Every flare is like a little murder mystery...

[mellusk]

I've been flaring for four days, and diet for the moment is not helping.

Here are some clues:
•I had a migraine monday, and I haven't experienced one of those in months.
•Tuesday, my back injuries were out of control, and I had a lot of pain all day from that.
•My eyes have been dry this week. They're the only part of me where I experience seasonal allergies, and some of the trees have started budding here in the past few days.
•I ran out of benadryl a week ago and just hadn't restocked. I'd been taking it as a sleep aid since I'm now an insomniac and I don't want to take my ambien every night.
•The main trigger for me has been this obnoxious chafed, raw, and burning feeling in my external area around my vagina and urethra. I know a lot of women have these issues with their flares, but for me this is highly unusual. The worse this is, of course, the worse my "normal" symptoms are. Numbing this feeling with a frozen water bottle makes my other symptoms go away.
•My usual remedies and preventatives of tums, baking soda in water, and alkalinizing tea haven't been as effective. Usually one or a combination of these things stops my flares in their tracks.
•Last night I bought some more benadryl and took it. This morning, most of my flare symptoms were gone, except the chafed feeling.
•This morning, I discover I have a yeast infection...yay! I haven't had one of those in over five years.

Now, obviously, I've got to treat the yeast, and any suggestions that don't involve pestering my doctor (even though he's cool and he won't mind) would be helpful.
I know that stupid rawness is probably from that, so at least one accomplice has been identified. Maybe it's the sole inflictor of the suck acting on it's own, but, would it be reasonable to assume that my other issues, such as the dry eyes, migraine, and back pains might be related?

I was doing so frickin' well! It's my birthday on Monday, and I have a big weekend planned starting tonight.

[dancemomof2]

WOW sounds liek you had alot goin going this week to cause flares. Stress is a great flare starter as well. HOpe you feel better soon. Glad the Benadryl helped

[RAS6]

I so understand how you feel! My flare this week was caused by one things that affected another and so on. Then I get really stressed out because I can't figure out what I "did wrong" or get mad at myself and according to my Doctor that just makes me flare more! It is really frustrating! And it does sound like you had a rough week. Hang in there and feel better soon. I will be thinking about you! Oh, for me that last time I had a yeast infection I just used the three day treatment I bought over the counter at a drug store and it worked great. It also came with a great cream to use on the outer vaginal skin that burns and it worked wonders for me as well. For my minor perenial/urethral burning due to IC I use A& D ointment. It also protects my skin against the burning from urine.

[lnseagraves]

yeast infection home remedy

Hey,

You sound like my last few weeks. I had a migraine, then allergies, then IC flare too... now the antibiotics I've been taking has caused a yeast infection. I go through this cycle EVERY march....

Anyway, I use yogurt for yeast infections. the OTC medicines work pretty well, but I find yogurt is gentler. I buy PLAIN (or Greek, same thing) yogurt, and tampons. I take the tampon out of the applicator, fill the applicator with the plain yogurt and then apply it INTO my vagina. It seriously works. I actually will make a whole batch and freeze them. They freeze really well. If you can EAT yogurt, do that too. Yogurt naturally balances the yeast which is why it works for a yeast infection. Even if you can't eat it though, you can put it in your vagina. Good luck!

[sandyz]

murder mystery,

I like that discription! I`ve been in a flare about a month and I am still still trying to figure out what caused it. I had my gallbladder removed then so I `m sure the surgery was a big part of it. It gets so frustrating though. I have FM and CFS also and they have never overwhelmed me as much as this IC has.

Benadryl really helps with my IC and helps me sleep but I had to quit taking it because it dryed out my eyes so much. By morning my eyes would be red and burning. I had tryed lunesta for sleep but I don`t like that as well as the ambien. Its a constant balancing act with these DDs.

Hope things get better for you soon.
Sandy

[mellusk]

Thanks everybody. Just finally figuring out the source for my flare helped, because it got me calmed down enough to start a plan of attack. Since I hadn't tried eating yogurt yet, I was hesitant to place it so near my bladder, and I opted to use acidophilus tablets instead. That is one of the probiotics in yogurt that is supposed to help yeast infections. I used one of those as a vaginal suppository (made sure I bought one that could dissolve) and it was gone by Saturday morning. I followed up with two more treatments just to be one the safe side, and it just meant I couldn't wear nice underwear for a little while, heh.
I was able to have a great weekend, and I discovered that, wow, I can be pretty permissive with my diet. Physical and/or mental stressors by far are the largest culprits with me. So it's nice to know that I can be more widely experimental with food now, but the challenge is to find some sort of zen-like state of mind so I stay completely calm at all times...I think that's probably going to be a little bit harder.