The Joys of Thrush

When I finally got around to reading the stack of pamphlets I was given when I was diagnosed, I was really angry.  I knew what Crohn's was, that there was no cure and that I would have it for the rest of my life, but while I was reading all of that in black and white it finally HIT me!  I guess I was thinking that as soon as I got healthy again I would just pick up my life where I had left it and continue on as if nothing ever happened.  That was what I was planning on doing, but knowing that I could get sick again really made me mad!  I threw the pamphlets on the floor and cried.  I really cried.  I cried because my boyfriend didn't kiss me with the tube in my nose, I cried because I couldn't eat corn on the cobb ever again and I cried for the Tracey that I felt was gone.  A new Tracey was born, the Crohn's patient Tracey.

My Mom came into the livingroom to consoled me, and when I told her how angry I was she got up and left.  She called me to go into the rec. room off the kitchen and handed me a meat tenderizer.  To get the anger, saddness and frustration out she told me to hit the couch cusions with it.  I wailed on the couch and beat it until I was exhausted.  To this day I sometimes do the same thing, it really works.

My parents were going up to a cottage in Sauble Beach the next day, but I had a doctors appointment, so my sister and her now husband were going to bring me up on the weekend.  I saw my doctor, got my B12 and iron shots and went home.  The next day my mouth was a little sore, but I didn't really think much of it until the next morning when it was really bothering me and it hurt to swallow.  When I looked in the mirror I couldn't believe my eyes!  My tongue, gums and the sides of my mouth had a thick white build-up with some BLACK spots!  I was freaking out.  I called my Gastro and explained to the secretary what was going on, and that I was supposed to be going to the beach in a few hours.  She told me to come in on my way out of town so I finished packing and was ready when my sister came to get me.

I knew that my Gastro's secretary had told him what was going on by the smile on his face.  He actually laughed at me when he saw it.  I told him it wasn't funny and that it hurt and looked worse.  He said it was "thrush".  Of course my first question was "What is that?"  He said it was a yeast infection in my mouth, that was probably caused by a couple of things.  Firstly, because Crohn's is an auto-immune system disease my immune system was weakened, secondly because of some of the medications I was on such as antibiotics, and thirdly I was under stress.  He said it would go away with another medication and started writing out the script.  He told me he was giving me these to suck on, like losenges and not to swallow or chew them.  Like I always did, I asked him how they taste. That question made him giggle, then close his eyes.  He opened them and with a straight face he said to me  "where they are usually used there are no tastes buds" and just stared at me until it sunk in.  I was going to have to suck on vaginal suppositories for vaginal yeast infections.  I couldn't believe my ears!  With a smirk I thanked him and went to get my script filled.

The pharmasist that filled it said she believed that my doctor made a mistake and that she had to call him.  I asked "what mistake is that?".  She said that he had written it out for me to take these orally and laughed.  I told her it wasn't a mistake and opened my mouth to show her.  She stopped laughing, apologized and went to fill it.  As I was leaving the pharmacy with my bag, I heard laughter.  I was happy someone was getting a kick out of it.  It would seem they weren't the only ones.  My family thought it was pretty funny too.  At the cottage everytime my Mom told me it was time for my losenge, someone would laugh.  It was kind of funny.

Luckily if you get it nowadays, there is a liquid that you can use to get rid of thrush.   

A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine go Down, Not with This Medicine.

Keeping in mind that my diagnosis was way back in 1989, there weren't the same treatments that there are today.  There were only a few options to help heal the damage caused by the disease.  Surgery to remove the damaged areas of bowel was a last ditch effort.  Healing the damage using the medications available at the time was the first choice.

I was put on Salofalk, which is a 5-ASA drug used for combating the inflammation in the bowel.  I took it in pill form, eight a day, and also in liquid suppositories at bedtime.  Usually suppositories are used to clean out the bowel, so you have the urge to go quite badly.  When this feeling occurs you usually can give into it, but with these suppositories, to get the healing effect you can't give in, you have to hold it in.  It was very uncomfortable and an experience I had to go through every night for six months.

Imuran was another medication that I was given daily.  It is an immunosuppressive agent used to suppress the bodies immune system.  Crohn's Disease is a disease of the immune system attacking the digestive tract, so this medication stopped the immune system from attacking my bowel causing more damage.  It was effective but opens you up to catching any bug that is around because you can't fight them off.

Prednisone was the worst medication that I had to take.  It is a corticosteroid and is also helps with the inflammation caused by the disease, it is also an immunosuppressive.  It had the worst side-effects of any medication that I have ever taken so far in my life.  It improves your appetite, causes water retention which makes you appear like you have gained a lot of weight, makes you feel lightheaded, nervous or agitated, sweaty and flushed, you can have skin problems from it and a "moon face".  This is when your face becomes almost completely round.  It makes your face puffy-looking as if you had just come from the dentist from having your wisdom teeth removed.  I also had hallucinations.  Those and the anxiety were the worst.

I was also put on a couple of antibiotics but the worst one was Flagyl.  It is used specifically for abdominal infections.  It caused "Thrush" which is a yeast infection in the mouth.  After the many long months of being in the hospital when I was finally able to go home, my sister and her husband were going to take me to the cottage to be with my family for a couple of weeks,  My mouth and tongue had been hurting and very sensitive for a couple of days but when I woke up that morning it was so much worse.  I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and looked at my tongue.  It, my gums and the inside of my cheeks were completely black!  I flipped right out and called my Gastro to find out what the heck was going on.  His secretary told me he wanted me to come in as soon as I could, so I dressed and packed in a hurry, called my sister to come and get me early and headed to his office.  When I got there I opened my mouth, stuck out my tongue and asked him "What now?, what is this?".  Of course he smiled at me like he always did, and told me it was thrush, a yeast infection.  He wrote me out a prescription, and as usual I asked him what it tasted like.  He laughed and said he didn't know, and that where this medication usually goes there aren't any taste buds.  That last part went right over my head and I didn't understand what he was talking about until the script was filled and I was in the car on the way to the cottage.  I opened the bag that it was in, read the package and then it hit me.  The script was for vaginal suppositories for vaginal yeast infections and the directions on the box said that I had to suck on them like lozenges.  YUCK!
When we got to the cottage and my family found out that I had to suck on vaginal yeast infection suppositories, they laughed whenever I had to take a dose. 
Now there is a liquid medication for this problem called Nystatin.  Believe me, it tastes much better. :)