Posted by John Reynolds, Phoenix on September 13, 1998 at 09:22:28:
I just started it yesterday--and didn't have a headache last night (Saturday night). But my head is still sore from Friday night--the worst and one of the longest headaches I've had in at least the last two or three years (of my 12 years as a chronic sufferer).
Friday night I finally got quite a bit of relief when I remembered what I had read here about cold air. I got a footstool and had my wife crank down the air conditioning. Since I live in Phoenix even in September it can run quite a while before the house gets too cold.
That was probably at 1:30 or maybe even 2:30 am after a cluster that started at 10:20 pm Friday night and was such intense pain I really didn't think I could stand it. It got past the oxygen and jumping rope, and it out-lasted my ability to stand the near-scalding water in the shower.
(I don't know if anyone else keeps count, but it was a 31-kleenex headache.) It showed no signs of stopping until I stood on the stool and kept my head in front of the vent of cold air (breathing the cold air through my nose seemed to make it work better as noted by another air conditioner breather who posted on this board). It brought the headache down to a tolerable level quite quickly, but the pain was still too bad to sleep until about 4:30am. I've been getting up at 5:00am and sitting in front of full-spectrum lights (see Paul's Cluster Headache Homepage at this site's Cluster Link page for more info on this--it seemed to work for me Jan & Feb '98).
So at 5am Saturday I went ahead and came downstairs and sat in front of the lights and got on the web. That's when I found all the stuff on diflucan. I managed to get my doctor to call in the prescription and took my 1st 200 mg tablet Saturday (9/12/98) around 1pm. I've been looking around this site for a week or so since my headaches have recently gone from out-of-control to way, way out-of-control. The info was so far back that it took me that long to find it. (I also found out about and had some capsaicin nasal spray prescribed and formulated this week; have been out shopping for full-spectrum light bulbs; getting o2 tanks filled; and praying and now thanking God a lot.)
I intend to rapidly taper off my predisone and verapamil. I was on a tapering dose of prednisone anyway; now I'll just accelerate the rate of tapering.
I did see how the diflucan stopped working for one guy after a couple weeks and that another broke out in a rash, but that more than a half dozen including some chronics had gone into complete remission and were hopeful of, or convinced that, they had been cured. I imagine that if one is completely cured, motivation to visit this site probably drops off pretty fast, especially after you post your success to try to spread the word.
My intent was simply to ask folks how they are doing with diflucan, but I got a bit long-winded. Please let me know how you are all doing.
Or if any of you have any questions about the other things I mentioned, like jumping rope or how I rigged up my lights, please e-mail me or post a follow-up.
John Reynolds, Phoenix AZ