June 2009 – An experimental week without Facebook and Twitter

I declared last Sunday, on Facebook, that I would be going on Facebook hiatus. I didn’t say for how long, but in my mind, I’d be quitting FB and Twitter cold turkey for one week. I am 5 days into this experiment. I find myself resisting that URL address bar like an unsmoked half pack in the back upper corner of my closet, kept for emergency use only. Nagging at my mind every couple minutes. But mind you, I don’t smoke. Never have. I know my addictive personality well enough to not bother trying. Just thought it was an appropriate simile for habit breaking. But I haven’t faltered yet. Those links are everywhere, though. EVERYONE trying to be someone is on Twitter, to the point of ridiculosity. Well, not really…just businesses, oddly enough. CKNW, CNN, BBC Science, BBC Health, Daily Planet…(my personal favourites) …and there was that one week where everyone hopped the bandwagon at the same time. T’was an odd week.

But I couldn’t have picked a more interesting week to go FB/Twit free. I just couldn’t break the habit of thinking that my thoughts all needed to be expressed and thrown into some intangible online world, that, excepting global nuclear meltdown circumstances coinciding with the time of my death, will exist beyond me, providing that inactive accounts don’t get deleted after a certain period of time, and there isn’t a massive server crash affecting all the backup copies of my accounts…etc. SO…I took to writing down all my thoughts on index cards. GOD do I love index cards. For some reason of kinaesthetic x visual learning it works for me. And here are some of the thoughts that rampaged through a manic mind going through withdrawl. Actually, happily, this week seemed like one of those rare weeks that I wasn’t overly manic or depressive. Actually, no. I take that back. I may have thrown a temper tantrum on monday. But after that things seemed to clear up, mood wise. Hopefully it lasts a little longer this time.

From the index cards:
June 23 1700h: Fascinating that so many things – economic phenomena etc. can be described/explained by little lines on a graph. Really cool.
June 24 10ooh: How the hell did I injure my knee? Left inside tendon/ligament thingy sore upon awakening. Did I sleepwalk?
1110h: There are a lot of funny looking asian men in ECON103.
1230h: I really enjoy talking to professors in office hours.
1345h: Correction: I enjoy talking to ungrumpy professors in office hours.
1400h: For every short and cute asian woman that exists, there exists an equally short, not-so-cute-asian man.
1415h: When you can’t figure me out: The secret to women is that we say things we don’t mean and we mean things we don’t say. But not all the time.
1415h: Today I feel very happy and calm and content.
1710h: I am quite possibly…floored. On gradebook, if “MT” stands for midterm, I just got 34/34, i.e. 100%. WTF?! In CMPT120! And so far I have 100% in the course! This has Never Happened Before. Not even close. Never.
1734h: Just discovered my flash animations don’t work on the CSIL computers. Not pleased.
1756h: The secret to not being frustrated and irritated all the time…getting laid.
June 25 1000h: Farrah Fawcett died. Cancer. Brings out my fears. And Jon and Kate Gosselin are divorcing. Not that that matters to anyone except their kids. I hope deep inside that all people who die are at peace. I hope the suicide bombers and war criminals, and serial killers given the death penalty are all at peace. I hope the man who believes he will be rewarded with 72 virgins in the afterlife gets just that. If that’s the best thing he had going for him, I really hope he gets it.
1315h: I just get so fucking agitated at jerks like the guy who made a left turn from behind me while I was halfway across the street during my pedestrian walk light who then told me to look for traffic. It’s my walk sign, fucker! Concentrate on your own fucking half baked fucking driving, idiot!
1350h: playing piano really gets me unagitated. New “easy piano” piece yeah that disney song “A whole new world” from Aladdin. Love it and it’s just so beautiful and takes me away to a different time and place and imaginary life. Need to get a piano of my own so i can stop renting rehearsal space.
1425h: Low F + high GAC chord. Quite a nice way to end a song.
1700h: I had a breakthrough at singing class today. Lowered larynx + space + focus. Singing the exercise “Me-lia”. Letting go. Throwing it away. Fuck yeah. And going to McD’s inbetween rehearsing and class and thinking to enjoy fully and be present doing anything because it might be the last time I do that thing – gosh Steve cried last week when he ate a chicken nugget, having not had one for so long, and thinking that it might be his last. So I went and bought chicken nuggets today to remind myself to live. I couldn’t bring him any, though because he’s fasting, preparing for his colonoscopy tomorrow. And then I came home to find that Michael Jackson had died. What a day. What a week to choose to be facebook & Twitter free.
June 26 1117h: Watched Confessions of a Shopaholic and it wasn’t good. I am disappointed because I had been looking foward to that one for quite some time. Movies and people that try too hard to be funny are rarely really funny. The Make More Money scene ended up on the cutting room floor. All the essential bits of the story that made it a charming and funny story got cut out of the script. Nobody is sympathetic towards a woman who spends too much money (GUILTY!), but somehow the book made you identify so strongly with the protagonist, and the movie just did not succeed. Director needs lessons in directing comedy.
1440h: Been at Burnaby General Hospital since 1230. Steve’s colonoscopy today. yay. One year since we’ve been here for one the last time and we’re still where we began. Not pleased. Hopefully some answers.
1700h: +1 Medication for Steve. Prednisone. At least it’s cheap. + Humira starting ~2 weeks pending all clear from upcoming “urgent” MRI. Apparently the colonoscopy looked very different from last time. Some serious side fx on prednisone i hear. fuck.
1745h: Found out Lorena Gale (Priestess Elosha on BSG) passed away on June 21st. Shocked and saddened. Cancer. Found out Google, Twitter and Wikipedia etc crashed yesterday from too much traffic/too many edits. Again, I re-iterate. What a week to be Twitter and Facebook free.
1800h: Realized that I have this lifelong pattern of disillusionment with stuff. Note to self: write blog entry about disillusionment.
2143h: Made myself a little jar with little 1/8 index card chips inside with things to do when I don’t know what to do. Will pick one each time I find myself not knowing what to do and be just one minute more productive. Each task can be completed within one minute. I like this jar already. Note to self: write blog entry about this jar.

Eating Sustainably – Vegetarian, Local, Organic, Sustainable Seafood, etc.

“Can Vegetarians Save the World?” on guardian.co.uk : http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/16/ghent-belgium-vegetarian-town-environment

To lower my carbon footprint, I will try to eat vegetarian at least once per week. No intention to cut out meat entirely, but I’ll do my part. Will also be trying to incorporate sustainable seafood into my cooking. See the bottom of this post for an interesting conversation I had with a company that produces Kiwi Mussels (a sustainable seafood option).

I’ll keep track on this blog of my progress. This shouldn’t be hard at all, as I find cooking meat the most bothersome part of making a meal. Unfortunately my household will still be eating a lot of meat, as my husband will not be converted. That and he’s on nurse’s orders to eat extra protein for wound healing post-surgery, as well as for keeping his iron levels up. But I often don’t feel the need to eat meat anyway, so this should be easy.

I will rate my cooking creations on a scale of “Disgusting”, “Passable”, “Good”, or “DELICIOUS”. Also will note vegan meals.

Monday May 18th, 2009
Breakfast – Soup Noodles with green onions, ginger, olive oil and parmesan cheese – DELICIOUS
Lunch – Rice with marinated pressed tofu, zucchini and brussel sprouts – DELICIOUS and Vegan

Sustainable Seafood - take a gander at http://www.seachoice.org/ for information on choosing options that help maintain the health of the oceans and not contribute to overfishing/overharvesting, by-catch, and scraping of ocean floors etc etc.

I bought some Pacifica brand frozen kiwi mussels produced in…where else? KiwiLand of course – New Zealand. I was very pleased that it was labled with a “sustainable seafood” logo and all that, but when I got home, I was dismayed to find that the plastic packaging was made from #7 “Other” plastic, which is not easily recyclable, and may find its way into one of our ocean’s landfills – see  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch . So I sent them an email and received a nice reply from their Americas/Asia sales rep, Matthew Hewitt, stating the following:

“Hi Beverly

Thanks for the contact.

I understand and accept your comments re #7 plastic.

It is a recyclable but not as easily recycled as other plastics.

The issue for us is the fact that we must freeze the plastic for up to 2 years. At this stage we can not get other plastics to do this.

But believe me our plastic supplier is working on that solution.

We are aware of the publics issue with #7 and thus want to change that as soon as we can. We are committed to the environment, our farming and production practices are all geared to zero impact.

The #7 plastic is the last hurdle for us.

But thanks for using our product, I hope you found the quality good and hope you will support us again.

All the best, Matthew Hewitt”

which was really nice of him. So they’re working on it. Good to know. I like it when you write to some big company and they actually send a personal reply from halfway around the world.

Buying Local: really liking Simon Fraser University’s Local Food Project http://sfulocalfood.ca/ . Went to their “Pocket Farmer’s Market” last wednesday – a neat concept – and have purchased my Harvest Box for the month of May.

Buying Organic: well, little bits here and there from Safeway’s Organic selection.

Growing Food: my in-laws are starting a garden at their home in Langley. Very exciting.

Composting: am a fan of NatureMill’s Automatic Indoor Composter. Steep price ($200CDN+) but showed my mom in law the website yesterday, and she’s thinking about it…I don’t have a garden right now, so it wouldn’t be prudent for me to get one of my own. Reduces your household waste by 2/3rds by composting all your organic waste (except bones, citrus and peach pits).

So, those are my thoughts on sustainable eating today. What are your thoughts?

Sore Throat and Bad Dreams

4;28am. I have a sore throat and I fought to sleep earlier tonight. My limbs were weak and funny feeling, and I felt like throwing up. AND I CAN’T SLEEP. Fucking hell this is so painful – I try to sleep and I can’t. I just can’t fall asleep properly. And then I have these major anxiety attacks and can’t help yelling out because everything feels really weird and i can’t sleep.

And when I finally did, the dreams were killer. My dreams were all excessively vivid and about near death, and heavy exertion…like being inside a truck container and throwing ourselves off a cliff, and being forced to be the subject of some vigorous physical exercise exam in the snow to the point of exhaustion, and flying. I never fly in dreams. But tonight i did. Really fast. Really really fast. And couldn’t slow down. In the dream, I told myself that I was dreaming so that I could control exactly what happened in the dream. So i was able to slow down a little. But when I slowed down, I would start to fall. But the city I flew over…was so incredibly detailed. I thought…”this is pretty crazy detail for a dream”. And then when i got back to my starting point, i said to a friend, “did you see me fly? That was amazing, I never fly in dreams!” And she said she saw me walk over to a spot and then stand still for about a second…

And when i woke up my heart was racing. It took fucking 20 minutes for my heart rate to go down. I lay in bed, thinking to myself, “I had the big dream scare, now I deserve some sleep”. Couldn’t fall asleep, and my heart was still racing so fast i had to get up. And sit on the couch in the dark and wait for my heart rate to go down. Eventually it did. And now i’m typing this.

This is the second fucking night of really bad sore muscled, tingly numb-limbed, sore-throated, mild headache, mildly nauseous insomnia / severe night frights. And I’m sick and tired of not being able to sleep. I’m tired. My throat hurts like a bitch. Is it strep? I don’t know because the doctor swabbed it on thursday, and being a long weekend, they won’t get the results till tuesday. I don’t have much of a fever or cough or runny nose or sneezing, or congestion, just feeling weak and spacey and tingly numb limbs and severe night frights. What the hell is it? Today will be day 4 of sore throat, so apparently if it’s viral it will start subsiding today, and if it’s strep it will continue to get worse for a while. Lovely.

Not a good time. I have some ADR to do on monday and a narration voiceover on tuesday. SO the worst time for it.

I am trying to stay away from people as much as possible because i could be contagious. That and I don’t feel like talking to you or just talking, period. Or standing, or shopping, or eating. Eating is kind of good because it helps scrape the slimy thick brown sputum away from my throat.

Ugh. My blog entries often seem a little complainey but often when i feel most like writing. I mean, Steve’s fast asleep so i can’t complain to him. I’m restless and i can’t sleep. The sky’s starting to get light outside. I’m afraid to try sleeping again.

Organics at home and Triclosan In Crest Toothpaste

They put triclosan in my Crest Toothpaste???!!! That’s too much. I really don’t want triclosan in my toothpaste. I’m trying to phase it out in my soaps and stuff, but TOOTHPASTE! That’s really sneaky. And gross. I like bacteria. I feel that bacteria are pretty good for me – as long as plaque gets brushed off, but GOD I don’t need TRICLOSAN!

From Wikipedia’s triclosan page (not entirely reliable, i know, but any of you that want to look further I’m sure you can find the articles they’re mentioning :
“A 2006 study concluded that low doses of triclosan act as an endocrine disruptor in the North American bullfrog.^[17] The hypothesis proposed is that triclosan blocks the metabolism of thyroid hormone, because it chemically mimics thyroid hormone, and binds to the hormone receptor sites, blocking them, so that normal hormones cannot be utilized. Triclosan has also been found in both the bile of fish living downstream from waste water processing plants and in human breast milk.^[18] The negative effects of Triclosan on the environment and its questionable benefits in toothpastes^[19] has led to the Swedish Naturskyddsföreningen to recommend not using triclosan in toothpaste.^[20]“

And I’ve been forever trying to get steve to rinse his mouth after he brushes (he spits, does not rinse)…now I will have another reason to ask him to rinse. eew.

Should I return my new tube of crest complete to wal-mart? Probably yes. If I can find that darned receipt.

OH to and those of you enviro/socially-conscious people who will sneer at my shopping at wal-mart: I walk there, at the very least. It’s my friendly neighbourhood walmart, that is literally less than a block away from my apartment at lougheed. I’ll have to look into their business practices….i know they used to be suspect.

Okay, more about my slow phasing out of other stuff

Organic cotton…
http://www.aboutorganiccotton.org/index.html
Apparently it takes 1/3 pound of pesticides and fertilizers to produce enough cotton for a single t-shirt. Not cool. I bought organic cotton swabs and balls yesterday at London Drugs. They’re a little pricier, but my conscience is a little lighter. And I’m in a place where happily I can afford an extra dollar or two to encourage the stores to keep stocking these products.

Organic Bananas Lemons and Mangoes
Safeway has a pretty pathetic selection of organic produce…mostly because no one buys it. But, I’ve been sort of half-heartedly picking through the selection. My choices so far are Organic Bananas, Mangoes, Lemons. I SWEAR, whoever opens a Whole Foods or Capers or Choices in the LOUGHEED AREA is going to strike it rich. We have NOTHING here. Just a mall and a whole bunch of (almost) suburban staples. Oh, apparently they’re opening a Nester’s Market up at SFU, but it feels stupid to trek up the mountain just to get veggies. But since i’ll be attending SFU again in the fall, I’m going to do it. As soon as they open. There is pretty much no organic meat around here.

I am almost out of shampoo, so I wanted to look for a more natural alternative. You see, I’ve started buying readily biodegradable and phosphate/EDTA/Chlorine/petroleum-free dish detergent and using fewer toxic household cleaning products, because of the environmental and health concerns there, but then I realized…

WHAT’S IN MY SHAMPOO???

a lot of the same products. So I wondered if there are options that are maybe a little more “eco-friendly” (that blanket term we all know and love)? Here’s one I found at Wal Mart:

Down Under Naturals NUDE brand of shampoo and conditioner:
“Naturally Good Without the Bad – Free from Parabens, SLS/Sulphate, Phosphates, DEA, Phthalates. Naturally derived, Vegan formulations, with Certified Organic Botanicals, Recyclable package, never tested on animals, biodegradeable ingredients”

Not that I’m a new-wave hypochondriac in that I’m scared everything will give me cancer, but I figure if I can get a more “(blanketword)” conscious product that does the same thing as a normal product, without poisoning my household and the environment in the process, I’m all for it.

we develop all these nifty things, and then realize it’s all poisonous to us or the environment. frustrating.

SO…

————————

Dear Large Corporations,

My name is Beverly Wu, and I am a consumerist. I like to buy things. I will buy things if they’re gimmicky. It all pretty much works on me. The latest gimmick i’m into is making things less poisonous to my household and the environment. Would you please make me something that I want to buy? Pretty please? I mean I have this shopping addiction (a socially-irresponsible thing in itself…but good for you, right?). I mean this is a serious addiction! I want to buy things that are REALLY REALLY GOOD and have as little environmental footprint as possible! So please, pretty please??

With love and organic veggies,

Beverly Wu

Haven’t heard from me lately? Here’s why.

I haven’t been out of town.
I haven’t been on a honeymoon.
I have been scatterbrained.
I am learning how to be married.

I have been stressed out.

I have been depressed.

I am learning to grieve.

I got married on April 26th this year.
A couple of days later, two important family members passed away on Steve’s side of the family.

April 29th onward, we’ve seen doctors at least 6 times, including starting physiotherapy for his AS (ankylosing spondylitis, a type of arthritis), getting a CT scan and a colonoscopy for what the specialist is now pretty sure to be either Colitis or Crohn’s disease. We found out that the “abscesses” flare up any time there is irritation in that general area, including taking the Colyte laxative stuff before the colonoscopy. So he may have been taking antibiotics that were MAKING him extremely sick, for nothing, since it might just be inflammation and not bacterial. And oral thrush! Stupid antibiotics. Steve lost 20 LBS in about 2 weeks, proving for all you body conscious women out there that ANOREXIA WORKS LIKE YOU HOPE IT WILL!!! That scared me, when he and I were about the same weight. Not cool. Now he’s on a new drug, Pentasa, which is helping control the inflammation in his colon. It’s starting to make a difference and he’s not getting diarrhea anymore, hence no more abscess-y looking things. Then we went camping on the long weekend. And remembered to bring the new meds but not the old ones, i.e. asthma inhalers for when we sat around the campfire and by 12am he was having difficulty breathing. So we went home to get them.

It’s like pills pills and then more medication.
Pentasa 3x/day for lower colon
Indomethacin 3x/day for arthritis
Daily inhaler for asthma
Nystatin 4x/day for oral thrush
Probiotic pills for re-populating his colon
*I AM leaving this post for a minute to THROW AWAY the rest of those dastardly antibiotics….DONE.*

The house is a mess.
I’ve been finding it hard to get out of the house.

I signed up at fitness world, only to realize that they charge $700 to join the gym in addition to monthly fees. I cancelled within 10 days. I should have thought it through, ie. check out the community center gym that’s down the street, but i was a bit despondent that day…just needed to do SOMETHING.
I had a major migraine yesterday that made me so nauseous that I threw up on the side of the road. I’m better today. You know what? When I have migraines, it does something to my inhibition system, I’m realizing. Every time I have a headache, I seem to shop compulsively, spending money that I usually would not. I feel drunk when I get migraines – I can’t even talk properly to the cashier. I think I gave her too much money, which confused her when she tried to give me change. That or she gave me an extra dollar back. I can’t really be sure. And the light/sound/smell sensitivity is frankly AWFUL and painful.

I missed an appointment with Joyce today. Sorry Joyce. I accompanied Steve to the physio this morning and forgot about our meeting, even though i wrote it down on the fridge. I’m more than a little scatterbrained, maybe from yesterday’s migraine or just stuff in general.

My barely fledgling acting career is on hold. I emailed my agent last week to leave their agency (whom I was with since I was 19…I need a new start anyway). I took a look at the self submit sites for the first time in a couple months yesterday, and the thought of getting back into it seems overwhelming. I need new headshots, but I’ve gained a bit of weight from overeating and being pretty sedentary and I don’t want headshots until I find some motivation and take a couple of refresher classes. I’m not even sure I want to act right now. That’s fine. I’d like to go back to university and take a few solid semesters of just learning foreign languages. I’ve applied for fall 2008 semester, so it’s in SFU’s court to let me know if i’m back in. I don’t think grades will be a problem. I had a solid 3.3GPA before I left SFU, and the only class I failed at VFS was dialects (unfortunate that 2 missed classes is an automatic fail, but it was because I decided to do a little film called Food For The Gods that will be on TV may 25th, and screened at a festival this saturday, so i’m pretty happy about that. I would like to take a more extensive dialects class though because it’s something that I really like doing and that I wish I didn’t have to miss)

The thought of seeing friends is overwhelming. There are only a very few people that I feel like talking to right now. Facebook is overwhelming. Email is overwhelming. Doing normal things is overwhelming. Give me any list of Clinical Depression symptoms, and i’ll say yes to 10 out of 10. But what can doctors do? Send me to the psychiatrist. Put me on meds? I hate therapy. I am not at risk for developing any illicit drug/alcohol dependencies because I know what they do to people. Yes, I would say that before all this stuff happened recently, I was depressed too. No I have not seen a doctor about it. Some days are better than others, and on the worst days…

You’ve probably heard of Kubler-Ross and the 5 stages of grieving, blah blah blah. We got a pamphlet from the physiotherapist written up by the Arthritis Society detailing how this relates to self or loved one getting diagnosed with chronic illness. Good pamphlet. Important pamphlet. I’ve put everything we get from the physiotherapist in protective sleeves in a fuzzy pillowy red 3 ring binder that a family friend made into a photo album for us for our wedding. It’s an awesome binder.

But today I feel okay. Yesterday was awful. But today is okay. I’m going to put one foot in front of the other today. I’m going to put away the dishes. I’m going to do some laundry. I’m going to write a couple of thank you cards. I’m going to go for a swim later on tonight. I’m going to go watch Indiana Jones (which involves seeing people, but they’re people I like, so that’s a good, unstressful thing.) I talked to a friend. I cooked a little. I watched TV a little.

And if that’s all I can muster up for today, then I’m going to be okay with that.

I am not mad at the state of our medical system anymore. I am frankly SUPER GRATEFUL that we have health insurance. Any of you out there who haven’t bothered to apply for BC MSP even though you’ve been in BC for over 3 months, JUST DO IT. If you are low income, IT’S FREE. (you know who you are…ahem i filled out your form for you a couple of weeks ago, you! And the rest of you!). And it takes less than 10 minutes to fill out the form. Here, I’ll even give you the URL: http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/msp/forms.html

<!–RANT–!> Because, if you need an ambulance, are you going to have $400 to pay for it? A single hospital visit costs $200+ dollars. A doctor’s visit costs like $50 or something. What if all of a sudden you BURN YOUR HAND? Or God forbid, some sudden acute illness shows up and you have to go to the hospital/see a doctor 10 times? You might as well live in the United states and work minimum wage with no health insurance.

Don’t think the province you were born in (ie. no longer live in) is going to foot your medical bill. There’s just no excuse for not applying. You were supposed to do it the day (or soon after) you landed on BC soil and you wanted to stay here. <!–END RANT–!>

Never mind. All that matters is today I’m okay and Steve is okay, and we’ve been granted another day to live.

Fighting Candida albicans – “Yeast Defense”

**Edit, post-infection: I’m a sucker for “natural health products”. It didn’t work. Damn. Too bad. Went to get a dose of Diflucan. Next time i’m going to try tea tree oil.**

I’m just trying to fight my yeast infection naturally, this time. Without the Diflucan (fluconazole), without the Canesten, without the Monistat, because it scares me that last time I had a yeast infection, the Canesten just didn’t work, and I had to get a prescription anti-fungal. Here’s my story and how I’ve decided to try something different. I don’t know if it’ll work yet, but it’s worth trying.So, it leaves me wondering if there are more “nautral” treatments without using drugs, along with changes I need to make in my diet etc, because I suspect that a lot of my mood disorder and other symptoms in general point to systemic Candidiasis. Yuck. Anyone who has had a yeast infection (or multiple, like me) can tell you how gross it makes one physically feel in general in addition to the vulvo-vaginal stinging/itching/burning/discharge etc.Background: I just finished a course of antibiotics for a gum infection induced by part of my orthodontic treatment. At my monthly dental appointment, my dentist said that it was because my rearmost molar was getting pushed back into the gum while the tooth in front of it was getting pushed forward (as he wanted) because of this spring mechanism he was using. I don’t suspect diabetes, although I haven’t gone to a doctor to get tested. But I mean, logically this time it’s probably the antibiotics.SO! During the antibiotic treatment, my sugar/carb cravings started to get out of control. After the antibiotics, the yeast realized the parents were gone and held a major house party. And I, the host, developed some major addictions in the process. The sugar craving that had taken control of my mind (couldn’t think about anything else, really) got so bad that yesterday I felt like a junkie walking into my neighbourhood Safeway grocery store’s bakery department to buy one of those chocolate fudge cakes (half of a 8 inch round cake) which I consequently devoured within 24 hours. That much chocolate cake will make anyone sick, and is obviously not healthy.So today, I scoured London Drugs, Shoppers Drug Mart, and finally, CAPERS for a natural yeast treatment. Nothing at LD or SDM. Finally, at Capers, there was a selection and with the help of one of the employees there that worked in the supplements department, settled on “YEAST DEFENSE”, which contains Caprylic Acid (antifungal), Pau D’Arco (may be beneficial or toxic, jury’s out on this one), Garlic (that’s just plain good for you), Grapefruit Extract (can’t hurt), Chlorophyll (can’t hurt), and some probiotic bacteria (Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. plantarum, L. bulgaricus, and L. casei…definitely good.). 2 capsules, twice a day. the bottle contains 60 capsules, with a warning that if symptoms do not clear up within 7 days, go see a doctor blah blah because you might have something other than a yeast infection etc.In addition to these Yeast Defense capsules, I am taking “VegeGreens” (has probiotic cultures… mix with water), and I have decided to go on a low-carb diet for a while (no refined starches, no juice, lots of veggies, no specific brand name plan) and am considering going organic to avoid any other antibiotics that may be in the assorted meat/poultry/eggs. Yeast loves sugar (as any hobby beer brewer can tell you, even though they don’t brew beer with Candida albicans, haha i think they use Sacchromyces something something why I know that I don’t know), and I am on a mission to cut out as much available sugar as I can. Thus, goodbye eggo waffles, goodbye Ocean Spray fruit juice, goodbye Marmite on toast!I’m hoping it works. I know this yeast infection could probably be easily cured by a single tablet of Diflucan (90% success rate in patients), but I think it may be time for a lifestyle change on my part to reduce my symptoms of Candidiasis in general (even before antibiotics) – the constant sweet tooth, the bloating, migraines, irritability, constant fatigue, etc (i match 90% of symptoms described on any given checklist of Candidiasis, generally, before the antibiotic treatment) .Do bugs need drugs? Sometimes. Maybe not Candida this time. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.