Lansoprazole experiences

[maeve84]

Hello! I’m just wondering how good people have found lansoprazole for acid reflux? My GP recently switched me from omeprazole after I saw her about a persistent tickly throat. The throat symptoms have not improved after 2 weeks of lansoprazole and additionally I’ve had 3 attacks of heartburn which I have very rarely suffered with before. I’ve also been having back and chest discomfort which comes and goes, this could be anxiety because I’ve got myself utterly convinced that I have cancer of the esophagus.

Don’t they both do the same thing?

Well yes. But she switched me as she she said some work better than others for different people

I cannot get either prescribed until I’ve had an endoscopy, I was referred last March and have an appointment with Consultant in May then who knows how long for the actual endoscopy.

@Lennonjinglesreally? That seems odd to not try to give you some relief while you wait. My GP said it’ll be endoscopy if symptoms don’t improve… that also terrifies me as I’ve heard it’s awful

@maeve84 I've never regretted taking a drug as much as a PPI.

I went in with a cough that isn't related to my asthma. On the PPI I needed gaviscon (never had before even in pregnancy), rising nausea during the night, horrific nausea that made me unable to eat during the day.

It took tapering for a month then a further 6 months to feel normal again. I now just keep on top of it by not drinking caffeinated coffee and having gaviscon advance every night.

I havent gone back to GP.

Also @maeve84 if you do hVe am endoscopy they sedate you so you don't remember how bad it is.

I won't have one because I also react very badly to sedation and anaesthetic. Hence not going back to the GP!

Im so much better on it now and don’t get flare ups. I take 30mg twice a day and can’t lower the dose otherwise symptoms come back. My ds11 is on 15mg for reflux and no longer regurgitates food, feels sick or has stomach pain. Omeprazole wasn’t effective for me.

Lansoprazole worked well for my reflux almost immediately, after using Omeprazole and then Esomeprazole for about 10 days. I had a probable ulcer though, so different symptoms to you. Esomeprazole does usually work for me at the first sign of issues, but I think I hadn't started it quickly enough on that occasion.

@Moveyourbleedingarsei do think maybe the ppi has caused my problems. I suffered heartburn in pregnancy, but not horrifically. no trouble since I gave birth.
I went to the gp about palpitations about 3 years ago which they said was likely reflux and put me on omeprazole. Before starting it I hadn’t had any heartburn for about 6 years, but now in the last 3 years I’ve suffered various symptoms. I had been using omeprazole now and then for a few days if I had a heartburn attack. This tickle in my throat followed an acute sore throat so I was surprised when she said it was probably reflux. Things have been so much worse the last few days.

I’m swinging between thinking most of my symptoms are down to anxiety, to being convinced I’ve had a tumour growing for the last 3 years.

The other symptom I’ve noticed is feeling my food go down my esophasgus… it’s not painful really but I understand most people can’t feel the passage of food?

I know I won’t remember the endoscopy if I’m sedated but I’m scared that in the moment I won’t actually be able to get through it

@ButWhysTheRumGonemaybe I need a higher dose. I was on omeprazole 15mg twice a day and now on lansoprazole 30mg once a day. This morning I woke with quite bad heartburn

I feel my food go down if I've had too much coffee or whatever and I also feel it come back up sometimes. But that's significantly preferable to the lack of appetite on PPIs and the rising nausea.

But I don't get anxious about mine, it hasnt occurred to me that I might have cancer and not something I give any thought to. You can meet yourself coming back worrying about that kind of thing.

Interesting about the palpitations. I started with those after I have birth to my big babies and for 15yrs was told it was anxiety. Never realised it could be reflux.

You know that PPIs cause malabsorption of Vitamins and minerals and are not healthy long term? My GP will only prescribe a two month course.

I reckon if you are that worried about it it would be worth going back in. They can prescribe H2 receptors which are better tolerated. (famotidine is one of these).

My little one is on 15mg Lansoprazole but takes it as a split dose (7.5mg am and pm) which seems to work better for him.

Yes @Moveyourbleedingarsei don’t want to be on them. When I had the omeprazole I only took it when I really needed to, and only ever for a week or
so. When the GP prescribed this she said take for 2-4 weeks and then come back and see her.
I never used to have health anxiety like this, not until I had my children, and then it got worse after Covid. I think ultimately I’m going to have to have an endoscopy because otherwise I’m going to continue worrying about it being something awful causing it

@Seawolvesperhaps i should ask about splitting my dose, maybe it would help…

You know about tapering? You can't go on and off this stuff, it causes rebound acid which is higher levels of acid which can last from days to months. My GP made me taper off it.

Is that a possible reason?

I was on Lansoprazole for a while several years ago, having also been switched to it after Omeprazole stopped managing my symptoms. I found I became resistant to the Lansoprazole - I had to take increasingly higher doses for it to have any effect. In the end I weaned off it by stepping down the dose and managing acute symptoms with Gaviscon advance (the one with the red label, you get it from the pharmacy counter). Also making changes such as sleeping more upright and avoiding trigger foods (mine are tomatoes, onion, and anything spicy, for example).

Reflux could definitely be causing your tickly cough because the acid irritates your throat. Good that you're having an gastroscopy (endoscopy) to rule out any other issues though, hopefully it will ease some of your anxiety because they will see if there's anything wrong.

There is absolutely nothing to worry about with the gastroscopy, the sedation is like being half asleep and you're not really aware of what's going on. You will be totally fine.

Hmm. So I used then omeprazole on and off. I think maybe this worked ok because I was only taking a very low dose most of the time. When these recent symptoms started I hadn’t been on it so
i don’t think it can be that. And then we had Xmas where I had a lot of bad foods like chocolate crisps and cups of tea while visiting relatives… weirdly
during this period things weren’t too bad. I just don’t seem to match up to how this is supposed to work!

@SaltedCaramelBlondie I’m actually starting to wonder if I’ve got LPR because most of the time I have no heartburn. I don’t suffer nausea or regurgitation, just this tickle and some chest and back discomfort. That scares me though because how many years could I have had it without knowing?!

Thank you for the info re the gastroscopy, I don’t know why this scares me so much. I’m usually fine with medical procedures

I filled in an eConsult to my gp earlier to say the lansoprazole doesn’t seem to be making a difference and she called me in. She’s doing a referral for upper gi as they’ll be able to look at my throat and all the way down. She’s doing was just going to do ENT until I told her my worries so now I assume it’ll be a scope. Not sure if I’ll have an appointment with upper gi first but she thinks the wait is around 12 weeks. I do have private medical insurance so I can potentially use that if I’m waiting too long

Hi OP. Why wouldn't you just go straight to private? You'll have a much faster better experience.

And stop you worrying for 12weeks!

Only because I didn’t think about it when I was in there! I need to just check with my husband because it’s through his work, but I can call the surgery tomorrow and ask for it to be private. I have a really full on 2 weeks though, presumably with private you can say ‘actually can’t I have it done mid February’ - unlike with the nhs

Of course! You'd need a gastro appt first then they will schedule you for the endoscopy if they think you need one.

If you ring the surgery, ask for an 'open referral' and to have it emailed to you.

You can then send it to whichever consultant you go to see. The insurer will give you a list of options, I then Google them to see who I like the sound of, then book the appt direct with their secretary, using the authorisation code from the private insurer.

That said, I've had loads of private appts where the secretary doesn't care about the referral letter, only the authorisation code.

So I ring my insurer first to find out who I’m allowed to see and then I have to choose? The GP won’t reccomend? I don’t even know who our insurance is with, we’ve not needed it before!

Yes exactly that.

Your GP won't give you a name. They wouldn't necessarily know. I go on word if mouth, if you have any friends who are consultants they can sometimes suggest. Or I have also made an appt on who looked friendliest on their photo on the BUPA website 😂

The insurer will email you the list of who you can choose from, but if there's someone further away that isn't on the list who you want to see, you can ask them to extend The geographical range of their search. So for example DS needed a neurologist but there was no one locally who treated children, so the insurer extended the range to find someone.

However, if you want to stay local, if you look to see who consults at your nearest private hospital, you will get a good idea of what the insurer will suggest.

I was on Lansoprazole for seven years to control reflux symptoms. Tried to quit it a few times, each and every time the symptoms flared up instantly. Finally quit in November with no significant flare-up, been off it since.

It was effective in managing my symptoms after Omeprazole and Ranitidine gradually failed, but after having been parked on it for years it started doing horrible things to my insides, hence my motivation to come off it. Far fewer digestive issues now that it's not a factor, but I have to be really careful about not inadvertently triggering a reflux flare.