[Sarah001]

Sorry forgot to answer the ph question, I think the only way to know if you should douche with baking soda is to get some ph strips and test your ph a few times over the month to see what it is. As far as I know raising the ph isn't something women are often told to do as it raises naturally when there's a problem going on like, as you said, blood from a period and of course bv. As far as I'm aware most douches aim to lower it to where it should be but the only way to be sure what's going on with your ph is to test it.

[r3dh3ad]

I'm utterly confused. The nurse from the doctors office called me yesterday and told me that my pap was negative but that I have a bacterial infection! None of my other paps have ever showed a bacterial infection and I am not having any new symptoms than the ones that have been with me for for what seem like a decade. I have been treated with the BV medications in the past with no luck so I'm just really confused. I didn't have the whole work up done because I thought it fruitless. I don't know what to think!

[amelillo13]

Hmmm, well, I just got an interesting phone call. I saw my gyno back on February 17 and he sent a culture out for bacteria. He said he wasn't going to do a yeast culture because mine always come back negative, even though I told him about about the increase in burning. So, almost a month later, I just got a call from his nurse, saying that they were running behind and that my culture had yeast all over it (first time ANYTHING has EVER grown out these past two years), so they are calling me in some Diflucan. What in the world? I haven't had any chunky discharge, just the internal burning, so I guess it makes sense? That would also explain why my pH was low (for once) when I was there. I hate that they waited so long to tell me though. I mean, I've stopped my acidophilus and I was doing that baking soda douche.

That really just frustrates me. Nearly a month later and they tell me. I'm not even sure I trust it at this point, I mean, the doctor never said he saw an increase in yeast on the wet mount. I've probably made it all worse with my food choices as of late too. GRRR! More issues to deal with now! -_-

[ItsASecret]

That really just frustrates me. Nearly a month later and they tell me. I'm not even sure I trust it at this point, I mean, the doctor never said he saw an increase in yeast on the wet mount.

A month is not uncommon. There are a lot of people that have things sent to the lab and there is just not enough time to do everything all at once for everyone expecting answers the next day. One culture can take a few days to finish. The testing after another few days, multiply that by hundreds of other cases and you get a backlog.

As for the yeast, it grows fast and sometimes without warning. There is already some naturally in every woman, as soon as some decides to grow more it goes exponential. There is also the part of infections that can occur without symptoms. The way that happens is there is a lot of bacteria there but not enough to show symptoms, any infection showing symptoms means there is a "critical number" in the population of bacteria, once that particular number is reached that is when bacteria or viruses or whatever is infected enough to show resulting symptoms. It is possible to have x amount of bacteria fully seen under the microscope but have zero symptoms. Your best bet would be to take the meds simply because there is not much else you can do. If you do not want to and want to try out your previous methods because you are simply fed up then go for that, it is entirely your decision.

[Sarah001]

r3dh3ad many months ago when I had the same symptoms I still have I got diagnosed with mild bv (I didn't have alot of discharge or nasty odour though) and the doctor said to leave it and see what happened on my next test and the next time it was gone. She said sometimes our cycles can alter the bacterial balance a bit and often it corrects itself if it's very mild. It wasn't the source of my problems unfortunately and was just an additional issue.

Amelillo is it possible the baking soda douches caused the yeast infection? I know any type of douche can upset the balance but I'm not sure if baking soda is designed to make the area more alkaline or acidic? We don't have the same stuff here in the UK but if it's designed to make the environment more alkaline it's surely leaving you wide open to yeast etc? I've had one yeast infection while I've had symptoms, I suppose it's the same as if we didn't have our constant symptoms, we'd still get these things occasionally. Douches are a bit of a risk in my opinion, I have tried several but searching for information about the ones I've tried have always brought back variable results with some people having complete success with them and others getting more problems from them. I suppose it depends on the individual like so many things. I've given up the douche route now, but I still take Acidophilus religiously or I always get a yeast infection if I stop.

[amelillo13]

The swab was taken before I started the baking soda douche, so it didn't cause the yeast infection. The thing is though, I was taking acidophilus religiously for like a year and a half, because like you, Sarah, anytime I didn't I'd get a yeast infection. Never helped with discharge or anything though. However, before that doctor's appointment on 2/17, I hadn't taken the acidophilus in maybe 3-4 weeks. I'm fairly certain the baking soda is supposed to make it more alkaline and raise the pH, since my pH was a bit too low when I last saw the doc. I thought yeast is usually associated with a lower pH, but it can probably thrive with normal/slightly higher pHs because the ones I had in the past, my pH was perfectly fine.

It's just a really confusing thing because for so long doctors said BV, so taking probiotics is supposed to help with that. Then after nothing works they say, well maybe it's CV and probiotics would only make that worse. I'm not sure which direction I should be going in because if I choose the wrong one it just exacerbates the situation

I am trying to do the yeast free diet just to see if it'll help, but man is it tough! I'm already gluten free due to an allergy, so that helps, but I'm also allergic to eggs which seems to be a staple of the yeast free diet. I'm struggling with finding things I can actually eat. Not to mention, several websites online contradict each other. Some say peanut butter, nuts, and rice are fine, others say they aren't. Some say apple cider vinegar is fine, others say no vinegar at all. Some say butter is fine, others say it's not. I'm so confused! I've also read that I can't eat anything with citric acid in it, and that is in a ton of things, like my lunch meat!

Does anyone have a recommendation on maybe a particular book or something they used while doing the candida diet?

[Sarah001]

It does sound like the lack of acidophilus set off the yeast, I'm just the same and can't skip it or I suffer. I would have thought that would rule out CV though, surely if it was CV and you stopped the acidophilus it would improve things? I've heard CV is incredibly rare and women are much more likely to need extra good bacteria rather than have too much but I could be wrong.

The only book I've got about candida is one by Leon Chaitow which is pretty interesting but not so much all about the diet. It does sound really hard though, I followed the low oxalate diet for a while and that was so restrictive and again there was conflicting advice about items. It didn't help me so I gave up. Have you read anything by Marjorie Crandall? Her name seems to pop up on various forums as someone dedicated to helping women with yeast issues.

[amelillo13]

Well, I must admit I was pretty bad about following the anti-candida diet. I did it for about 4 days and just found it too difficult to continue while hardly eating any carbs. I went to the local bookstore to see if I could find some sort of recipe book/allowed food list, but they didn't have anything. I am going to order a couple off of the internet and seriously try again.

I took 2 rounds of diflucan and I just CANNOT seem to shake this yeast infection! Ugh! I am so miserable right now. As if the BV or whatever it is isn't bad enough, now everything burns constantly! I bought some 7 day monistat to start using. I'm hoping the product won't make the burn worse and that maybe it'll get rid of the yeast. I've started taking the acidophilus pills again, but nothing seems to be helping.

I won't have health insurance again until mid April so I'm not really sure what I am going to do if the monistat doesn't work. It hurts so bad Wish I had better news regarding the infections, but nothing in my life seems to be going well right now. I am just so very tired of this.

[viola]

Nothing about yeast is easy, believe me. I've been through thick and thin trying to get rid of vaginal yeast. I'm finally ok, but I've been on diflocan for months. Before that, I worked with a naturopathic doctor, but nothing really helped, the natural supplements, diet, had to get the RX antifungals route. .... I'm down to a maintance dosage, weekly. I worked with Dr. Crandell, yeast specialist, microbiologist and PHD. I'd highly recommend you go to her websight and order her information packet. She will do phone consults, and I spoke with her many many times for help and advice. I also was under the care of a very good gynocologist, who worked together with Dr. Crandell to figure out my protocall. I still am on a candida diet, mostly very low carbs, absolutely no sugar, (stevia), and no white flour ever. I think I will be paranoid for life about yeast.

[amelillo13]

Hey Ladies,

I have a question for those who have been active in this thread. How many doctors (primary, specialists, or anything else) have you seen for your problems?

I've seen 5 in total, 4 of which were gynecologists, and 1 was my primary general health doc. I am thinking about going to see other specialists in my area, but I'm not sure if it'd even be worth it, especially since I have seen so many already. The specialist I've been seeing for the majority of this infection has flat out said he doesn't know what else to do. I kind of feel like if I go to some other gynecologists, they will either try the same treatments that I've already been on (that have failed), or will say they have no idea.

This infection has pretty much ruined my life, emotionally, physically, financially. I want to get this figured out and not just sit around, but if no treatments are working anyway, then what is the point?

Guess I'm just looking for some advice on what to do. Bad day =/ Maybe I ought to go see a counselor to deal with my emotions about this rather than a gyno. I don't know. I'm just so frustrated on so many levels. I want my life back, pre-infection from h***.