200 mg, once a day. He and others believe it stops replication, and
since its easily intracellular can get where the spirochete is. It
doesn't outright kill so there did not seem to be awful herxheimers

What are fluconazole oral suspension or tablets?
What should my health care professional know before I take fluconazole?
How should I take this medicine?
What if I miss a dose?
What drug(s) may interact with fluconazole?
What side effects may I notice from taking fluconazole?
What should I watch for while taking fluconazole?
Where can I keep my medicine?

What are fluconazole oral suspension or tablets? (Back to top)
FLUCONAZOLE (Diflucan�) is an antifungal type of antibiotic. It treats serious fungal infections found throughout the body. These include oral candidiasis or thrush infections of the mouth or throat, vaginal yeast infections, candidal infection of the urinary tract, meningitis, and others. Generic fluconazole oral suspensions or tablets are available.

What should my health care professional know before I take fluconazole? (Back to top)
They need to know if you have any of these conditions:
*diabetes
*heart disease
*kidney disease
*liver disease
*other chronic illness
*an unusual or allergic reaction to fluconazole, other azole medicines (used to treat fungal or yeast infections), or other medicines, foods, dyes or preservatives
*pregnant or trying to get pregnant
*breast-feeding

How should I take this medicine? (Back to top)
Take fluconazole oral suspension or tablets by mouth. Follow the directions on the prescription label. If taking the oral suspension, shake it well before using. Use a specially marked spoon or container to measure the oral suspension. Ask your pharmacist if you do not have one; household spoons are not always accurate. You can take the oral suspension or tablets with or without food. Take your doses at regular intervals. Do not take your medicine more often than directed. Finish the full course prescribed by your health care professional even if you feel better. Do not stop taking except on your prescriber's advice.

What if I miss a dose? (Back to top)
If you miss a dose, take it as soon as you can. If it is almost time for your next dose, take only that dose. Do not take double or extra doses.

What drug(s) may interact with fluconazole? (Back to top)
*bosentan
*cilostazol
*cisapride
*cyclosporine
*dofetilide
*fluvastatin
*medicines for diabetes that are taken by mouth
*medicines for yeast or fungal infections
*phenytoin
*pimozide
*rifabutin
*rifampin
*tacrolimus
*terfenadine
*warfarin
*water pills

Tell your prescriber or health care professional about all other medicines you are taking, including non-prescription medicines, nutritional supplements, or herbal products. Also tell your prescriber or health care professional if you are a frequent user of drinks with caffeine or alcohol, if you smoke, or if you use illegal drugs. These may affect the way your medicine works. Check with your health care professional before stopping or starting any of your medicines.

What side effects may I notice from taking fluconazole? (Back to top)
Stop taking this medication immediately and report these side effects to your prescriber or health care professional right away:
*fainting or falling spells
*irregular heartbeat, palpitations, or chest pain

Side effects that you should report to your prescriber or health care professional as soon as possible:
*dark yellow or brown urine
*dizziness
*light-colored stools (bowel movements)
*redness, blistering, peeling or loosening of the skin, including inside the mouth
*skin rash, itching
*stomach pain
*unusual bruising or bleeding
*yellowing of the eyes or skin
*vomiting

Side effects that usually do not require medical attention (report to your prescriber or health care professional if they continue or are bothersome):
*diarrhea
*headache
*loss of appetite or changes in how food tastes
*nausea

What should I watch for while taking fluconazole? (Back to top)
Tell your prescriber or health care professional if your symptoms do not improve in a few weeks. Some fungal infections need many weeks or months of treatment to cure. Keep taking your medicine regularly for as long as your prescriber or health care professional tells you to.

If you are taking this medicine for a long time you must visit your prescriber or health care professional for regular blood and liver function tests.

Alcohol can increase possible damage to your liver. Do not take alcoholic drinks while you take this medicine.

If you have a vaginal infection, do not have sex until you have finished your treatment. Your clothing may get soiled if you have a vaginal discharge. You can wear a sanitary napkin; do not use tampons. Wear freshly washed cotton, not synthetic, panties.

Fluconazole has been associated with birth defects when given at high doses early in a pregnancy. If you are pregnant or think you may be pregnant, tell you prescriber or health care professional immediately. Women who may become pregnant should use effective birth control while taking fluconazole.

Where can I keep my medicine? (Back to top)
Keep out of the reach of children in a container that small children cannot open.

Store at room temperature below 30�C (86�F). Keep container tightly closed. Throw away any unused medicine after the expiration date.

I guess my biggest question is how does he know for sure he wasn't just treating a yeast infection at that point since sytemic yeast can cause many of the symptoms of lyme?

Other question is I have heard fluconazole is tough on the liver....I would like to know how hard it is on it.

It was my understanding that the dose was 100 mg bid. This was taken off the original information that he puplished.

I don't know what to say about whether it works or not. I got a baseline liver function test and I am so sensitive to drugs and nervous about it I think I am going to try it every other day for a week at 100 mg and go get another liver function test. But I am Ms. Sensitive .

I got to talk to him by pure luck and persistence I guess.

Remember, he was his own first patient. Internal medicine practitioner. Said he had headaches, depression, fatigue and limb paralysis and thought he would end up in a wheelchair. Yeast from antibiotics is usually not that severe besides people in that pilot study were antibody positive with lyme, if you recall...

As I said, all that was available to him in Germany at that time was 100 mg so he did BID. He prefers one pill (200 mg) once a day and I agree w/ Lyme Ed about peak concentrations but who knows. However, for me, it's a matter of $< its cheaper. I actually bit the pill in two although I know when you do that you don't get equal distribution, but I took a half today.

Since I have major probs with both fungal and lyme, it will be hard to tell...I do FEEL it, I definitely do.

To the other question--late CNS, he had it 18 mos and was about ready for a wheelchair. IF that's not late stage CNS borreliosis what is...

Someone on another list says that someone they know talked with him and he recommended 100 mg once a day for her child, for 2 mos, then IM penicillin, then back to diflucan. I don't know if this is hearsay or true. He did not mention any abx to me and I never thot to ask him. This may mean he thinks it is helpful or curative in many but not all cases who knows. I'm not going to call again because I don't take abx anyway...I do know he said weight matters. I told him my weight (124 pounds and I'm 5 7 1/2 i.e. very slender) so 200 mg day would be the maximum for me. For a child you definitely would not do 200.

What I find curious and interesting is...this drug inhibits fungi and inhibits borrelia. Many people with lyme have fungal problems...obviously it *could* be from antibiotics but who knows. What about Morgellon's? They say lyme suppresses immunity but why are people getting weird fungal infections as a result?

There is much we don't know. BTW Lyme Ed I read recently that in shizophrenia viral replication is fourfold of certain retroviruses (I think herpes family but I can't remember) and that some antipsychotics slow down that replication. So you may be right.

We think of the nervous system, immune system, and endocrine systems as separate but they are *not* really separate, they are different arms of the same system, always in communication. The idea of finding other drugs besides abx is interesting.

I suspect this will turn out to cure some, greatly improve some, have little effect on some and no effect on others. Nothing is 100%. Its just something else in the arsenal.

Since Dr. B (in KC) who recommended this to me and Dr. C (in MO) who suggested it also, I felt I had nothing to lose, because I know I have yeast anyway, and I was off abx for about 4 months at the time I started.

I took 100 mg Diflucan AM and 100 mg PM for eight weeks.

I called Dr. B's office (in KC) and reported my results, and also wanted a report on my latest liver enzyme testing, (all normal), so I said I wouldn't mind doing it longer because I feel I had a huge success with this.

So, he said I could do it for four more weeks. I'm just going to take a two week break, then start again for 4 more weeks.

As an example, I had a terribly painful right jaw pain for months, knowing someday I probably would have to find the funds for all the special dental testing of the jaw, etc., with full-mouth x-rays and other tests, and I don't know what all work, but it now has subsided to the point that I barely have pain in my jaw at all now.

Was it the Diflucan, I don't know. All I can say is something short of a miracle was working for me, and I'm not on abx.

I still do have Lyme symptoms, but much less than before. I took myself off abx after 1-1/2 years, knowing I needed a break from it.

I still have my original stiff right calf symptoms, which abx hasn't helped much at all, but neither did the Diflucan.

This protocol, I believe, is not a cure, but I started into it knowing that, but something has helped immensely.

Might not be the answer, but right now, I'm accepting the fact that I feel pretty good, and I'll take that.

I know most don't agree with this protocol, but something good happened. Maybe time, maybe supplements, maybe herbs, I don't know. Maybe Diflucan?????

Good luck.

I'll let y'all know if I feel it helped me a lot but just remember I already have fungal issues so it's likely to help me.

I alwasy see an improvemtn when I take diflucan but wonder for those who are so sensitive....couldnt they just build up too many toxins if they try and push 200mg a day?

I have taken Diflucan for 4 months straight (over 10 years ago now, but still at least 5 years into my illness), because I didn't know I had Lyme (obviously) but thought it was Candida that was the problem.

After the four months, I was as ill as before the 4 months of Diflucan.

I desperately would love to believe it is that easy, but it has not worked for me even when I was oblivious to the 'fact' that it was going to cure my non-Candida illness....and, I cannot find a single human specimen for whom this has worked (yet).

I did read, however, that on one german Lyme forum, a previously very ill patient did the Diflucan protocol and felt she was cured after.......only to go back to square one. I don't know how many days she was on it initially though.

You say that you took diflucan for 4 months. Do you remember for sure what the dose was, because I came accross someone from another thread who said that it just didn't work even after they had taken it for over a year.

It turns out that they had only taken 100 mg a day, and it was never continueous. It was always starting and stopping, taking it for 10 days and then off for a week.

Is there a TEST for finding out if you have any antifungal infection????

quote:

---

Originally posted by Christine202:
WHat if you can only tolerate 100mg?? I am so sensitive I can only take 100mg maybe once a month.... If you get really sick are you supposed tp push through it?

---

Christine, please don't take offense. I'm just throwing this out there to possibly help you.

If you're that sensitive to the anti-fungal I wonder if you're watching your diet [low carb, no sugar, etc] and whether or not you're taking Nystatin or something similar everyday?

I imagine you are taking acidolphilus as well?

Unfortunately, like me- we dont tolerate meds well.

Boy its amazing how people's words are twisted sometimes.

Also Yes I have been on a strict Candida diet for years now along with acidophillus and the like.

I also have dyauonomia which effects the way the system processes drugs...

So my questions was simply to gain some insight into this protocal...Not to be judged.

Fluconazole seems to require two of those enzymes to be metabolized. If you were genetically weak in those areas, you might have trouble with the drug (thus liver problems).

quote:

---

Originally posted by Christine202:
WHat if you can only tolerate 100mg?? I am so sensitive I can only take 100mg maybe once a month.... If you get really sick are you supposed tp push through it?

I alwasy see an improvemtn when I take diflucan but wonder for those who are so sensitive....couldnt they just build up too many toxins if they try and push 200mg a day?

Thanks!

---

Amazing how peoples' words can get twisted sometimes!

Heres a good intro to Cytochrome P450 that I liked:
http://www.anaesthetist.com/physiol/basics/metabol/cyp/cyp.htm

You defintely took it long enough. Do you think that it is possible that the lyme is gone, and that you still have a coinfection?

I understand that brucella is often undiagnosed, and it can take up to 2 yrs to get rid of it.

I have read of other people who have made little improvement even after years of abx until brucella was targeted, and then they really started to improve after a few months of rifampin and minocycline.

No, I simply think it does not cure Lyme Disease. And, it seems I'm not alone in that.

I am at the end of my treatment for Babs now, only 2 more weeks of it, after 8 months targeting it.

The Diflucan episode was around about 1993/4, the same year I had multiple EM's all over my body, which nobody could tell me what they were. It was after that I took Diflucan - I was told Candida might be the cause of my symptoms.

Had a positive WB last year - so more then 10 years after the Diflucan, and not having acquired a new illness, I know I've had the same thing (undetected until 2003) all along.

Your post makes me curious..

How long do you suspect you had Lyme in 1993 when you had the multiple EM rashes?

Was this Lyme's presentation (undiagnosed) or do you think you had lyme a long while already (undiagnosed).

I have been off abx for over a year, and virtually symptom free, but multiple circular lesions showed up in my skin a few months ago (and sort of looked fungal). I've had them before in the past (before I knew it was Lyme) and I know they were not the result of new tick bites.. they just appeared.

These are are receeding on
Minocycline and HCQ...

I have read recently, that researchers think the causative agent for ACA might be a
Lyme variant (morphed) different from the known variant (cyst or L-form)which takes up residence in the skin of b afzelii (which is the strain I think I was originally infected with).

Barb

I was thinking that maybe the diflucan did clear your lyme 10 yrs ago. It is possible that you didn't get better because you had at least one coinfection(the babs you are just finishing up now).

It is also possible that the positive WB for lyme that you had recently is due to reinfection at some point after the diflucan treatment. As we now know, lyme can be transmitted via a spouse or other family member. Who knows, maybe even via pets that have hidden LD.

DLL

I got ill in January 1990. By that I mean that, within one day I appeared to go from well to very unwell in one day, and it stayed that way.

But, looking back and having thought about it a log, I can see that in fact, my symptoms probably even started around 1984-ish, with episodes of 'weird' unlexplained illness (which I never went to a doctor for by the way). As I recall it was feeling brainfogged/drunk, palpitations, IBS, feeling flu-like, loss of appetite, things like that. So, from that time, when I started having these 'weird episodes' I never had any antibiotics until 2004 for Lyme.

I used to walk through the woods a lot in Westchester (NY) in those days, so it is VERY possible I'd had a tickbite and not noticed. Lyme is very prevalent there, and even as far back as 1982, one of my neighbors had LD. Later on, as years went by, strrangely several people on my street also had LD (although, I think all but two of those, were 'cured' after short course of abx). I NEVER thought this is what I suffered from, it just did not occur to me because I'd had negative ELISA, and I believed the docs. I was pretty naive in those days and did not question what docs said, you live and your learn. Only when I was nearing 30 did I think 'hey what's going on here'! (questioning the docs)

I may have had an EM and not noticed as a teen. I really did not pay much attention to things like that much those days. Was too busy being busy.

So, when I had the body-wide EM's in 1993, I'd POSSIBLY been ill for 9 years. But, 'officially' 3 years, in a way that could not be ignored anymore. I had these patches biopsied. Nothing was cultured. Of course, not that it does surprise me now, as I'd also had more than one negative ELISA.

Later that year, 1993, I got so ill following the second bout of body-wide EM's that I nearly died. But, one week of Unisyn IV made me better (and as Dr B's guidelines say there is some anecdotal evidence that Unisyn helps). It did not make me well, but it stopped me dying. I developed new symptosm while on the abx IV - bone pain which I'd never had before for instance. And, symptosm continued, just different after that. I believee the short course of IV drove the infection deeper at that point.

Anyway, I am definitely convinced Diflucan did not cure my Lyme or that it is/was 'simply' a co-infection keeping me ill for all this time (not to mention positive WB 2004, so if Diflucan cured me in 1993/4 then I don't think I'd have positive WB for Lyme).

Micul, I am 10 days away from finishing Babesia treatment, and if that was the case, I'd be virtually cured by now (if the Lyme was gone), but I am not. I am only a little better than when I started Mepron/Biaxin in July.

This is just MY experience and opinion. So, I'm not invalidating anyone else's. If you feel Diflucan cures Lyme, great. I wish I felt the same.

I have seen a picture very similar to what I mean by the EM's I had and will find it and post link here:
http://www.westchestergov.com/health/Tickborne_view_rash.htm

My rash was very much like the one which says "multiple rashes", but mine did not have a central clearing when they appeared, but when they started to go away after about 3 weeks, the central part would flatten and become paler first. They also felt hot to touch, and itchy. But, for me they were also symmetrical - one would appear say on right side of ribs, and soon a matching one would appear on left side. Up and down my whole body like that in various places. (has anyone else had symmetrical ones?)

About Brucella Micul, one of the things which I tried in my quest to get well (pre-LD diagnosis) was spend nearly a year and a half going to a College for Classical and Progressive homeopathy. There they did electro-dermal testing, and treatment with nosodes (Isopathy as opposed to Homeopathy - i.e. treating identical with identical, rather than like with Homeopathy, like with like).

So, one of the diagnosis I had from them was Brucella Abortus Bang, for which, of course, I was treated with a Brucella Abortus Bang nosode for probably a year or so, going up to the highest strength. Of course, this did not cure me either, although I did feel better the first 2-3 months on their treatment. I now think that was from the homeopathic detox drainage they gave me though. I was probably toxic.

They also diagnosed me with things like chronic chicken post (in lungs ??), which they said was causig my chronic feeling of 'hot lungs' and cough (now I know that was babs, and curiously it has gone with the Mepron treatment). Or maybe Mepron cures chicken pox also ?

They also dx'd me with Rubella, TB, worms, toxoplasmosis, Coxsackie viruses of various numbers B4, B5, B1, etc. I spent pots of money (that's why I'm struggling to pay for my treawtment now as I spent it on all this other stuff.)

So, not that Brucella might not be part of the picture as a co-infection. Maybe it is, and I'm certainly aware of it as I stumbled onto information on Brucellosis (thinking it was my problem) before I stumbled onto realizing Lyme Disease was my problem. (Am familiar with work of Don Scott, and used to read up on a lot of that stuff). I will ask my LLMD next time though if I have been tested for Brucella as co-infection in any case. I suppose for those LD patient who also have Brucella though, long-term abx is likely to take care of the Brucella also. Can't remember what abx are used specifically for it, but I remember reading on Dr. Garth Nicholson's website, it may take 8 years. www.immed.org.

Well,my fingers are tiring - and you've probably all fallen asleep by now so I'm going now.

DLL

Will anyone know whether there might be a connection here - BARB? - with antibiotics well into Lyme Disease, and THEN rashes appearing???

I just remembered, my first bout of the body-wide EM's occured WHILE I was on Isoniazid (antibiotic for positive TB test) for 6 months. The second bout of rathes, appeared a couple of months after the first bout, and shortly after having finished the Isoniazid.

There may NOT be a connection at all, as i guess that Isoniazid does not do anything for Lyme and wouldn't have stirred anything up, it was probably co-incidence. Plus I not only had the rashes, but felt very very ill with them too.

I had these rashes well before I knew I had Lyme, and well before I ever had any abx.
My Lyme was very late stage untreated (>25 years) before I ever had abx.

I can tell you that I and My DOcs spent alot of time trying to prove these lesions were something other than Lyme... but I suspect it is Lyme.

A very good combo is plaquenil/Mino for the rash. (I had 80% of my back covered
at one point- mine never itched though).
-
I have another post here today on the Mino thread. You have to lower the dose of Mino if you mix it with plaquenil. Plaq potentiates Mino and Mino at toxic doses gets into the middle ear and causes vertigo - you want to stay *under* than threshold...

And if you've never taken plaquenil before, you need to have your introcular pressure baselined.. then tracked ever few months (talk to your DOc about that).

See my post on Mino.

Personally, I never had a reappearance of the body wide EM patches since the summer of '93. (I've had hives a few times since, but not since 1997/8).

But, if it happens again, I hope to remember to remember your post about Mino, etc.

Mine cleared with a pale center also - and some had a pale center already... some were solid, and some were big rings.

Yes- mine were pretty symetrically located .. i.e. at one time: both forearms, or
both deltoids, then the last time symetrically down both sides of the spine.

The symetry of it at first made the Doc think it was shingles... but it was too diffuse for shingles, and it wasn't painfull. We did think that it might have had something to do with the nerves in the skin - because it seemed to be along symetrical nerve paths.

And that 'bone pain' you talk about - I know what you're talking about. I later came to realize that it was probably nerve pain (but man it FELT like the pain was in the bones.

In any case - I have read that the latest research suspects that there is another lyme variant (not the Cyst or L-form) that has morphed to affect the skin in very late stage
lymies.

Barb

DLL wrote:
My rash was very much like the one which says "multiple rashes", but mine did not have a central clearing when they appeared, but when they started to go away after about

3 weeks, the central part would flatten and become paler first. They also felt hot to touch, and itchy. But, for me they were also symmetrical - one would appear say on right side of ribs, and soon a matching one would appear on left side. Up and down my whole body like that in various places. (has anyone else had symmetrical ones?)

Nosodes do not kill anything. They can only help ones immune system to fight infections, but in the case of chronic lyme or brucella, they really wouldn't be much help because of the depth of infection and the weakened state of the body and immune system.

One therapy for brucella is taking rifampin and mino together for up to 2 yrs or more.

It pretty much goes without saying that I do not believe in homeopathy or Isopathy (for this kind of chronic illnes anyway - it did once help me istantly with hives though).

According to the place I attended, they profess that nosodes DO indeed kill whatever pathogen you're harboring, because a nosode is a negative charge and the pathogen a matching positive charge, and they are supposed to 'cancel each other out'. Well, this is what they teach at this college anyway. Feel free to email me if you want to call them and ask about it. In any case, I was not cured.

Homeopathy, is supposed to help the body heal itself, but not Isopathy.