Oral yeast infection

January 19, 2005

So I was at the allergist last week, meeting with the cute “nurse practitioner” Angie (don’t know what that title means, aren’t all nurses practicing some kind of medicine?). And I heard something I hope to never hear again–I have an oral yeast infection.

The yeast is this yucky-looking white stuff that is on the roof of my mouth. I can sorta taste it, it has a weird bumpy texture. Shudder.

One of the possible side-effects of Advair, the steroid in that medication can cause the yeast infection. I’ve been rinsing and gargling each time I use the Advair inhaler but it wasn’t enough.

So Angie has prescribed yet another medication, diflucan. To add insult to injury, this is the medication doctors usually prescribe for women’s vaginal yeast infection. Gross, I’ve apparently got the same basic infection but in my mouth instead. Ugh.

Anyway, it’s a seven day course of diflucan (though the pharmacy actually gave me the generic version, fluconazole). Just started today, though I got the prescription last week. It took a while to get it filled because the original prescription from Angie had a dosage that I guess the insurance company wouldn’t pay for so they had to get faxed authorization from the allergist to fill the prescription.

I’ll let you know how it goes. I took the first dose this morning but have not noticed any difference–I can still taste the yeast on the roof of my mouth.