Re: yeast culture positive for glabrata (in archives)

[Guest guest]

Robin recently shared with me her success story. She has granted me

permission to share her story in the hopes that it may help some of

you out there who are suffering!

Heidi:

I have a success story after suffering for six years. I have been

100% totally pain free since 24 hours after my doctor appointment on

September 18, 1998. I have done EVERYTHING to aggravate things and

cause pain, but so far so good. I think I finally learned the cause

of the pain. This is the best I've felt in six years. (Story follows

below)

I have some information to share with you all and it incorporates

some encouraging news (which we can all use, that's for sure). First

I'll tell you about my history, then I'll tell you about my doctor's

appointment. The details are a bit graphic but I've done this

intentionally just in case having this information helps another

woman.

SYMPTOMS:

I've been burning (no itching) since 1992 (six years). The burning

started while I was on tetracycline which a dermatologist had been

prescribing for four years. The pain started immediately after ending

a long period of celibacy. My pain has always been of a cyclical

nature, usually 10 or so good days and then 10 or so pain filled

days. During the ten or so days the pain is with me it is 24x7. I've

had one pain free remission from January to May of 1998. Once again,

the pain came back after ending a long period of celibacy. I've been

lasered (made it worse), had alcohol injected into the sore spots

(worst pain I've ever felt), had a hysterectomy (a doctor told me the

burning pain I felt was pelvic congestion and I believed him because

I was so depressed from being in pain for so long).

DOCTOR APPOINTMENT:

I saw Dr. Gordon on September 18. From what I hear he's the #1

vulvovaginal disease specialist in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan

area. The day that I saw him I was actually feeling pretty good which

allowed him to perform a very thorough exam. When examining my labia

majora he found what looked like white veins in the shiny skin side

(inside). This was not something you could just wipe away or

anything. The white was IN MY TISSUES not sitting on top of my skin.

Hope that makes sense. He did some very thorough swabbing then I got

my clothes back on and met him in his lab area. Under a microscope he

found yeast. Not your usual c. albicans (sp?) kind but a yeast called

T. Glabrata. He said 5 years ago about 1% of the women he treated

came in with that kind of yeast but it is now more although I can't

remember the number he quoted. This yeast looks kind of like an

exclamation point that is joined (with no space). He told me

intercourse aggravates the yeast and makes it symptomatic. Diflucan

does not kill T. Glabrata so he put me on Nizoral, 200 mg. daily for

7 days, then 200 mg. every other day for 7 treatments and then every

third day until my 30 pills are gone. (He diagnosed my condition as

cyclical vulvovaginitis. His web page http://www:arizonadoctors.com

describes it in detail. ) I stopped on the way home from the doctor

and got my prescription filled and took my first dose about noontime

on Friday. When I awoke on Saturday morning I could tell I was

already improving from the Nizoral. Although I was feeling pretty

good on Friday I was not 100% pain free. By Saturday night I was

enjoying pain free sex with my SO and by Tuesday night I had totally

worn the guy out!! He just hates that!! But it was so wonderful to

feel " normal " .

I have now been pain free for ten days so if my pain is going to

return it should be any time now. I'm cautiously optimistic at this

point but only time can tell. I'll keep you all posted on my

progress.

I hope my story is helpful to someone else out there on the list. And

if your doctors are checking for yeast I'm wondering if they've been

trained adequately to recognize the less common (but equally painful)

types of yeast out there. Your regular run of the mill OB/GYN

probably has not been trained but a vulvovaginal disease specialist

probably has been.

Dr. is the fifth doctor I've seen so far and I only went there

because I was referred by my regular OB/GYN's supervising physician.

For the past two+ years I've been popping tricylics (100 mg

nortriptylin daily) for the pain and avoiding doctors because quite

frankly I no longer trusted them. Dr. asked me why it took me

six years to see him and I told him I had completely lost my trust in

doctors. And he didn't throw me out of his office.

If you have any questions you can e-mail me back at

robin.simmons@... or phone me at (evenings).

Take care and I'm hoping for pain free days for you, too!