yeast to live in your vagina.

Thank you all for being so kind and helpful.

I'm not on the pill and teetotal but eat a lot of Marmite and Quorn. My entire diet seems to be all the things you have said to avoid BIMI.

I have some plain live yoghurt in the fridge (is sugar free Greek yoghurt ok?)

It is painful to sit down so I'm going to lie in bed and the painkillers are making me feel sleepy.

It is so hard to get an appointment with the GP due to a silly system where you phone between 8 and 8.30am to try and be seen. It is very hard to get through and they will not give appointments after 8.30 am.

There are very stressful things happening just now MrsTittleMouse - grieving, moving house, agarophobia, insomnia, legal stuff. I'm comfort eating all the wrong things.

BecauseImWorthIt, this is exactly what I was going to say. One more thing is to avoid fragnanced panty liners as they too can cause thrush.
Femfresh is a good non-soap feminine wash. White bottle smells nice. Red bottle is so-so.

Onken Biopot is excellent as it contains 3 types of live bacteria. It tastes also good especially the Greek style.
When I had thursh I did not eat products with yeast, very sweet fruits (little orange mangos, grapes, dates; sweets, alchohol and other things mentioned by BecauseImWorthIt for one month. And g-strings are also no good. It did help.

"And g-strings are also no good."

Not to wear :)

I don't have the figure for dental floss G strings. Big cotton granny pants. (TMI)

I have put the yoghurt on and it is very cooling but I think the Canestan has made things worse - perhaps I should not have put it on raw skin?

Oh sugarlake - what a rotton situation! :(

It can become a bit of a downward spiral too, can't it - you are stressed, and the thrush gets worse, which is stressful, and you (or rather, I) comfort eat lovely sugary things, and then the thrush gets even worse... and so on until you are utterly miserable.

And it's so difficult to get the energy to deal with all the stressful stuff and give up the comfort food and alcohol. :( Can you get any practical help with the stuff that needs to get done right now? I wonder if this is your body telling you that you're taking on too much and need to ask for help.

rotten, even.

I would stick to yoghurt if the canasten is burning. No point in you feeling any worse, and the yoghurt will be doing lots of good.

For temporary relief I'd go for the yoghurt. But do persist with getting a GP appointment. Do you have an out of hours service in your area? A walk in clinic or the like? It sounds painful and you don't want to get an infection, so do get it checked out.

I am prone to thrush and it's a bastard. Sympathies.

Eat loads of yoghurt too, as that'll help from inside so you're attacking from both sides.

It is a difficult collection of situations and if I plod through then one day they will all resolve. Dh helps but the issues seem to escalate and then I feel afraid to leave the house.

It is difficult trying to keep a sharp mind when I feel very tired and not quite zoned in.
This thrush is so bad that I am going to concentrate on getting rid of it and to hell with all the other things now.

here's some useful info re candida

Not having a sharp mind/being tired are also symptoms of candida, btw.

Thank you for the link BIMI, it was extremely helpful and explains a lot.
I'm going to start cutting out all the wrong foods as from today and stock up on the correct food.

It is odd but our surgery has changed their appointments policy and it is for emergencies only or a regular appointment for next Wednesday! I hope to see the GP at the back of 11 so fingers crossed that she can help.

I think the long term management will help to educate me on triggers etc and I am taking a few days off as it will not be easy embarking on a complete life change, especially detoxing.

I am very grateful to you all for taking the time to try and help me.

Do be careful Canesten can be very irritating to the skin, both myself and my sister can not tolerate it very well. There are other alternatives you can get from the GP also have you been swabbed to check that it is thrush and not a bacterial infection.
Sorry if I have repeated what others have said.

sugar, how awful for you :(
Yes, tweak the diet if you can, but one thing you simply must do is take a good zinc supplement and you could also consider a good probiotic.
Zn is VERY important in improving immunity and fungal infections area signs that your immune system is low (stress etc).
When my ds had prolonged fungal infections that used to flare up with every med from dr/chemist, I gave up on that and researched it myself. Through some other (unrelated ?) tests we discovered he was Zn deficient (common but often overlooked), when we added Zn supplement, guess what? The fungal infection has cleared up completely. Zn also helps with healing skin from the inside.
As far as diet goes, cut out sugar and carbs if you can.