prilosec otc

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IrishSaint

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ive been taking prilosec otc for 14 days, as instructed. and during those 14 days i was heartburn free. now its my 2nd day off of it and i have constant heartburn, i just took some tums and they are rather uneffective compared to the prilosec. what should i do? could i keep taking prilosec even though on the box it says you should only take it for 14 days and then wait a few months before repeating the 14 day treatment? what should i do? ive been to the doctors and i do have acid reflux.
 
Many people take it for long perioRAB of time without any issues. It would be best to check with your doctor to make sure he/she is O.K. with you taking it long-term.
 
well im sick of having heartburn so i took a prilosec today for the first time in a few days and i still have heartburn. but the box does say it can take a few days for it to kick in, last time i took it though i felt it almost immediatly.
 
With me, the rebound was 8 solid hours of pain so bad I couldn't stand up straight. It took about two more days to recover fully once I started again. If I hadn't already known what was happening to me, I would have gone to the ER.

Trying not to thread-jack here, but you sound very knowledgeable. I'm still on the stuff, and I still want to quit. Does anyone know how long the rebounding usually takes? I think I could endure the pain if I just knew when it was likely to end.
 
When I got off the PPI medication after being on it for a year~ I did it really, really slowly. It took me a whole year just to get off of it. I stayed with my bland diet also which helped. I wasn't in pain and rarely had the rebound effect but just some irritation when I lowered the dose or skipped days sometimes. I did this on my own so I don't know if I did it correctly but I was eventually able to stop taking it and not have any stomach problems. That's why I'm so mad that I had to start taking it again, I shouldn't have started up with the pain medication that caused the problems in the first place.

Good luck with stopping the medication, just do it really slowly.
 
Prilosec is addictive. It's the manufacturer's dirty and obscenely profitable secret. Sometimes the 14-day treatment lets your stomach heal, but if not, stopping produces severe rebound symptoms--far worse than before.

You might be able to quit by dropping the dosage slowly--one day on, one off.
 
Prilosec is NOT addictive.

It can cause rebound reflux if stopped suddenly but rebound reflux can usually be managed by tapering off the Prilosec and using Zantac or Tums as needed to allow your stomach's production of acid to return to normal.
 
There's no exact way to tell because everyone is different.

You're not supposed to break PrilosecOTC pills because they have an enteric coating that helps them dissolve more slowly in your digestive system, so that's not a good option.

When you're ready to try weaning yourself off PrilosecOTC you should pay close attention to your diet - avoid alcohol, caffeine, chocolate, tomato-based fooRAB and anything else that causes your acid to flare up as much as possible for a while.

I'm assuming you're only taking one PrilosecOTC a day, so the night before you skip your first PrilosecOTC take a Zantac 150 (generic version contains 150 mg of ranitidine) or Maximum Strength Pepcid (20 mg famotidine) at bedtime.

In the morning, take another 150 mg Zantac or 20 mg Pepcid in place of PrilosecOTC, and use Tums or another mild antacid through the day if you need to. Continue taking the maximum strength Zantac or Pepcid twice a day for a couple of weeks.

Assuming your still managing at that point, step down from the maximum strength Zantac or Pepcid to the normal strength (75 mg Zantac or 10 mg Pepcid) twice a day for a couple of weeks, and use Tums to manage any minor flare ups.

From twice a day, you should be able to drop down to once a day with the Zantac or Pepcid (depending on the type of reflux you have you'll have to experiment with the best time to take it - morning or evening), and then after a couple of weeks try stopping it altogether and using Tums to manage any flare ups you have.

You'll probably have to experiment to see whether Zantac or Pepcid works better for you, and try to identify any food or drinks that cause flare ups and avoid them, and throughout this process you may need an occasional PrilosecOTC to calm things down if you get a big flare up.
 
Thanks very much for the info, gcsmith.

I'm actually on two pills, so I will just use your algorithm twice, once to drop to one, again to quit entirely. Heck, even if all I achieve is dropping the dose, I'm still paying less, so that'll be a good thing.

I'm going to start Monday. Hopefully writing it down will keep me from losing my nerve again. I'm expecting to be eating nothing but white starch for the first few days, but I've survived that before.
 
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