RE: newcomer, sharing my story

[Guest guest]

Dear

You could be writing about my

history, its almost identical, luckily I never developed UTI’s or VV, I am very

lucky.

 I have been plagued with what I thought was yeast for over 3 years

now and I too have gone from Doc to Doc, specialist to specialist and spent so

much money and at the end of the day I have not found any of the answers I was

looking for.  I think the most

frustrating part is that there doesn’t seem to be anyone out there that can

help or that have any answers and I keep on hitting a wall.  My dermatologist also put me on Tripelene, I

was only on 10mg per day, I couldn’t stand the feeling that I gave me and felt

very out of control, I know that your body eventually gets used to it, but I still

didn’t like taking them, I eventually went off them as I didn’t have pain and

my homeopath says that docs only give this to you if they don’t know what else

to do for you, obviously this will be different for women who have pain and VV.

;0)

Tonight I am exploring the only

other field that I have never gone into and that is the mind, I am doing “the

journey” (originally by Bays) and I am really looking forward to it, I feel

positive that this is going to work for me, I will let you know the

outcome.  It has taken me 3 years to

finally get to this point, and I feel that after a long time we do eventually explore

other avenues. 

Good luck

Mandy

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 8/12/04 12:20:57 PM, VulvarDisorders

writes:

<< Maybe It was an allergic reaction to something? >>

You had an allergic reaction to Monistat - which is very common. It's

resulted in chronic inflammation in your vulvar area, especially your vestibule

which makes sex painful. The inflammation also makes a nice environment for

infections to take hold. Stop taking topical yeast medications and that should

help relieve some of the inflammation. Don't take any oral medications like

antibiotics unless you test positive for an uti.

As for the Elavil that you're taking (the anti-depressant), 10mg. isn't going

to do anything, you need a much higher dose usually and it can take a few

months to work. It probably works for about a third of the vvs patients that

take it.

You may want to try some anti-inflammatories, most of us with vvs find we

have more results with them. Especially the Lidocaine Cotton Ball Treatment.

Check the archives for information about it:

Debbie

Tiger

" Hey Tiger, quit bringing quotes from UC to the Bruce list!! :-) " - Jim G.,

5/4/04

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 8/13/04 11:46:31 AM, VulvarDisorders

writes:

<< i'm not sure if it's allergies or not considering that i never had a yeast

infection in the first place. >>

Actually, since you weren't tested - you can't be sure you didn't have an

yeast infection. Especially since you did say that Monistat helped a little.

<<The only thing I can think of is maybe a certain spemicide on a condom.

IAlthough I did not use these condoms and did not have sex for months.

Therefore

It should have felt better during that time no?>>

Not necessarily. When one has vvs that was brought about by an allergic

reaction to something, once the irritant is gone - the tissue still keeps

reacting

to it. Quite often getting worse at times. One's immune system is still

valiantly fighting the irritant and for whatever reason - doesn't turn off when

the irritant is gone.

<<And I also have internal itching and pain which does not seem to be

allergies. >>

You're not quite understanding. You think an allergic reaction has to be to

something like ragweed that you encounter every day. That's not so. From the

history that you have posted, more than likely your allergic reaction was to

the Monistat - which you used inside of your vagina. The one day and three

day versions of it are notorius on the vv/vvs lists for resulting in vvs. The

Monistat irritated the tissue and has resulted in inflammation in the tissue

and nerves that has no intention of going away. If you had never used the

Monistat, the inflammation and itiching you had may have gone away on it's own.

You mentioned in your earlier post that Protopic helped you. It's an

anti-inflammatory and it appears that Protopic did attack some of your

inflammation.

Elidel (another anti-inflammatory) has helped some women with vvs too.

However, using either for one for a week was not sufficient for gaining control

of

your vvs. You need to use anti-inflammatories (non-cortisone/steroid ones)

for months, usually at least two before seeing significant results with vvs.

Unfortunately, with Elidel - it seems to stop working after several months for

some women. There's information about it in the Vulvodynia list's archives,

documented her experiment with it. I do believe there are posts in this

list's archives about Protopic.

As I mentioned earlier, since you're so new to vvs - the Lidocaine Cotton

Ball treatment might be a good choice for you to start with. There are few side

effects and it's quite inexpensive. All you need is Lidocaine 5% ointment and

a bag of cotton balls. The Vulvodynia list's archives has more information

about using the Lidocaine Cotton Ball treatment - especially how to apply it on

the cotton ball and where to place the cotton ball. The list also has

several more women using the LCB treatment who participate by posting about

their

experiences with it than this list does.

The VPD list and the Vulvodynia list are both excellent research tools for

broadening one's knowledge about vv/vvs. However, the archives on each list do

differ and what one list might have a wealth of information about - does not

mean the other list does too. When I point out the archives on one list as a

source to search, I'm not implying one list is better than the other - just in

that instance, one is going to find more information in L list's archives

because the subscribers of L list have shared more experiences about that

treatment than J list's subscribers have.

Debbie

Tiger

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 8/13/04 11:46:31 AM, VulvarDisorders

writes:

<< Yes, I'm pretty sure I've had my hormones checked, but

when I asked my doctor he said that your hormones

changed throughout the hole month and he looked at me

like if testing that was stupid. I think he went

ahead and did it anyways, but nothing came of it. >>

No, he didn't test for your hormones. That requires blood or saliva tests.

I think this list has information about the blood tests, the Vulvodynia list

does for saliva tests - which you can order yourself. Anyway - you would know

if he had because you would have to have your blood drawn on certain days of

your menstrual cycle. He does not know how to do this, which is why he didn't

test and tried to make you feel stupid for asking.

<<All she told me was to stop smoking and

start taking vitamins.>>

As for the smoking, it can add to your inflammation.

Debbie

Tiger

" Hey Tiger, quit bringing quotes from UC to the Bruce list!! :-) " - Jim G.,

5/4/04