Lyme Disease and co-infections. Lizzie articulated my thoughts very well, so just read her post again. :)

DS can't take claritin, zyrtec or allegra - we have behavior issues and depression, and ooh, it's miserable. Singulair was a nightmare beyond explaining. Rages. He was in a study, for that one. He takes Rx Nasonex daily, plus extra Benadryl as needed. We buy the dye free tablets from CVS, but I've seen it at Target, too. He reacts to red dye, as well, so we are very careful with that one. We use HEPA carbon filters in the house on every floor. Keep windows closed. House is very, very clean - can't allow allergens to accumulate. During terrible allergy days - we don't go out much. I keep an eye on pollen.com and use their app. Good luck!

Yes, most of us have it. What are you looking for, specifically?

We have turtles. Agree with the above. The cleaning isn't anyone's favorite, but once you have a routine it's not bad. Practice good handwashing.

Someone else can give better directions probably, but just go to your local library's website and follow the directions. You'll probably need to download an app called Overdrive, but maybe not. It's liberating! And fun. :)

Well, boo! Stolen library books are terrible. You might check out your local library's ebooks, see what's available there, if you were to go the Kindle route. Otherwise - I'm all for books. Not one to tell you to curb the book buying. Shop away. :)

Are there ever too many books? :) Seriously, why not take her to the library and let her check some of these books out before her birthday and Christmas? Or if she doesn't have a Kindle, maybe consider that for a gift, and learn to use the library for Kindle books? Give her some special books, and others can be over time - checked out of the library, bought piece by piece at the bookstore, or borrowed on the Kindle.

That is a great story. :)

I liked this post, and then realized that doing so might look odd. I agree here. If this is so upsetting, it's time to walk away for your mental health. Not meant in a snarky way, but in a protect-yourself way. It's hard to understand when posters say they are done, and then come back to the same thread over and over. Don't let it stress you out to that level. The "fed up" level. It's a message board. With people from all walks of life. We don't all believe the same things, we're not going to agree.

I didn't mean to sound discouraging. Promise. It was so, so hard for me, and still a struggle - not just candida but keeping all of the gut stuff in balance. My doc has put in a lot of work! I think one of the big tricks was once we killed off one thing, we needed to be sure to repopulate with something "good"... So that something else didn't suddenly overpopulate. So while you kill off the yeast, add back good stuff - good probiotics, S. Boulardii, etc. :grouphug:

Diflucan + diet. Like others said, you'll feel horrible. But just tell yourself that if you feel this bad, the candida feels worse. That kept me going. Lemon water, epsom baths both help with detoxing the die off. Not sure how long others here consider a round of Diflucan, but my doc Rx's a month, sometimes more. If you had IV abx, it's probably going to be necessary. I took Diflucan intermittently while on IV abx (I was on long-term, and on oral abx treatment for years due to chronic infections). You might also consider taking some S. Boulardii to help with gut health. S. Boulardii is a beneficial yeast - NOT candida, so don't worry. Beneficial is the key word. :) And getting that population into your body might help. Bonus is that it prevents C Diff. :) I take it daily, the family takes it whenever on abx. I have no choice but to take it daily - it makes a huge difference for me in terms of fatigue, energy, and general daily health, but I have terrible GI health and am working hard to rebalance. Another good supplement is CandiBactin by Metagenics - good for gut health as well. It's possible that you have GI dysbiosis (well, with candida, you certainly do - as dysbiosis is a fairly general term)... I'm thinking you might have overgrowths of more than just candida, and getting that other stuff under control might be necessary to getting the candida under control, if you were on abx a long time, and this is still going on a year later. For me, getting the dysbiosis figured out was a first step to taking care of candida - there was a whole process to rebalancing things that had to happen, and it was more than just candida. My doc worked with an integrated medicine doc to get me in better shape. Would that be an option for you?

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: I'm glad you have an excellent safety net. Hopefully the meds will get sorted quickly.

I have had those lines go through my head soooo many times. It is painful. Parenting intense kids is utterly exhausting. And rewarding. And then exhausting and challenging, and all one can do is fall into bed at night.

There is a social group for this? May I join?

Yes, check out the Manic Panic website. DS has dark hair (but not as dark as the pic), and we do blue streaks without bleaching. It doesn't come out quite so vibrant, and he'd probably like to bleach a strip first. It has more of a greenish undertone to it. If you use Manic Panic on bleached hair, they will fade slowly, and color you choose will impact the way they fade. Pink fades to strawberry blonde, blue fades to greenish first before fading away. Purple - I can't remember. Oops. I do pink streak and always bleach first. Need to redo them, they've faded to strawberry blonde. We like color here. It's that heavy Katy Perry influence. :)

Eeeewwwwww. Original only here.

Yes. If it doesn't interfere with any of her meds, trazadone is excellent for sleep. Small warning: double check the med interaction checkers! I convinced my mom to ask about trazadone instead of ambien (issues with ambien), and she ended up almost in the hospital with extremely high liver enzymes. Yikes, it was scary. Always check those meds, don't just trust your doc or the pharmacist to catch it! (That's my PSA of the day.)

We use the kitchen table for projects, the couch for reading, and DS has a roll top desk in our living room for work, too. He keeps his school books in a basket beside the desk, and I have my books/planners/supplies in a secretary type desk in the same room. Bulging bookcases. :) Bins with science supplies, art supplies in the kitchen. We know where everything is, but we don't have a dedicated school room. The one year we tried that ... it was a giant fail. We just don't do school in a room, we tend to learn all over the house, all the time. The room was ignored, though it looked nice, and was fun to set up. Our schedule might be too loosey goosey for you. I don't attach times to anything we do. We have a routine, but it's not happening at the same time each day. But once we start our "school day" we do the same subjects every day, in the same order. I divide up how much work I want done in a week, and often if there's a subject in which DS can work ahead - he does. This week, he's finished all of his grammar assignments. So technically we won't be doing grammar for the rest of the week, but he still finished everything for the week. He likes to surprise me by working ahead. :) I act surprised every time. We study most subjects every day, but we generally do one official art project each week which corresponds to our history (this year we are doing American History, so we are studying American artists). We also usually devote only one day to poetry, unless DS asks for more. Other than that, it's basically every subject every day, but DS is they type to delve deeply into his interests during his non-school hours, so he's still spending months on topics of interest, even if we move on. He tends to fall asleep listening to science audiobooks - right now it is A Short History of Nearly Everything. Sometimes he does history audiobooks before bed, too. We do school Mon - Thurs, with Fri being a school-light day because he has appts out of the house. We finish anything he didn't do during the week on the weekend. And we go on a lot of field trips, because we are in a good area for that. We do those on the weekends so DH can go, too.

Yippee!

I agree that it should be offered first. Not as a last resort. I've posted a few times about it here, since C Diff is the bane of my existence. And it scares the pants off of me. My doc has suggested that I find a donor, however, I've yet to find a suitable donor. DH was my first choice, but he has some issues that make the doc feel he's not appropriate. Ideally one's kids would be the first choice, but both of mine have been on abx multiple times. For awhile, I found myself evaluating each of our friends for gut-health, and looking at dinner party guests as potential donors. :) Never asked anyone, I am not brave enough. Night Elf, if you have a healthy gut - you might consider doing this for your DD. It is actually something one can do at home, with some guidance. I have *not* done it, but my doc has gone over it with me several times.

Thank you for posting about it!

Oh no, I'm sorry. I've had (have?) a problem with recurring C Diff. It is horrible. And scary, and worrisome, and just horribly painful. Obviously, if she thinks she may be relapsing, a call to the doc is in order. The right meds are important. So that's first. In addition to the usual probiotics, please make sure she takes S. Boulardii. One brand name that has been tested extensively for treating C Diff is Florastor. You can order it from Amazon, or they carry it at CVS. It is a beneficial yeast, and it "eats" C Diff. Everyone in our family now takes it whenever they are on abx, but I take it every day. If I don't, I feel it. It's expensive, but worth it. Take it at least 2 hours away from her abx to treat the C Diff. If she takes Vanco, also keep an eye out for "Red Man Syndrome" ... It starts out looking like a sunburn, and is easy to overlook till it's pretty severe and uncomfortable. Don't ask how I know! My doctor has been very proactive about learning more options, too, as this is an on-going thing for me. In the past, if I've suspected a relapse, I've sometimes managed to stave it off. I've used oil of oregano, raw garlic, CandiBactin-BR by Metagenics, and a host of other supplements. The last resort, of course, is a fecal transplant. It doesn't sound like your daughter is there yet. I have considered it, and if I could find an appropriate donor - I wouldn't hesitate. Sounds awful, but desperate times, desperate measures. :) I hope she feels better soon. And I hope it's not a relapse! Keep us posted.

Is this it?

So happy that at least you finally got through and spoke to a real person. I hope you'll get into imaging soon, and have all the answers you need - and that they will be the best possible answers. Thinking of you.

I'd join. :)