Rebound question-Acid hypersecretion

Greetings...new member here - I fortunately came across this site/forum and have been reading the posts, and getting alot of great info. I have a question and I'm wondering if anyone has experienced what I'm going through. I'll try to be as brief as I can with some back ground info. I'll fail at being brief. I'm sure I'm not as well versed in this as many of you, so please bear with me. I'm no expert. For info purposes, I'm a 62 year old male.

I've been through two fairly recent bouts (last 2.5 - 3 years) of this, and right now I have what my GI is describing as gastritis. Again. Basically inflammation and irritation. Discovered when they did an endoscopy about a month ago. Normal tissue under the irritation, no ulcer, no cancer, no H pylori, no celiac sprue. All biopsies negative. My doc thinks that after taking the Famotidine and Sucralfate, that there was definitely healing going on. I'm very thankful for all that. I do have a small hiatal hernia that they discovered the first time I went through this a couple years ago. I suppose the first time I had gastritis was worse as it affected my intestines and I had alot of diarrhea. Not the case this time...all normal bowel movements.

The first time, I was hospitalized a couple times before they figured out what was going on. I was on Omeprazole and then Ranitidine. Gradually, I got better and I weaned off them and was more or less ok for around 18 months. No symptoms that I noticed. I should mention that I do have other health issues. I'm a heart attack survivor and on meds for that. They stopped the Plavix I was taking for my heart because they thought it was contributing to the stomach/intestinal problems. Years ago, I also had my thyroid destroyed with radioactive iodine, so I'm on meds for that too.

This latest bout of "gastritis" started at the end of last summer 2020. I started having some stomach discomfort. Just didn't feel right. Not really pain, just alot of discomfort and indigestion/dyspepsia. Bad stomach ache every once in a while. During the pandemic, it's very difficult to get into a docs office, so I started taking Tums, then Famotidine on my own. I kind of knew the drill. I would have taken Ranitidine, but it's off the market. I get very bad side effects from ALL these acid reducing drugs. I'm very sensitive to them. The side effects are almost as bad as the condition. I'll never do another ppi...those made me feel so sick, it wasn't even funny. I'll do the H2 blocker, but no ppi's. I already had changed my diet after the first go round, so I didn't have to change it very much again, but I did even more bland foods. I've had to watch what I eat ever since my heart attack back in 2004. I eat fairly healthy.

Anyway, by the time I could talk to my GI doc this time, I was taking Famotidine and trying to handle the side effects. I had the endoscopy and results as I mentioned. He also put me on Sucralfate. That gave me a whole other set of side effects on top of the Famotidine. I took the Sucralfate for about 2.5 months, and the Famotidine for about 3.5 months. I just couldn't take the various side effects any more, so I decided to try and wean off both of them and see what I felt like. Get a baseline and see how I was doing. I did what was probably not quite enough time to wean off the two drugs, but I finally stopped the Sucralfate almost a month ago, and finally the Famotidine a little over two weeks ago. I started taking Tums to help with whatever discomfort I felt. I stopped taking the Tums about 5 days ago and I'm trying to go without taking anything as of now. I know I'm going through alot of rebound effect symptoms from the drugs. I expect that to last quite a while, even though I wasn't really on the drugs for as long as many of you. As I said, I'm real sensitive to these acid reducing drugs. I've seen anywhere from a few weeks to several months to deal with the acid rebound hyper secretion. That's a very tough go, and it HAS been very tough. My body feels better being off the drugs, but my gut knows that I'm not taking them...that's for sure. I'm trying to tough through it.

I guess after boring you with all that, here's my basic question...and I appreciate any and all info.

Does anyone ever get what I've seen referred to as rebound "acid surges"? I get several every day and they're extremely uncomfortable. They can come at any time...I could be sitting at my desk, or having some food, or watching tv, or doing anything else. Feeling more or less ok...certainly not 100%, but ok. All of a sudden, I'll get this kind of flushed feeling. Similar to what a hot flash must feel like for women. I can feel it building in my gut, then it goes up to my chest, then sometimes to my upper back, then sometimes into my arms. I can't describe it any better than that. It's really uncomfortable. I'm hoping that someone has experienced these before and can give me some insight. I don't know how long the acid rebound effect is going to last, but I sure hope it ends soon.

As long as this post already is, I'm sure I left many details out. I thank you for reading and hope to get much more info than I know right now. Bless us all and stay safe!

I wouldn't say I'm doing a 100% "strict" gastritis diet, but I'm definitely not very far from that. Very bland with very few exceptions. At this point, it doesn't appear to have a whole lot to do with my diet. I've been eating relatively healthy since my heart attack in 2004. As far as trigger foods, I haven't really discovered any, but as I said, I'm not being adventurous at all. I'm kind of following the info in L.G. Capellan's book "The Gastritis Healing Book". Of course it's sure possible that it could be diet related somehow, but nothing really obvious stands out.

I'm having some very tough days currently, and somehow each and every day is different. I have no idea why. I had some of these exact same flashes/surges back in 2019 when I first had the gastritis problem. Nobody could really figure it out then...not my GI doc, not my endocrinologist, and not my GP doc. However, I know a lot more about it now. I'm sure at least some of it is from dealing with the acid rebound effects, but I'm also wondering if being on the anti-acid meds has possibly messed up some of my blood levels. I won't be able to get a CBC and CMP for another couple weeks when I see my GP. Hard to get in to a doc during the pandemic, and they won't do blood work prior to an office visit. I won't go to the ER unless it's a life threatening emergency. Been there, done that. I'm trying to hang on and hoping to see some kind of light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you for your input.

Hi new here been on pantoprazole 40 mg for 10 1/2 weeks should i tapper off slowly or just stop. I did not know just how bad this med is to get off of . I am 65 and have heart stens also afib and pacemaker this is how all this started doctor put me on 3 blood thiner -Coumadin-Plavix-81mg aspirin for 1year after heart stens. this gave me a ulcer. so I quit taking all but the plavix for 6 months and uler healed up.then went back on plavic and they put me on Eliquis and back came the ulcer.so went to the gastrologist for help and they put me on this da%$# pantoprazole.so 5 day before i am to get a watchman put in my heart get off the blood thinners i find out how bad pantoprazole is. seems you can't trust any doctors anymore I asked if I could take this long-term and they toll me yes. any info would be great--thanks

nick6a4:

Since you are also on other medication and have a pacemaker - you should really contact your doctor about a tapering off plan - just to be safe. FYI - I was on Protonix for most of my adult life (I'm in my 50's), and it helped me greatly without any side effects. Any medication that you take is listed as having side effects on the internet.

Sharon