Getting Off Nexium - Advice Sought ....

You'll laugh ... or at least I hope you will.

I was feeling a pressure in the back left quadrant of my head. I had been feeling it since 13th February of this year. I had done many things to try to tackle this unwelcome pressure including having an incipient upper left wisdom tooth removed that was - they said - unnecessary. That did nothing for my head - and even less for my wallet. I am, I should note, a 58 year old male for my sins. Finally having experienced one - and I repeat 'one' occasion of heartburn on 13th February - for the first time in my life - it was suggested that I might take Nexim, 20 mg for two weeks and that might remove the pressure. I was given a prescription. I started taking it on 9th April. I stopped after four tablets the last of which was only a half dosage. I stopped because I was uncertain why I was taking this in the first place (e.g., short of being told to) and as it was doing nothing for the head pressure. I had always thought that the head pressure was due to some disturbance with the noted foraminal stenosis in my neck. At first my GP (I'm in the UK) said 'no' - 'That's not the right area for your pressure to be associated with your neck.' I now know it was. When I went to a local A&E on Easter weekend thinking I might be having a heart attack - the doctor said it WAS my neck and I should have some physiotherapy. I have since had some physiotherapy - on her advice - and it has shown this to be the case in the sense that the physiotherapy has at least proved to be in part successful in treating the pressure.

That said ... I'm now frequently lumbered with this feeling of pressure in my upper chest - certainly like I've never had before. It's like a balloon has expanded there and wants to pop but somehow just can't ... Oh, and silent burps. Those are now a daily affair. It has been three weeks off the Nexium thus far for me.

I have read about a 2009 survey that showed that it can take between one and three months to get over these symptoms ... and to re-shape the strength of your stomach so that you can return to your previously normal lifestyle e.g., that to which you had long become accustomed.

I will quote but one reference to this study here:
http://www.webmd.com/heartburn-gerd/news/20090702/stopping-ppis-causes-acid-reflux-symptoms

I NEED SOME ADVICE: ...

I wonder if anyone out there has actually managed to do this ... or is in the successful process of overcoming this hurdle. I would be ever so grateful for your kind advice.

I went to see a GP at my surgery this morning ... I asked him if I should have an endoscopy. He said 'no'. 'They are invasive and potentially fatal' he said. I merely looked back in horror.

I now don't know what to do. I really don't want to do knowing harm to myself ... Heaven fore-fend - and the thought that I may have been the instrument of this experience myself is driving me spare. Please know that I'm taking all the support elements I can, e.g., digestive enzymes, DGL licorice, Please also know I have taken no antacids to deal with the current displeasure - I'm toughing it out - and certainly NO more Nexium. 'Over my dead body', I keep humming to myself.

You kind advice will be - I PROMISE - hugely appreciated. Just to hear one person say they had been through it and had come out the other end (so to speak) would, I promise, be life enriching.

Bless you for all.

I merely took four of the Nexim tablets in total .... but for someone who really NEVER had a digestive problem before .... it seemed to have turned my system around. I must confess I didn't have any real problem while I was taking the said four tablets ... (short of wondering why I was really taking them in the first place) ... but the acid rebound on finishing them was frightening to this total novice in this regard.

Again, I was wondering if someone has got off the Nexium - of any length - and managed to return to normal or thereabouts ... and how long it took.

I did feel that this doctor's description of an endoscopy being potentially fatal was a trifle OTT - but, then, I can't say that I'm familiar with the statistics in such a regard so really had nothing to come back with. (I think it may have been the procedure was perhaps a trifle too expensive for the Surgery budget - but that is only a surmise.) Surely there have been a vast many who have undergone an endoscopy safely.