Mom has been out of treatment for almost 7 weeks. She has been dealing with a terrible case of thrush. A week of Nystatin and it only got worse, burning terribly with each dose. Then tried Ketaconazol pills. After a week it wasn't much better so called the doctor and he ordered Diflucan. Went to Wal Mart Monday and got the Rx and was so surprised it was only 1 pill. Read the insert and it said she was supposed to feel better in 24 hours and if it wasn't better in 3-5 days call your doctor. We thought Wow! one pill and you're supposed to feel better! Great! Took it, felt a little better but by Thursday still not gone so called Dr. Had an opening for Friday so we went in. Dr. ends up telling us he ordered one pill per day for 7 days, not just one pill. Turns out Wal Mart only gave her 1 pill because that's all the insurance covers of the 150 mg. Get 100 mg or 200 mg and they'll cover it but you only get 150 mg one pill. Insurance is stupid, but Wal Mart didn't tell me there was a discrepancy between what they were giving me and what the doctor ordered, nor did they tell the doctors office they wouldn't be filling the order as written. They just let a patient be sick for an extra week. Blatent disregard for patient care! Complaint to manager made and will change pharmacies, but boy am I still burning up.
So, has anyone else had such a hard time with a thrush infection? She was just about to start trying to try oral feeding and is so disappointed to be delayed for weeks.

Yeh, we did, read up on thrush, it can spread throughout the GI tract, Frank ended up in the hospital one time on IV diflucan, and high carbohydrate diet can feed into it.........as far as pharmacy screw ups, I had a scrip for a pill label for 6 times a day, instead of 3 times a day.......that could kill someone..........I have a suggestion for all on the Board, get yourself a drug book, doesn`t need to be Merck Manual, but one that tells you normal dosages and side effects, that I have never have a doctor tell me about......Hugs, Dee

hi jobeeg,

>So, has anyone else had such a hard time with a thrush infection?

yes. 3 times at about 1 month intervals, the doc ordered 10 tablets of Diflucan for me... 1 per day. it took that much to knock it back.

i was quite suprised to learn that 1 pill is usually enough for a typical yeast infection that women sometimes get.

hope your mom gets to feeling better. thrush is not fun.

cu,
larryb

My doc put me on diflucan, Friday. It is a 13 day treatment, 2 pills the first day and then 1 each day for a total of 13 days...
I'll ad a litle southern culture here. Thrush, being a realitively common disorder in infants, there are a plethora of old times remedies, one of which is, a seventh son can cure thrush simplly by holding the afflicted child and blowing into it's mouth.
I am not yet ready to seek that cure.....
Darrell

I had a long, ongoing problem with thrush, especially after a round of antibiotics for an infection. I took 400 mg. of Diflucan every day for months. Been fine ever since.

Thrush gone systemic can be fatal.

Some more Diflucan tidbits:

A standard "maintenance" dose is 50 mg/day.

The drug manufacturers maximum recommended dose rate is 200 mg/day.

For your garden variety female yeast infection the standard dose is 1 100mg tablet. They probably don't see that many people at the WalMart pharmacy getting Diflucan for oral candidiasis.

AIDS patients can get up to 800mg a day.

Gary, you took the meds for a long time, but how long did it take for the thrush lesions to heal? Is there something besides the Rx that we can do to kill the yeast? I did order something called fungal defense from a place called primaldefenseandbeyond.com Mom has had 3 days of the 200 mg and so far no effect.
Also, for genital yeast infections they say to drink cranberry juice and eat yogurt. I've been putting yogurt in foods for the peg tube meals. What else should one do???

Cranberry juice is great if you can stand the burning. I had to dilute it so much it probably lost its effectiveness. I tried the yogurt stuff also to little effect. I had lesions from radiation burns and other damage as well so I don't really know what was directly caused by thrush. It took months for everything to get back to "normal". I kind of remember about 3-4 months post Tx when the worst of it was over.

Diflucan (or other drugs in the "azole" class) is the most effective medication. Nystatin is used alternatively but it is slower acting.

Just dropping by to say that cranberry juice is great for bladder infections, both treating and preventing, but as a woman who needs a Difulcan pill EVERY time she is prescribed antibiotics, I am pretty sure cranberry juice has no effect on my kind of yeast infection. Just a female observation.

Thrush (candida) is a wicked arsenal of attack on the entire immune system for some. I have had hep B and C and when I take Diflucan beyond about 3 days my liver enzymes spike up. It is horrible on the liver. I have tried many things for thrush and some things work short term but it always comes back. I am now tryin a biopathic remedy called "Threelac" that was discovered by Japanese researchers. You have to take about 4 doses per day and it is lactobacillus sporogenous, yeast powder, castor oil, bacillus sutillis and streptococus faecalis. It balances the digestive tract and fights the candida from within. You can read more about it at candidayeastinfection.com if you are interested. I have been taking it for 2 months and if it does come back after one more month of dosing, there is a money back guarentee. It was about $50/month.

I am tired of the insurance company mandating so much presecription rules. I went to pick up some Nexium because I have an esophageal sphincter valve that does not close completely and causes acid reflux. I was advised that I am only allowed 90 per year. I went to pick up some Vioxx because of a car accident a few weeks ago where I was rear ended and it helps my neck. In addition, I believe in the antigeogenesis characteristics of Cox inhibitors. Studies have shown the gradually reduce the blood supply that tumors feed on. I had to pay $122 because the insurance company has "profiled" acceptable users of Vioxx and you have to be a male over 55 to qualify as it is also used for chronic arthritis pain. I am only 48 so I had to pay full price. This is Blue Cross Blue Shield of all companies. When I was on the hep C treatment, the insurance I was on at the time changed over to mail order fulfillment. I got a refill on December 30 since the new insurance started Jan 1. They had already deleted me on the old and added me to the new so I had to pay $3000+ to get my Ribavirin and Alph-interferon. I could not interrupt the treatment so I got 14 of the pills and had 5 days to fight for the injections. It only cost me about $300 this way. It is so frustrating when the insurance companies get involved. My father is a pharmacist and he has two pharmacy techs that spend 100% of their day in contact with the insurance companies because of the myriad of new rules and limitations they implement unilaterally. When does it end?

Ed

I forgot to mention. I check this site to better understand all the meds and issues around them:

http://www.pdrhealth.com/

It is a site by Physicians Desk Reference, the bible of meds used by doctors and pharmacists. Here is a link on Diflucan, for example: http://www.pdrhealth.com/drug_info/rxdrugprofiles/drugs/dif1135.shtml

Ed

Hi Ed,
I also have Hep C and the diflucan didn't seem to make any difference on my bloodwork (stog, etc.).

My best friend gets his Vioxx from Canada for almost half the cost.