Thoughts on my fungal infection/candida? Terbinafine

Hello George, For being self diagnosed you seem to have a lot of information on candidiasis and i am wondering who prescribed terbinafine.  I am supposing you bought it over the counter.  Firstly, the medical blood test you had would NOT have tested for candida unless specifically ordered which is hardly ever the case.  Secondly, all antifungals have side effects eventually and medication taken internally, (pills) have very serious side effects.  That is the prime reason most doctors do not like to use them. They think candida is not serious enough to warrant the risk.  Both assumptions are problematic.  Candida is serious.  The risk of long term treatment of any antifungal is serious.  What to do?  Your liver function and immune system indicators need to be monitored every two months or so, to see if long term damage is occuring. If any of the numbers are high, you should stop the med immediately and see how you get on for about 4-6 months.  The candida will be diminished from taking the antifungals, but not completely eradicated.  Likewise,  it could be gone completely.  The trouble you are having with alcohol consumption seems to me to indicate you are getting severely dehydrated from drinking which in turn causes constipation and your diet isn't helping  It is also possible the medication (or the candida) has caused some imbalance.  In my case, I was getting frequent blood clots on taking fluconizole and thought it was the medication.  Actually, I found out later it was a sympton of cardovascular involvement in the systemic invasion of candida.  I stopped the medication for a while and felt better and the doctor and I decided it wasn't worth the risk to take further medication.  I have been OK and my athlete's foot is gone(added bonus as oesophageal was the main reason for treatment).  I cut down drinking and stick to one beer or cider a day, sometimes none, sometimes two, but I cannot binge drink.  I did find that throughout my illness with candidiasis, I have fluid balance issues, either I was retaining fluid or becoming severely dehydrating and also suffering from blood sugar fluctuations.  Watch out for that.

Dear George, you are welcome, my experience with candida lasted about two years and not once in that time did I find a doctor who could offer any productive information.  In fact, most of the doctors dismissed me altogether.  From under medicating to underestimating the seriousness of a systemic or multiple focused infection, I soldiered on in desperation.  My only saving grace was a local GP who just let me get on with it, offering follow-up blood tests and trying to prevent any really serious side effects.  He got very edgy when i started having frequent occurances of thrombophlebitis, and, to be honest, I was starting to fear the candida (or the meds) would kill me. I didn't know which.  Having a caring GP gave me the confidence I needed and allowed me to reduce the stress the illness was causing me.  It went away or dormant, but sometimes I take a week's worth of the stockpile of itraconazole, just in case.  Can't help you any more, I'm afraid, but you seem well equiped to figure this out.  The best of luck to you.

Thankfully, I never experienced any withdrawel or symptoms when i finally came off of 8 months of terbinifine. I have no clue as to why, though. I would suggest watching out for the coming loss of taste that most takers of it seem to get. It can take months to get it fully back. Whenever I get a spot of Candida, I just use Lotrimin cream or Clotrimizole on it and it get's rid of it in a few days.