If you have had oral thrush as an adult

[Anonymous]

How did it feel as it was coming on? Before you noticed any white spots? I just finished 2 weeks of a strong antibiotic and my lips and mouth have been increasingly irritated for the past 2 days, feels very chapped and raw on the inside of my mouth. I was thinking possibly thrush but there are no white spots in the inside of my mouth.

[Anonymous]

You will know if you have it. It is extraordinarily painful. I mean like strep throat times 1000. I had meningitis and developed oral thrush as a result of the antibiotics. Between the meningitis headache and the thrush -- the thrush was about 3 x more painful.

[Anonymous]

As the pp said, hurts like hell. Your throat will be on fire and will need to have a lozenge in it all times, otherwise it's unbearable.

[Anonymous]

OP, I had oral thrush after my second child was born and it wasn't that painful. I had a definite coating on my tongue and swished nystatin in my mouth. I don't remember it being a big deal. Hope you get to the bottom of this soon.

[Anonymous]

I think it is very painful, but actually doctors can miss the diagnosis.

My older child was hospitalized for a severe infection and kept telling the doctors she thought she had thrush as she'd had it before. It was so painful she was having trouble speaking and they ordered a speech therapist evaluation (!). I told the therapist I thought she just had thrush and she agreed, and still the doctors wouldn't give her the medication.

Anyway, DD ended up in the ER two days after she was released. It turned out that the antibiotics they'd given her had stopped being effective. The ER doctor is my heroine--she went over the labs, said she needed a different antibiotic, and took one look inside her mouth and pronounced that she had thrush.

By the way, this was a good teaching hospital, but it was the first week of July, a time in which you are warned to avoid all teaching hospitals as all the residents change.

[Anonymous]

I had thrush 4 times last year (following cycles of chemo). My mouth felt strange, dry, kind of fuzzy, etc. I wouldn't say it was particularly painful for me (but I had bigger things to deal with at the time). I would just keep watch on my mouth for any white spots, and start the nystatin as soon as I saw them. Incidentally, rinsing with biotene rinse also helped me.