Really desperate

Before I begin, this is quite long to read so please bear with me. I realise a lot of this is my own fault so I'm hoping nobody judges me. I have made a lot of mistakes in my life and this appears to be another one. In mid August I met a girl who's breath was really bad however I tried to see past that because  I liked her personality and I'm not somebody who judges people based on    appearance/smells. I drank a lot of alcohol and kissed her and made the mistake of not brushing my teeth that night (not a common thing for me) I noticed a week afterwards I woke up with exactly the same smell she had from her mouth. Not a normal morning breath smell but a decaying sort of smell. It's a very strong smell in the morning. 

I brushed my teeth and flossed and noticed the smell became much worse. Like I'd disturbed something. Now please don't assume I never flossed between my teeth. I did, but not every day (like I do now)...and anyway, when I did floss I never noticed any bad smells at all. 

Since then the smell from my mouth hasn't fully gone away. If I cup my hands and breathe out there's always a lingering of something unpleasant. Eating and drinking sometimes helps cover it up but only temporarily. It is still always there. 

It may or may not be linked to this girl but I'd never had problems with any kind of bad breath up to that point and I know experts say bad breath can't be transferred from one person to another, but other than the poor oral hygiene that I displayed that night, I can't find any other explanation of why I would have the same smell in my mouth now. They say the mouth is the filthiest place in the human body, right? I did take 2 courses of antibiotics in June so I wonder if this didn't help and left my immune system weakened. The only people I have confided in about this has been a dentist, doctor, the girl herself (I approached her sensitively) and my mum. The dentist and doctor both said they couldn't smell anything bad and that they've smelt worse, the girl herself denied she had bad breath (I couldn't believe the denial, because the smell was so strong), and my mum says when I really exhale there's a hint of something bad but it's not strong. My worry is.....not strong.....yet. 

I know this isn't all in my head and it's really getting to me because nobody is taking me seriously. I've lost weight through changing my diet and the doctors give me patronising looks because I'm a bit of a worrier anyway. They see me looking concerned, and always comment on it. I realise it sounds a bit far fetched and if I were reading this I'd probably be a bit skeptical too (Caught bad breath. Really?) but this is honestly how it happened. I didn't think you could catch bad breath too, hence why I kissed the girl. 

My main symptoms are:

1) Weird vile taste/smell at back of throat/tongue when I clear my throat or swallow. I started to notice this more after I washed my mouth out with salt water. The weird taste never went away. 

2) Really bad smell in morning (Not a normal morning breath smell. I can smell an odour bouncing from my pillow as I wake up), and then still lingering through the day, and when I consume anything (weird taste seems to fill mouth. Palate, tongue, back of throat) 

3) If I go up to a mirror, which has become a bad habit for me now (even at work) and breathe on it, I can normally smell something horrible lingering.

4) Notice a weird salty taste in palate and back of throat when I eat sometimes. After a while the taste of my mouth really changed and I actually smelt faeces. Even when I licked my wrist. It smelt like somebody hadn't shut a toilet door. 

5) Occasional burning palate. Although this may be linked to my acid reflux. 

When I first noticed the bad smell I became obsessed about it and needed to find a reason of why this happened and read up online for some help. 

Up to now I've tried: 

1) Seeing the hygienist for a thorough clean of the teeth and gums (made no difference) 

2) Rinsing and gargling with salt water every night (only made the taste at the back of my mouth worse) 

3) Cut out sugar (I think this has helped a bit as I consumed a lot before in tea, chocolate, ice creams, etc. I've found this hard however, because my weight has dropped a lot and I'm only a slim frame. When I do have the odd bar of chocolate I notice the weird taste in the back of my throat and palate gets worse and the smell is really bad in the morning and for days later)

4) Bought strong probiotics at end of August and finished 30 day course in late Sept

5) Bought anti candida tablets on 24 Sept in combination with multivitamins (did notice the horrible smell finally and gradually improving - less strong - and it almost felt like I had normal breath until I consumed sugar, chocolate or alcohol)...was this the probiotics or the anti candida tablets? Or both? One thing I noticed, when I sucked the anti candida tablets it was like the taste in the back of my mouth really got stronger straight away. Like I can really taste/smell it through my palate. Then seemed to improve quite quickly. Within 2 weeks of being on the tablets (by 6 Oct), whilst cutting down sugar, the bad smell and taste had lessened. In my head, because the tablets were reacting with the bad smell I felt I should stick with them for a while. And the packet says to keep taking until you're better. 

6) Changed diet (linked in with number 3) Eating more fruit although bananas and dairy make the taste weird. Cut down on alcohol. Started drinking more water. 

7) Bought probiotic treatment in mid Sept. Lasted 7 days. Noticed no real improvement whilst on it unless the effectiveness was delayed for a week or two (Took anti candida tablets at end of Sept after this) 

8) Bought oral probiotics. Started taking them after I noticed improvements on candida tablets in a hope to fully eradicate whatever is causing this. A weird smell of vomit to them. Not sure if helping or not. Mouth felt less dry though I think. 

9) Bought a tongue scraper and started to scrape my tongue morning and night. Smell sometimes gets worse after scraping tongue. Like I've disturbed something. Maybe I'm doing it too hard? Occasionally I've scraped near the back of the tongue and smelt something on the scraper. Then my breath smelt slightly better. 

10) I noticed I had been eating a lot of eggs prior to all of this (sometimes 2 boiled eggs at a time) so I gave them up at the beginning of Sept. I ate them again recently and noticed my breath was really bad. But isn't that normal with eggs? 

11) I also cut out dairylea spread (as sometimes it would smell funny and occasionally turn green even when in date) but recently introduced that back into my diet. 

12) I felt like my breath was improving and had a pint of beer from the pump at my local bar. The next day my breath smelt bad again in the morning. Very metallic gassy and vile. I have drank bottled beer, and beer from the pump at other bars and not noticed any difference so wondered if it could be a problem with the yeast content at this bar with their beer as I drank there quite a lot before I got this problem? 

13) Bought cheaper probiotics in mid October. Now taking them with multivitamins and anti candida tablets. 

Does anyone know what could be happening with me? I also have acid reflux and people say this causes bad breath sometimes but would it make its way into between my teeth where I flossed? Has anyone had anything similar? The main thing that makes me anxious is not knowing (having a diagnosis) or how to treat it properly. The doctors aren't fussed. Could it be candida overgrowth and do you think this girl may have had it herself and passed it to me through kissing? Is that possible? Was that just a coincidence? Is it bacterial and so by lessening sugar in my diet I starved the bacteria a little bit of growth? Did the probiotics have an effect until I started consuming chocolate again? Will I ever be able to consume chocolate again? It's hard for me to tell because people say sugar will make your breath worse if it's bacterial and fungal so how to distinguish between the two? 

I could be wrong but I suspect from all of the above it might be a candida overgrowth and the candida tablets might have been working in combination with cutting down on sugar and being on probiotics. Until I had a pint of beer at my local. And then had a crazy day on the sugar again. Bars of chocolate. Ice cream. Then I woke up with terrible breath again. I also scraped a bit hard on the tongue cleaner, can that make breath worse? The smell hasn't reduced again since then and that's where I am now. Feeling like I'm never going to fully get rid of this bad taste/smell for the rest of my life, whilst trying to cover it up with all sorts of different products. Of which I'm not sure which one worked temporarily and if it'll ever work again. I can't live on anti candida tablets and probiotics for the rest of my life

I'm not even sure if candida can cause the type of bad breath I'm describing. The doctor told me I didn't have candida although he didn't test for it. He just looked in my mouth really quickly and said my tongue would be all white/yellow. Well, it almost is, if I don't brush it. Prior to this happening my diet was quite high on bread, nuts, dairy, sugar and alcohol (not much fruit) and I did take antibiotics twice in one month, like I mentioned before. Never took probiotics at that time. 

Thanks for reading all that, I know it's a lot but I wanted to get as much information across as I possibly could so you have a clearer picture and I can see your thoughts. Sometimes it's better to hear an opinion from somebody looking in as you get clouded in your own thoughts. I'm very sensitive and anxious anyway and this is almost destroying me with worry. I feel so vulnerable, like a little kid lost. I just want to know what it is and what will work for me so I can get on with my life. I wish all of you the very best in improving or curing yourselves, I know this is hard to deal with, I feel like I brought this all on to myself, but let's all try to stay positive and help each other. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. God bless.

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