A slight knock back

Hi Rainie, I found your post really informative as I've been on Omeprazole for several years now, it was given to me by my Oncologist. What you describe is exactly what I'm feeling just now. Exhaustion and I know what you mean about the fog. I don't like taking drugs for a long time and I have been weaning myself off this. I look forward to feeling better maybe, as you say, in a few weeks!

You do of course have your own very particular issues to take into consideration, but I have read that coming off these drugs will often bring back the original symptoms with a vengence, but that passes and your body will slowly re-adjust. I therefore came off very slowly and titrated the dose down over a period of weeks and I had no gastric symptoms at all. Whatever you decide, I hope you find comfort in the future as constant issues of this sort are pretty miserable. Rainie x

Hi Annette,

It's been my experience that GPs don't like to over-rule any prescription from a consultant. However, when I discussed this, to be fair to my GP, he went and looked up the research I told him I'd found. He didn't pretend that he knew it all and he won brownie points from me for taking my concerns seriously. He referred back to the consultant who basically swept my concerns aside. However, it's my body and I was fed up with feeling as if I was a Duracell battery on its last legs, so I made my own decision to come off them. As I said, I soon began to feel so much more alert. I've reported all this back to the GP and he's duly written it all down.

This class of drugs are obviously very useful and help a lot of people, but as with anything, there's a trade-off. For me, it was more important to get my brain back and functioning properly. I hope things pick up for you as well. Take it slowly though. Rainie x

I have discussed the issue with someone I know who is a gastroenterologist, she did acknowledge that there are concerns, but she certainly minimised them as the drug is useful for controlling the symptoms. I have been taking omeprazole for over two years, I have not noticed an issue with brain fog so far, and it does help with my gastric symptoms, just not as effectively as it used to. I don't know what I am going to do in the longer term, at the moment I'd like to get symptom control.

I hope that you find a good solution for yourself Annette.

My GP has retired I have not really had the opportunity to build up a relationship with another one, I don't think I have spoken to the same person twice since.

Best wishes for the New Year!

Hi Sarah, Thank you for the information. I do think the longer you take some drugs for, the less effective they become as your system gets used to them. My gastric symptoms have been getting worse over the past while which is why I started to wonder if the Omeprazole was still working. Then when I read Rainie's post, i thought if I slowly cut them down, that would let me know if they were doing anything or not. The brain fog is a new thing for me but it hasn't happened too often yet. I have been on this drug for almost 9 years but no one has mentioned that has been too long! I will let you know how I get on.

I have seen my biopsy results in my GP record, they found adenoma rather than adenocarcinoma, I am very encouraged!

That is good to hear, xx

Hi Sarah, Rainie & Ellie, I meant to mention my oncologist told me it might be beneficial for me to take Actimel (or similar) daily, which I have been taking after breakfast for quite a while now. I get the one that has double O on the bottle, 0% fat and 0% added sugar. The other week my husband came back from shopping and said they didn't have any 00 ones but he didn't buy the other one instead. It was six days later before we got it. Now it could have been my imagination but I don't think so, I had an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach after day three, that disappeared two days after I started back on them.

Just thought if anyone hasn't tried them it might be worth it!