Looking for PPI taper experience - PLEASE XOXOX

[Suzy]

Hi friends. I’ve tapered my Dexilant, which I’ve been on for a year, very slowly from 60mg to now 4 mg daily. PPI's give me horrible side effects, so I need to get off them.

I’ve been on Zantac 150mg am plus 150mg pm for a year too, so my body is used to 300 mg Zantac.

I have rebound to some extent daily -- burning chest, overall feeling lousy, reflux coming up, sore throat, sometimes irritated tummy, burping. I'm severly underweight.

Perhaps at this point, I should just stop the 4mg Dexilant completely, and instead increase my Zantac dose above and beyond the 300mg my body is used to so that I have something to "cover" the 4mg Dexilant I will be dropping.

Does anyone have experience with this?

I was thinking I could either:

A. Take 150 mg Zantac every 8 hours -- an hour before meals -- for a total of 450mg a day. OR,

B. Take 225 mg Zantac am and pm for a total of 450mg daily.

If that isn't enough "coverage," I could:

C. Take 150 mg Zantac four times daily, for a total of 600 mg daily OR

D. Take 300 mg Zantac am and pm for a total of 600 mg daily

If that isn't strong enough, I read somewhere that 40mg famotidine every 12 hours is stronger.

And of course I could add Gaviscon Advance, Carafate, Pepto Bismol, etc if needed until the rebound is over.

The other option of course is to continue on 300mg Zantac and wean down from 4mg Dexilant the way I have been, a 1/2 mg every couple of weeks.

I would love to hear anyone's thoughts and experience on this.

PS -- I'm taking ample doses of magnesium and vitamin D to help, as well as doing every thing else suggested for GERD/gastritis.

Thanks so much. This is a lonely, scary and painful journey, as you probably know.