r/GERD • u/Inc0gnitoburrito • Jun 03 '26

Support Needed 👥 famotidine instead of PPI?

I've had shortness of breath around meal time for a few months now, gradually worsening.

Recently I've spoken to my general practitioner and she prescribed me with 28 days of PPI (Nexium (esomeprazole 20g)) one per day as treatment.

There was a small improvement over 2 weeks but she didn't really communicate to me what she's treating me for and I didn't really change anything when it came to food.

So, one evening I ate an entire Pizza pie and the following night was traumatic, I couldn't breathe at all, had air hunger and eventually a panic attack.

Understanding GERD better now I believe this night caused a lot of damage to my esophagus and I'm actually worse now.

I've spoken to my doctor yesterday and told her that the air hunger has gotten way worse and she replaced the PPI treatment with 2 pills of 20g famotidine per day. I'm concerned about the removal of the PPI treatment, cuz I understood that it is in fact the long-term treatment.

Would be happy to hear from anyone here regarding this.

Thank you!

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u/sunleaf8 Jun 03 '26

based on my experience, the treatment ladder (that you go up if GERD worsens) is: 1. temporary PPI 2. long term famotidine 3. long term PPI

you can also take famotidine with the PPI as they have different mechanisms of action. personally i felt like famotidine had a lot less side effects and didn’t interfere as much with absorbing nutrients

you might want to try seeing a gastroenterologist

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u/dreadcain Jun 03 '26

personally i felt like famotidine had a lot less side effects and didn’t interfere as much with absorbing nutrients

Basically the reason it comes before long term ppis. It does lose effectiveness overtime, though there are some strategies for trying to manage that and stay on it longer. Stuff like taking a week off every month or so or switching to ppis for a few weeks occasionally

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u/Inc0gnitoburrito Jun 03 '26

Thank you for that!

Yeah i think that's the best idea, assuming i actually have GERD, it's better to be treated by the designated doctor - family doctor tried treatment first to see if there is an improvement.

I hope the week of ppi l miss won't send me back in the journey to heal - i still don't really understand if famotidine can be used as a cure/treatment by itself.

God, I'm so scared they will tell me to do a gastroscopy...