Looking for advice on oral thrush and antibiotics
TLDR: doctors want me to take antibiotics for a sinus infection and I’m worried about getting oral thrush again.
Back in March, I went to urgent care because I had a super red, inflamed and painful ear. The doctor suspected I had a cartilage infection and put me on Keflex to treat it. The antibiotics didn’t touch it, so I followed up with an ENT and then my rheumatologist (I have rheumatoid arthritis) and was prescribed two rounds of steroids. Towards the end of my second round of steroids, I began to have a very sore throat and noticed little white dots on my tonsils. I went back to urgent care thinking I had strep — was tested for that and mono, both come back negative, and when I mentioned I had just been on antibiotics and steroids, the doctor put me on Nystatin for 7-14 days. (Also, my ear ended up clearing on its own. Wasn’t infected and still have no idea what happened)
I then did the Nystatin rinse and swallow for 2 weeks and felt better. Two weeks later, my ENT said thrush was back. I did clotrimazole lozenges for 10 days, went back to ENT and still had a bit on my tongue. Did another round of lozenges for 14 days and have been “clear” of thrush for about a month now. I’ve been rechecked several times in the last month by two ENTs because I’ve developed other symptoms over the last three months (dry mouth, chronic post nasal drip, and nearly constant globus sensation).
This week during one of my scopes, my ENT saw that I have yellow mucus around my adenoids. I’ve also been having pressure in my left maxillary sinus and feeling generally rundown (though I have been since this whole thing started in March). She wants me to take an antibiotic (doxycycline for 10 days). I expressed my concern with this and getting oral thrush again and she said that it’s more likely my oral thrush was caused by being on steroids back to back after antibiotics. She prescribed me a nystatin rinse to have on hand but didn’t want me to take it prophylactically because she doesn’t necessarily think I’ll need it.
I’m really concerned about taking antibiotics yet again — my stomach has been messed up for months and I’m concerned I might have SIBO or just general dysbiosis and I know antibiotics won’t help that, plus the idea of going through treating oral thrush gives me so much anxiety. But I also don’t want to mess with a sinus infection if it’s truly bacterial.
Has anyone else been through a situation like this? It’s so hard to know what to do and I feel like I’m damned if I do, damned if I don’t. Desperate to get my life back!