[lafemelle]

Amelillo, please keep us posted about your observations with your diet! I still try to place a connection between my diet and my symptoms, but from what I can tell there isn't one (for instance, ate tons of sugar and carbs and had quite a bit of alcohol on Friday and all of Friday and Saturday my symptoms were almost absent altogether). So I'd really like to see if you can pinpoint something that seems to cause a guaranteed trigger of your symptoms.

[amelillo13]

Random question:

Is it possible to take too many probiotics? The bottle has no adverse side effects listed, but it does say to just take 1 a day. I sometimes take 2 and I'm just curious if anything bad can happen. Each pill says 5 billion (though it's probably less considering shipping and how long it was on the shelf/not refrigerated,etc.) I used to take one with 10 or 20 billion, so I don't know, just wondering

[lafemelle]

Amelillo, I know for a fact you can't really take too much acidophilus--but you're taking additional probiotics that I'm not sure about.

So, update after my doctor visit yesterday: it was my second visit to the dermatology specialist, who sat down with me and went over my records thoroughly and asked about a million questions to try and get to the bottom of it. She finally said she felt she was wasting my money and she was about to tell me my last hope is to go to the vulvar clinic 8 hours away, and I asked her if she knew anything about DIV (since it's often linked to lichen planus, which she is very knowledgeable about). She didn't know a lot about it, so I explained it to her, and she got really excited and went to grab her vaginal health book. After we talked for awhile, she decided to treat me as the book suggested--she put me on a special kind of antibiotic (can't remember the name, starts with a D) and some hydrocortisone suppositories for 2 weeks. I'm picking them up from the pharmacy today, so I'll start them tonight. I'm trying to stay incredibly positive without getting my hopes up at the same time...I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about there. I just want this nightmare to be over!

(Oh, and as a side note: she did an exam and said it appears the amitriptyline and the lidocaine appear to have made my condition worse! ARGH!)

[Sarah001]

lafemelle that's great, I hope those things work for you. It's about time someone discussed your biopsy results in detail. I suspect it's the topical lidocaine that hasn't helped, alot of women report it makes them worse after a while which is why I'm trying to avoid it. The amitriptyline just changes the way pain signals are reported to the brain so that wouldn't do any damage to the actual vagina/vulva.

amelillo you can get an overgrowth of lactobacillus in the vagina if you have too many probiotics but it's not common and the more likely scenario is they would upset your stomach.

I'm looking into seeing a women's health physio while I wait to go to dermatology, I've got too many problems around my pelvis (with my hypermobility syndrome) to ignore the pelvic floor angle. I'm going to write a list of all the problems I have that could be related to the pelvic floor and make an appointment.

[r3dh3ad]

Lafamelle- Is the antibiotic Duricef? I am keeping my fingers crossed for you!

[lafemelle]

r3dh3ad, yes it is! She's got me on it for two weeks, along with the hydrocortisone suppositories, and she gave me refills to extend to a month if I see improvement after these first two weeks. She did advise I shouldn't judge whether or not the treatment has worked/is working until after the first full two weeks, especially since I've had the problem so long. So, now it's just the waiting game...again...

[lafemelle]

Amelillo, have you started your elimination diet yet? Do you have any updates?

[amelillo13]

Amelillo, have you started your elimination diet yet? Do you have any updates?

I've been having a really hard time trying to eliminate dairy. I avoid milk but then I eat a pudding cup or something with cheese and don't realize until after the fact that I can't eat it >.<

I'll probably stock up on food this weekend and seriously dive into it. I have been keeping a food log for the past week or so and notice a direct connection between dairy consumption and the amount of discharge.

I see my specialist this Thursday and I will be sure to bring it up to him (again) and let you all know what his next plan of action for me is.

How are things going with the cream you are on? I know it hasn't been long, but can you tell at all, or not yet?

[amelillo13]

Stress also makes the discharge a lot worse, so maybe both that and the dairy are coincidence.

[lafemelle]

Stress makes my discharge much worse as well.

It's hard to tell quite yet if the suppositories and the duricef are working; the suppositories melt away during the night and then leak out during the day, so I actually have more discharge and it's hard to tell if it's the suppositories or a combination of them and my regular discharge. I do notice a decrease in the amount of irritation I feel, but that's what hydrocortisone is for so I'm hoping that decrease will last after I'm no longer on the suppositories. All in all, it's really too early to tell. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, as this really is the end of the road for me. If it doesn't work, I can't think of a single thing I haven't tried and I'm honestly and truly going to be stuck.