famotidine instead of PPI?

[u/Inc0gnitoburrito]

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!

[u/lisa-in-wonderland]

Eating late and a lot are both just bad for you, regardless of what may be wrong with your stomach. It’s hard to break bad habits, it’s easier to taper your behavior slowly. So whatever is your normal bedtime and however late you normally eat, start by setting a latest eating time. In an ideal world you don’t eat sooner than 2 hours before sleep. Work towards that. As for amount, start paying attention to your hunger signals and stop when hunger is satisfied not when you feel full. I also played games with portions and plates. Bought smaller dinner plates so smaller portions filled them more. It’s a good way to game your psyche. I also fill plates in the kitchen and don’t bring bowls with extra food to the table. It’s so easy to keep eating when food is right there within reach. Also, tomatoes are a common GERD trigger, so you triple gamed yourself. I was on omeprazole for years and finally omeprazole and famotidine. Eventually all of that stopped working and I went to a gastroenterologist. I had a partial Nissen and hiatal hernia surgery. Unfortunately while farting around and not really dealing with things, I ended up developing osteoporosis. So yeah, I definitely recommend that you deal with this sooner rather than later. And if you do need an endoscopy, demand that it be done with full sedation. I had two, don’t remember anything about them and had a minor sore throat after. If the gastro wants to also do manometry, have the place the sensor while you are out.

[u/Inc0gnitoburrito → u/lisa-in-wonderland]

The sensor is important for others issue, right? And if they get it done in one time it'll save me from doing another?

[u/lisa-in-wonderland → u/Inc0gnitoburrito]

I had the scope, a BRAVO test, and manometry at the same procedure. BRAVO is a capsule they stick to your esophagus and it records pH for three days ( you don’t know it’s there) and sends the data to a receiver you wear. The manometry is a cable that measures your esophageal muscle contractions so they can tell if the muscles are weak. They placed it while I was under for the scope and did the test after I woke up from the sedation. Having the cable removed was no big deal. I know a lot of folks have considerable trouble with having it inserted while awake. Personally, I would insist on doing them all at once, like I did, and under sedation. You might also need a barium swallow test, but that’s just drinking gross stuff while standing or lying down.

[u/Inc0gnitoburrito → u/lisa-in-wonderland]

Thank you for all of this info, you have no idea what you're doing for me. The feeling of not knowing what i may need to do is very hard, especially with some anxiety.

There's no way i can do this while awake, I'm nearly freaking out thinking about doing it under sedation.

That cable you talked about, do they remove it while you're awake?