My visit with Dr.

[Guest guest]

I still can't believe I flew all the way to Phoenix just to see a doctor, but

I'm really glad I did.

My visit began with a consultation. Dr. was not what I expected: gray

haired,friendly, obviously intelligent but not pretentious. Something about his

personality was very funny to me (He kept calling me " kid " , " kiddo " , " dear " ,

" girl " -- just really amusing.) Anyway, there he found out how I got vv, what

meds I have tried, what my symptoms were, etc. He also took a general medical

history. Next, in the exam, he took a very thorough wet smear, did a pelvic

exam, as well as looked at everything through a microscope. There I learned

that although my pain is all external, the skin inside my vagina is also red and

thin-- I had no idea I also had internal symptoms! He also confirmed that in my

case the estrace had been a good idea, and has prescribed that I also take it

intravaginally because hormonally I'm still recovering from breastfeeding (I

just weaned my son 2 months ago, and had nursed him for 19 months.) He

explained the whole time what he was seeing and what it meant, at times giving

his nurse and resident a chance to look too-- I really liked his attitude toward

his staff (and it showed in how great they were to me, too.)

Next it was off to the microscopes where both he and his staff studied my wet

smears. The most notable thing was that there was almost no lactobacilli at

all. (At first he said " none " but then added, " well, there's one... " ) He also

saw a non albicans yeast, so has given me 5 rounds of Diflucan. He looked at

how my cells are " maturing " or recovering from breastfeeding etc. Oh, and he

tole me to have an Aveeno sitz bath one or two times each day... It was all so

enlightening: everything he was seeing was making a lot of sense judging by my

level of recovery. So the theory now is that it probably was a yeast infection

that started all this, then when I had that chemical irriataion from the OTC

yeast cream it caused me to loose a layer of skin in my vagina and labia (that I

totally believe, it was awful) and that being in the estrogen repressed state

that I have been in, those epethilial cells haven't fully grown back. Yet!

That means they will, or at least might, and that I have some healing to do yet!

Of course, this was all very good news to me, and in one month I'll be going

back. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, but it was just so gratifying

to find out _why_ I've been hurting...

I guess that's all. Sorry for this long post, I hope it appropriate to share

with the list. It is just such a big step for me to be seeking such expert

help.

warmly,

Stacie