Over the last two years, I’ve been frequently sick with sinus infections and a host of other crap, that’s been getting more and more serious and debilitating, every few months at best. This is in addition to a barrage of other transient-yet-chronic ailments I’ve endured since I was a kid.
I’ve noticed it corresponds to diet to some degree, stress, and my menstrual cycle. Recently my kidneys have started aching after drinking alcohol, and I suffered a really weird fainting spell where the contents of my bladder voided while I was unconscious.
My symptoms are systemic, transient, and hard to track/nail down. I’ve gone on a couple diet eliminations in 2010 and 2011 which helped me figure out that I have a thing against wheat and milk protein, but even those things I seem to have a varying tolerance for.
In addition to the random stuff and acne and IBS and on and on, I was sick again a month ago with the sinus/head cold thing I periodically get since 2008, and came down with the same thing again this week. Just about every time I get sick like this I spend some time researching what it could be or how to alleviate my symptoms, or go to a doctor to be further frustrated and feel like a freak because no one can tell me what the fuck is going on.
It’s gone from every 3 months to more like every 3 weeks. Last week I remember being able to breathe as I was walking around Dublin and thinking “Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve been sick” and realizing it had only been two and a half weeks — and this was after passing out and pissing myself two days before.
This has been a devastating and difficult road. If you’ve followed my posts about PMS, acne, PCOS and the like, you probably know how challenging my health has been both emotionally and physically, especially over the last few years. I’ve also experienced periods of chronic UTI’s and ulcers, chronic respiratory infections, and various stages of utter shit digestion for as long as I can remember.
General information about Candida: http://www.holistichelp.net/candida.html
I just took the Candida spit test, and within a few minutes tested positive with ‘legs’ streaming down my glass, which is the most concrete fucking evidence of an actual cause of all this shit than I’ve ever had, including blood testing.
Spit test (controversial):
http://www.candida-yeast-problems.com/spittest.html
Further research online reveals how difficult Candida overgrowth is to deal with, which also falls in line with my experience. Even knowing it had something to do with my guts and food and probiotics and sugar and booze, and that sometimes garlic helped and sometimes it didnt, and sometimes fasting helped and sometimes it didn’t, and sometimes I could eat bread and sometimes I couldn’t, the results of the things I’ve tried as I’ve gotten closer to understanding what’s been going on just haven’t been good enough to convince me I was on the right track. I’ve been considering things like Lupus, Syphilis, MS, trying to make sense of what the fuck is happening in my body.
Lab test: (180 or above is positive, my result is 319)
http://www.jigsawhealth.com/resources/testing-candida
The most effective (remotely affordable) treatment seems to be a handful of products that are, put simply, too expensive for me. But I’m gonna give the main factor, a carpet bombing of Fivelac probiotic, which is reviewed consistently better than the random brands I’ve tried in the past, and a Candida diet (basically another elimination) a shot and see if that works, first, before doing the whole spendy shebang.
Alternative treatments: http://www.candidasupport.org/
I sure hope Candida isn’t what makes my vagina taste so awesome. Cause I’m so gonna fuck that shit up, now.
Conventional treatments:
http://www.jigsawhealth.com/resources/candida-medicine