Getting Off of Omeprazole: Share your success stories please.

Not familiar with Achalasia. My only issue has been moderate long-term esophagitis. The CMP profile above indicates that omeprazole is not necessarily harmful and is a good way to control GERD for most. It just needs to be carefully monitored.

Do you have the ability to talk with the doctor? Omeprazole does not seem to help me. Did you ever go to Mayo in Rochester? I am due for first visit there soon.

I took omeprazole for quite a few years but eventually stopped working even with increased dosages. Switched to Dexilant (worked well but no insurance coverage) then to the generic Nexium which appears to not be working well anymore.

When you say that you saw a PCP in Plymouth and then switched to U of M—are these facilities in Michigan or Minnesota?

I am waiting to find out if Mayo gastroenterology dept. is going to give me an appointment. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Follow up regarding the supplements Prelief and Coffee Tamer: Coffe Tamer (CalciBlend)is only available online but my local Walgreens has Prelief. I decided to give them a try—NOT for daily use but just for occasions when I want to eat an acidic or spicy food. Tried them one day for a salad with tomatoes. No reflux!! Yesterday I ate a fairly small portion of spaghetti and meatballs with tomato sauce—not spicy, gluten free, no onions or garlic because of IBS. But again—no reflux. Anyway, that’s my input.

I was followed in Plymouth, MI and then on to University of Michigan. I am extremely disappointed that I put off an appointment to Mayo Clinic from January to March. Gastro at Mayo seems to be hard to get into for some reason. I see a specialist this afternoon at U of M for Pulmonary (MAC and sarcoidosis) and will make an appeal to see if he will follow up with a better plan. He mentioned doctors at the Cleveland Clinic and did not follow through with this. Did you look up Achalasia as it is one of the most misdiagnosed diseases by gastro doctors.

We crossed over in e-mails. Who is your gastro doctor?

My gastro doctor is in MN. I am currently awaiting a reply from Mayo about whether they will give me an appointment. As you said, difficult to get into. I looked at a USnews and World report on best doctors. Of course Mayo is #1 in gastro. But the Cleveland Clinic is also one of the best. If I understand correctly, achalasia is a problem with swallowing. I don’t have that problem.

Swallowing is correct but you don't realize it is swallowing that is problem. My came to a head when I stood up felt like I was going to fall overweigh such dizziness at my mother's wake in CT. I was diagnosed with IBS by a local gastro doctor at Henry Ford Hospital. He refused to refer me to surgeon before he conducted same test just done at very well-known hospital in CT.

Read most of the replies and thought I would add my story. I am 60 and in decent health, 6 feet 160 pounds, so weight not an issue. In the late nineties I started getting heartburn, never just a little heartburn, I mean sitting up all night because I could not lay down and the burning was not just annoying but quite painful. I used to like my beer and wine, simply would not stop drinking coffee, all the foods I loved were off the lists I have seen you post here. Though I have loathed milk and other dairy products all my life, especially cheeses and yogurt, the very thought makes me gag.

My provider is the VA, my doctor put me on ranitidine first and it had no apparent effect. Then omeprazole in 1998 or 9. the dose was 40 mg and it was like a new lease on life, by the way, I eventually discovered that 20 mg was adequate and that is now what I take, to this day I have not had heartburn unless I forgot to take it when I woke. But something happened I and none of my doctors since have connected to PPI use till I was in Australia for a few months in early 2017. Every spring starting in 2000 I would get welts on my arms, I lived in Florida and had a convertible. These were really bad, my arms were pebbled like the skin of an avocado and the itching was indescribable. They would open up and bleed, they would weep clear sticky fluids, I would wake stuck to my sheets. And, this lasted till about October, a sore, say on my hairline would last for 6 months without healing. Only as autumn came would they taper off.

I ran out of omeprazole in Australia and went to the doctor there for a prescription, I had a full blown set of new sores though it was January, but that was high summer there. They told me that they thought the rash was drug induced cutaneous lupus, something you never hear about in America. In fact many countries limit you to 14 day supply at one time and cite a number of side effects the US does not recognize. I have been trying to get the VA to give me some workable alternative to omeprazole since, but the local VA hospital does not have an immunology department and the VA does not recognize cutaneous lupus as a drug reaction. So, I now have two major quality of life problems one causing the other. There actually is a treatment they use in Australia and New Zealand when a patient can't get off of omeprazole, it is a substance some people use to give themselves tans without the sun, it is especially popular with body builders who do not want to paint themselves darker. It triggers melanin production in your cells and that seems to ward off the weeping sores.

I would really love to get off of omeprazole after almost 20 years, I am sure it is likely doing other damage that is not so obvious. And, my blood work has been a mess for a long time, mostly severe vitamin D deficient, but very lousy cholesterol numbers (BP is like a 15 year old athlete though) high red counts with little diffusion in size. And after Australia I moved to Ireland where I lived 7 months till I got an ear infection and the National Health System was so overloaded I could not be seen. I returned October 2017 and still have the ear infections. It has not responded to antibiotics, another doctor said they thought it was an allergy, can this also be an omeprazole related side effect? But, as bad as omeprazole may be I will not stop taking it because as sure as the sun rises I will be in agony within 48 hours. I would be tempted almost to have most of the stomach removed, they did that to my Dad in 1970 or so.

By the way, drug induced cutaneous lupus will go away in a few months after you stop treatment. But of course for me within a few days the heartburn comes roaring back too.

@herkie What a dilemma, discontinuing the omeprazole and suffering from not having it, or continuing it and having other problems. So far I have no bad effects from omeprazole. I have been on it for about 5 years at this point. I hate taking it because I know it does have some long term side effects but I have Barrett's Esophagus and from what I understand if not treated with a PPI it can progress to esophageal cancer.
I never had heartburn from my Barrett's, the only symptom was constant hoarseness, which I still get some days.
If you find a solution to your problems I would love to hear what it is.
JK