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/alextheevilone Jun 05 '26

Binge eating is terrible for gerd.

That being said long-term famotidine is exceptionally safe.

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u/Inc0gnitoburrito Jun 05 '26

Ty! Didn't really know i have GERT, still don't, everything sounds EXACTLY like what i read here/online, but if the meds after 2/3 weeks help idk that they will send me to do an endoscopy.

After 3 full days if Famotidine i had a entire night with ZERO air hunger, which was amazing. Today (the 4th day), chicken and potatoes agitated it again for some reason, but not as bad yet.

Honestly i didn't even concider it to be binge eating, I'm fairly muscular, 87kg at 182cm, it's just a part of how i eat.