heartburn- how can I possibly still have an esophagus!

traceygirl · 06-06-2003, 12:46 AM

DO any of you have really severe heartburn while taking met? I swear, I could drink nothing but water, and wake up with fire in my throat. Everything gives me heartburn, even non-citrus fruit. I've been taking Tagamet twice a night, everynight, and have been drinking pepto dirung the day. Pepto doesnt even work anymore. I'm really in a lot of pain. The past 3 nights, I've woken up choking (scaring the hell out of my husband to boot) and last night, it came up, and somehow, I managed to suck whatever came up into my lungs, so I coughed for an hour straight.

What are you all doing to keep this away, or under control? I'm taking so much tagamet, I dont think it's going to work for much longer!

GroovyLisa · 06-06-2003, 01:23 AM

Met gave me terrible heartburn when I first started taking it. It still does it to me from time to time. I have found though, if you eat before you take your Met it happens much less often. There is even a label on my perscription that says to take Met on a full stomach or with Milk. I dont know if this is the reason why, but I have found that it helps big time. I hope this helps you!

God Bless,

Lisa

christyz · 06-06-2003, 01:39 AM

The flap in my esophagus didn't close after my pregnancies, so I have struggled with heartburn every time i laid down for years. With my weight loss, I've noticed a big difference in that dept. ...only bugs me about once a month.

I did the choking thing too..isn't it positively horrifying? I remember waking up gasping and thinking I was going to vomit or choke to death. It's an *awful* way to awaken.

I always used a couple of those big sized TUMS tablets (I believe Costco sells them) because i could swallow a couple and they would take the edge off right away. Otherwise I haven't got any big solutions..just wanted to let you know you aren't alone!

kim22 · 06-06-2003, 03:33 AM

I suffer from heartburn too, its been more over the last few weeks, I have used the the rennie tablets (the flavoured ones. i think they are called rapeze) but the last few days I have been taking tums (the big sized ones) and they work aswell.

Kate721 · 06-06-2003, 01:42 PM

With serious heartburn you need serious meds. There comes a time in the maintenance and wellbeing of your GI tract that serious meds become appropriate.
The important thing to know about heart burn and acid reflux is that if it is left to it's own devices it has a tendency to turn into a serious medical condition.
I had a lot of bad heartburn and a round of Nexium helped tremendously. I think Prilosec helps handle the problem and Nexium helps to heal the esophogus.
You might want to check and do some research because I might be confused about that.
I noticed my Heart burn was more related to my female/pancreatic/metabolic/endocrine troubles which then began to affect my GI system in an adverse way.
You might want to talk to a Gastroeneterologist about your problem. Gastroenterologists are sometimes good with diagnosing women with complex woman problems only because some of them have so many gastrointestinally compromised women who go in with secondary gastro problems from their female issues.
Kate

andrena · 06-06-2003, 08:40 PM

The met caused me terrible heartburn also - even the choking, middle of the night kind. It didn't matter if I had nothing but water either. It didn't matter if I took the met with food - still the heartburn. The ONLY thing that I found to work (for me) was to take my met with milk. Once I started taking it with milk, the heartburn disappeared! The milk has been my lifesaver! I can even now take met on an empty stomach, with nothing but a glass of milk - no heartburn!

Hope that helps!

KYBluegrass · 06-07-2003, 12:42 AM

I agree with the posts above, that milk may help your situation. I also want to share with you what happened to me a few years back. I don't want to alarm anyone, but if your heartburn continues even after trying the milk, you may want to explore this option. A few years back, I developed relentless heartburn. No matter how I changed my diet, nothing helped. When I lay down, it was worse, so they thought I had acid reflux disease. I was gulping down antacids like crazy, and drinking tons of Maalox every day. Nothing helped. They tried prilosec, tagamet, all of them, and they only made it worse. Had all the nasty tests, they found nothing. Finally, my doctor read a study about this Australian doctor who found that some heartburn is caused by an overgrowth of H pylori (a bacteria) is the stomach. He found that it could be treated with a simple antibiotic. My doc gave me a scrip for doxycycline, and it cleared right up, and I have never had a problem since!

DianeJ · 06-07-2003, 12:58 AM

I used to get slight heartburn here and there before taking met. Then it got really bad after starting met plus really bad acid reflux - everyday. I got to the point where during the day, when I ate something, I felt like it was getting stuck in my throat and I was choking, sometimes losing my breath. Regular antacids weren't working. I ended up having to get a upper GI. Thankfully, it came out fine. My doc started me on Zantac, prescription strength. It's helped SO much; I hardly ever get heartburn anymore. It's a very rare occurence.

I thought it interesting you mentioned heartburn with water. That's always made mine worse. And there are so many people who can drink water with food - I can't. I end up with heartburn. I have to drink it between meals and snacks instead of with them.

You might want to try the suggestions here - and check with your doctor too. It's an awful feeling and sometimes easily fixed with one of the above mentioned meds.

Good luck.

Bertiebugg · 06-07-2003, 02:13 PM

I agree with the milk! That might be why the bottles says to take it with food or milk. I know I started getting heartburn... but I found that if I take it with milk or yogurt... I dont have the problem! Also, I use to take calcium chews the name started with a V... they had 500mgs of calcium.... and when I started getting heart burn, I just chewed on a few of those and bam it was gone.

So you might want to try having a glass of milk before bed... or if you can find the calcium chews try those before bed, and that might help!

SweetP · 06-10-2003, 04:49 PM

Hi! I just wanted to let you know that, coincidentally, I was reading up on Metformin today on webmd.com. It said that the effects of Metformin may be increased if a woman also take Tagamet - I don't know if they mean that the increased effects are good or bad, but you may want to check with your doctor or pharmacist about combining Met with Tagamet.

By the way, I've noticed just the opposite with my heartburn. I'm overweight by about 40 lbs., and love to eat foods high in carbs, sugar and salt. Since I've started the Met (April 29th), I've changed my way of eating, lost 12 pounds, and I almost never get heartburn anymore at all! A miracle for me, as I was keeping Tums in business, waking up choking in the middle of the night, etc.

Good luck!!

Hezzer · 06-10-2003, 05:08 PM

I have acid reflux disease and take Protonix for it. I do not take Met, though.

While taking Met could be the culprit in all these heartburn cases, anyone who hasn't already should see a doctor to rule out acid reflux disease.

Exposing the espophogas to acid can cause permanent damage. People can acutally develop holes in the esphogagus from the acid eating away at it so long.

christyz · 06-10-2003, 06:07 PM

Quote:

, I was reading up on Metformin today on webmd.com. It said that the effects of Metformin may be increased if a woman also take Tagamet - I don't know if they mean that the increased effects are good or bad, but you may want to check with your doctor or pharmacist about combining Met with Tagamet.

The gastrointestinal drug Tagamet can increase the amount of Met in your body by about 50%. In other words, if you are on a dosage of 1000 mg of met, you will be getting the amount and side effects as if you were taking 1500 mg of Met. To get the effects of a 1000 mg dose of met, you could lower your dose to 500 mg.

Anyone on Tagamet should speak with their Dr about dosing concerns.