2nd Visit to Dr. /Advice on HMO Letter?

[Guest guest]

Hello All,

Saw Dr. again last Monday. He was on time and very pleasant.

My pelvic exam was uneventful, but he did check my urethra this time,

which caused me some pain and feelings of urgency the next day, but

the urethral pain seems to be gone now.

I asked him to swab the vulva with the gentian violet, as that gives

me great pain relief. His mocroscopic examination of vaginal fluid

showed no yeast after my 4 week 3x a week on diflucan. He commented

that I had an enormous number of healthy lactobaccillae " covering the

vaginal area. " I sure hope this is a good sign! I saw

them myself through his microscope.

For anyone battling yeast problems(mine have been chronic for a year)-

-after doing the routine with vaginal acidopholus applications, etc.,

I tried Natren's Healthy Trinity--been on it for about two months--

about 3 times a week (orally)--it's expensive, and supposedly makes

it to the vaginal area through sheer numbers. Don't know if this did

it for me, but will mention it here. But due to my large population

of healthy lactobaccillae, told me to stop taking acidopholus

supplements for now.

I have two new prescriptions from , both of which he said to

have compounded to rule out any allergins in the base medicine:

1. Hytone 2 1/2% ointment Apply very small amount 1/2 pea size

once a day 3 times a week; then 1 to

2 times weekly to the vestibular area.

I think Hytone is a steroid--so naturally, I am worried about this

one--have any of you experience with Hytone? I used Desonide, which

is a steroid and it caused me burning pain.

2. DES. (Dinestrol)cream. Apply vaginally 3 times a week.

said this is an excellent source of estradiol. Know anything about

that? I found one site on the web that sounds like DES is ok.

3. Climara patch.1 mg estradiol. Apply new patch to hip area

once a week.

4. Continue 2mg estrace orally every night for 3 weeks.

Continue using 25 mg elavil for pain and 1mg lorazepam for muscle

spasm nightly. Continue Aveeno baths twice daily. Use Aquaphor if I

need a barrier cream.

Plus, I have had so much problems with UTI/Vestibular entry pain that

I couldn't even consider intercourse. In fact, when I read others'

concern or their ability to have sex, I thought, o my god, how can

they do it,--but now I understand them because in the last two weeks

for the first time since I had to abstain from intercourse last

November, I actually have desire/physical feelings in the vulvar area-

-unprompted, just there, spontaneously. Anyone else have that

happen? Dee, did you get any of that as you began to heal?

' strategy is to heighten the estradiol input, orally,

transdermally and vaginally for one month. He said that shouldn't be

harmful for me for a short period of time. I'm menopausal, so that

seems to make sense to me.

also answered these questions

1. Pelvic floor therapy? Not now, for me.

2. Low oxalate diet? He hasn't seen consistent improvement.

(But someone in my email friends said it takes time on the low

oxalates--she's been on it for a year and it really helps her.)

3. No products containing propylene glycol, is that right? I told him

I had cleared out ALL PG products and was not using it. He said

that's good. His treatment plan states that some patients may be

allergic to pg. (I'm now two weeks off any cosmetic/meds containing

propylene glycol.)

4. Any sign of c. glabrata he saw last time? No yeast present of any

kind.

One more thing--sorry for the long read--my health group has denied

me any visits or compensation to , saying " he is out of state "

and " out of health group--that I saw him " electively " and therefore

he is not covered. I am preparing an appeal to HealthNet, my HMO,

and can use anstrategy/advice/experience you can give me.

Sorry for the length, but sometimes I think even a minor detail might

provide the info that someone needs to begin healing. If you are new

to this group, Dr. is at the Arizona Vulvar Clinic, Phoenix.

(602)265-1112. The post about my first visit to should be in

the archives for June. Robin Simmon's posts in the archives (DEC, 98)

convinced me to go to --the first doctor I have gone to outside

my healthgroup.

All of the above is just my experience and not anything I

recommend as medical advice.:)

Also, made a comment that I thought was interesting and would

like to know what you think--he said that VV/V only occurs in women

who have some or all Caucasian ethnicity--is that true? If so,it

would sure rule out the theories that VV/V has psychological-

sexual/or sexual abuse origins or elements--since those

feelings/events occur to women of color and/or of other ethnic

designations also.

some healing thoughts, I hope :) Dory