Yeast Infection in a Bottle

There is a red butterfly flaring across my cheeks. The dermatologists are booked a month out, so I let it go for a week, then I go to Urgent Care. It burns and flares. I expect them to give me some sort of cream. Instead, the Medical Assistant brings in four different doctors and a nurse to gawk at my face.

“Sorry, hope you don’t mind,” he says. “It’s just that we don’t get to see stuff like this very often. It’s a good learning experience for us.”

I feel like a freakshow. Finally he informs me I might have lupus, an auto-immune disorder where the body attacks its own tissues. He has my blood drawn, instructs me to pee in a cup, and gives me firm directions to follow up with my primary doctor for the test results.

My test results are negative for lupus. “It’s probably rosacea,” my primary doctor says. “I’ll get you in to see a dermatologist right away.

“You have rosacea,” the dermatologist proclaims, almost instantly after meeting me for the first time.

Isn’t there some test they should perform, or something to validate this diagnosis, I wonder. Plus, it seems suspiciously coincidental that this alleged skin condition has appeared out of nowhere, immediately after experiencing the most stressful time in my life, in which my mom almost died from a stroke and spent four months in the hospital. So I ask the dermatologist what causes rosacea.

“Nothing causes it. It just happens. Especially to people with fair skin.”

I have since researched this on the web, and found no legitimate causes for rosacea, but still this answer is unsatisfactory to me. Even more unsatisfactory is the recommended treatment: topical and oral antibiotics. Long term. That’s it. It’s the anti-inflammatory component of the antibiotics that seem to help with rosacea symptoms, the small red bumps I get on my cheeks and nose, the swelling and redness in my eyelids. Yes, you heard me. Despite all the hype about our overuse of antibiotics, and the resulting increasing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics, this is the only treatment for rosacea: go on antibiotics, forever. Fun. Especially for women, who know about the consequences of using antibiotics long term…aside from reducing the effectiveness of birth control pills…you get to have…yeast infections! Shortly after I started taking these antibiotics, I experienced my first yeast infection. I was horrified. Soon after that, I stopped taking the antibiotics and went to see another dermatologist, convinced that this dermatologist would give me a different treatment option. He didn’t. And he was even more abrupt and impersonal than the first one. So, for several years, I took the antibiotics off and on….staying off the antibiotics until my rosacea symptoms reappeared….going back on the antibiotics long enough for my rosacea symptoms to disappear and my next yeast infection to surface.

The last time I went back to the dermatologist, she made no attempt to hide her impatience.

“You might as well quit expecting a miracle to happen and just start taking the medicine,” she told me. It was so blunt and impersonal that I laughed out loud. She had no interest in my personal circumstances, like stress factors in my life, or the terrible side effects of these medications.

She did follow it up, then, with, “I mean, I’m sorry to be so direct, but you might as well face the facts. You need to stay on the maximum dosage for at least a year. Then I can help you taper it off to a more minimal dosage. This isn’t something to mess around with. Especially when your eyes start to be affected.”

So now, in addition to 100 mg twice daily of minocycline (AKA yeast infection in a bottle), due to the yeast infection issue, once per month tablet of fluconazole. Plus a topical gel antibiotic, which, as the pharmacist said to me last time I filled the prescription, “You don’t want to take this long-term, because it will permanently thin the top layer of your skin.”

As I read all the warning signs about taking these medications long term…permanent yellowing or graying of your teeth and gums…is dangerous to a fetus…toxic to children under 8…extreme sensitivity to sun….discontinue immediately if you feel short of breath or light headed…and the list goes on…I’m still experiencing the discomfort of my most recent yeast infection, I’m beginning to wonder if the risks outweigh the benefits. I wish for doctors and medical professionals who treat more holistically…the whole person rather than just the symptoms, doctors who give options other than medications or surgery.