Signs of Yeast Infection - My Nightmare Warning

by anonymous
(Vancouver, BC)

The day started out just fine. It was a sunday during Christmas holidays. We had no kid's sporting activities to race off to, so I was busy making breakfast for the family.

I decided to take the lazy way out and use a pancake mix for the pancakes. They smelled really good as I was cooking them, but because they had wheat and milk in them, I knew that they would likely not agree with me.

I decided to quickly adapt our homemade pancake recipe that I usually used. I'd been trying to eat gluten free, so I used amaranth, chickpea and quinoa flour (what I had on hand) with almond milk. The batter tasted horrible, but I forged on - I just really wanted some pancakes like the rest of the family.

I put butter and lots of syrup on my pancakes - this helped mask the bitter taste, but I knew the syrup and even the butter may likely come back to haunt me.

Little did I know how I'd pay for it all later.

I took the kids christmas shopping and all went well. We found what we needed and began to head home. The ground was just starting to turn white from the snow that had begun to fall. The much awaited snow had finally arrived. Thank goodness, we had invested in some snow tires this year. I popped 2 peppermint tictacs in my mouth as we left the mall parking lot and headed to the nearest gas station before hitting the highway.

The gas pump was really slow. It felt like it was taking forever to fill the car's gas tank. I had a wave of nausea. "That's weird", I thought, "I've had peppermint tictacs lots of times with no ill effect." (In fact, it had become my new satisfaction for my sweet cravings...I knew this familiar craving for sugar was my bodies warning sign. I'd been ignoring it.)

I jumped into the car to get driving home before the roads really got covered in snow. It was a 30 minute drive. More waves of nausea. I was starting to feel really awful. I needed to turn the car's heat off. That helped a little. Then, I had to open the windows as I flew down the freeway. The kids were freezing, but amazingly supportive. I badly needed the fresh air to control the nausea and I think they knew it. I started to plan what I was going to do if the nauseousness took a turn for the worst - which I could tell was going to happen any minute.

With relief, I pulled off the highway onto the the back roads to our house. Oh no, this was not good. I was feeling so sick. I had to pull over. FAST! I pulled into the driveway of a farmer's field, jumped out of the car, and tried to find a spot out of the kid's view. Ug!!! This was bad. I still had 10 minutes more to drive and I didn't know if I could make it. I gingerly got back into the car, after losing my breakfast.

I struggled the whole rest of the drive. The slowest driver in the world was in front of me. Thankfully, I finally pulled into our driveway. I raced into the house and spent the next 2 hours being violently ill. Whenever I tried to lay down in bed, I found myself heading back to the bathroom. Finally, I slept for a good couple of hours.

I woke up to the sounds of chopping wood and kids playing in the snow. I felt soooo much better. It was late afternoon.

I knew it wasn't the flu. I knew it was my body telling me to get a grip and eat more cleanly.

In the days leading up to this challenging day, I had eaten some bite size brownies, munched on nuts and bolts, nibbled sugar cookies, had a few vodka coolers and forgotten to take my probiotics (among other transgressions). I find it very hard to eat the 'right' way all the time. Denial can be blissful in the moment that the bite size brownie melts and delightfully dances with my tastebuds. (can you tell it's love!)
Maybe some of my flours were a bit rancid, the pancakes did have a real twang to them. Although my iron gut husband had some and he was spared the violent reaction I had. The unfairness of Candida!!!!
I felt compelled to share this day with you. It is my lingering reminder that Candida is permanently part of my life. I have good days, good weeks, good months...but I can also be quickly reminded that my digestive system needs to be handled with care - most of the time. Oh- how humbling it is.
Hope this helps someone else if they can see we all have good days and bad. Happily, more good days win out!!