Same thing happened to me with that awful prep. Stirred up what was good for a long time. I could even eat oranges before that.

Now I have to be careful what I eat and I can't get Dexilant either. Nothing else works so I'm stuck in a cycle of feeling ok then bad again.

Slowly improving over time though. I take Pepcid twice a day. It helps some.

Sara, yes exactly. For months and years I was feeling normal and I could eat my regular foods. The thing that gets me is the doctor's attitude, when I told her how sick I was! Why is it that gastritis is treated so non chalantly by them? I mean, it is simply inflammation of the stomach on paper, but in reality and from I read on these boards, it can be absolutely debilitating! Thank you for responding. I feel a little less anxious.

I get the feeling from doctors that they really don't know what to do when people get this bad. All they know are PPIs and Carafate. Carafate makes the burning worse for me. Insurance companies have no mercy either.

Yes, plus our anxiety levels are raised, making everything worse. I am sitting here desperate to have dinner and fighting off the waves of nausea that keep enveloping me. I'm trying ginger tea, which is helping a tiny bit.

So sorry that you are right in the thick of it now. Just know that it does stabilize eventually. Takes a lot of dietary adjustment at first. No tomatoes, no spices, no taste, no flavor, ugh. I was at the point where I was thankful I could eat eggs and steamed vegetables. I hate rice now, don't think I'll ever eat that again.

Thank you Sara. It does indeed get better, but man, the journey to that is painful. That being said, the ginger must have soothed out my stomach, because I am eating a little white rice. :)

Hi, Donica.

I'm going to bombard you with a list of instructions which have a high chance of improving your situation. I hope you try them.

Doctors throwing Nexium and Sucralfate at you is their standard "one size fits all" protocol.

Learning what the doctors don't know from practical experience, and looking at online medical studies, I've become extremely disillusioned in gastroenterologists, and so did a number of people on this board.

1) Consider cancelling your cruise. The biggest mistake I made in the beginning was not dedicating enough attention to the worsening symptoms and letting things get really bad. I know it's hard, but consider cancelling the cruise and focusing on your health. The stomach is the center of the entire body's health.

2) Drop Sucralfate like a hot potato and start taking this supplement, 4 times a day. 1st as you just wake up, 4th right before bed, and 2nd/3rd in the middle of intervals between meals (not immediately after or before a meal).

http://www.amazon.com/Doctors-Best-PepZin-Veggie-120-Count/dp/B0035BYOSA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424511545&sr=8-1

This supplement, also known as zinc carnosine, was invented in Japan in the 90s, and has been proven to speed up recovery of the stomach lining threefold. It sprays itself over the irritated lining and functions as a band-aid - a similar function to Sucralfate, but without side-effects.

If you already take supplements which contain a lot of zinc, then shift the dose of this one to what's on the box - 2 capsules/day. It's kinda small, but it will still make a difference.

3) Consider replacing Nexium with Pepcid 20mg pills. Pepcid is a near-perfected form of "previous-gen" medicine, H2 blockers. It has no interactions and the least amount of potential side-effects. It has excellent long-term tolerability. Unless you have kidney failure, there's no contraindication to taking it. And it's easier to quit than a PPI like Nexium - people quitting PPIs are often given advice to shift down to H2 blockers like Zantac or Pepcid first.

Standard dose of Pepcid is 20mg every 12 hours, at strict scheduled times of your determination. If that's not enough, the next escalation that doctors used to make is twice that dose - 40mg every 12 hours. It's still very safe.

____________________

The protocol here would be to try this regimen, while making sure to eat bland small meals every 3 hours for a couple of weeks, and seeing if you can "hold your own" for the first week, and perhaps notice small improvement during the second week.

If you do, just keep at it.

If you don't, and instead start getting burning far before the next intake of Pepcid, then you should consider trying the same protocol but with Zantac 150mg instead of Pepcid 20mg. While the two are of roughly equal strength, for some people Zantac is more effective.

And if THAT doesn't work, you may have switch to aforementioned nuclear option - Pepcid 40mg.

If you can't get Pepcid by prescription (or it's actually expensive), consider this generic version of it made by CostCo, which is cheap:

http://www.amazon.com/Kirkland-Signature-Strength-Controller-Famotidine/dp/B002RL8FL6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428050493&sr=8-1

While they don't make 40mg pills over-the-counter, if it ever comes to that, taking 2x20mg has the same effect.

There are generic Zantac pills out there too (ranitidine 150mg).

If some time passes and you've been trying the above advice, feel free to message me with questions. It's hard to monitor all the threads on this broken forum system and I could miss it otherwise.

I'm not a doctor and make no guarantees, but my suggestions have been helpful to some people here. I only recommend things I've been doing myself.

Before finding zinc carnosine, I was in that constant better-worse-better-worse cycle. This supplement made a subtle but decisive upward turn in the healing process.

If you wish to be conservative, you could ignore the Nexium--->Pepcid switch for now and see if just the Sucralfate--->zinc carnosine switch alone is sufficient.

Long-term use of PPIs like Nexium is not a good thing, but maybe you won't be on it too long.

I would just listen to shinohage and take his advice. I have improved and learned so much from his advice. Try not to go to the trip and "upgrade" your PPI dosage, once you heal you'll be able to go to thousands of trips and enjoy them better than now.

Its simple the more you let the burning continue the more damage is going on, irritation will go on, no healing will take place. Find something that minimizes this burning whatever method it is.

For me praying,relaxation and chewing my food well (even bland) has helped me the most.

After years of GERD, acid reflux, hiatal hernia, gastritis, and now they have found ulcers. They put me on Nexium 40 mg, twice a day. One hour before breakfast, one hour before dinner. I have almost no burning now in my stomach.

My pdoc thinks it's too much stress, the ulcers are slowly healing. He upped my Klonopin for my stress. I explained I've had the nausea since having sepsis 3 years ago. The extra Klonopin has also helped. He came to that conclusion because the nausea never causes me to throw up. The Klonopin or even Benadryl will help with your anxiety.

After the sepsis, because of the massive antibiotics I had, I got IBS-D for 10 months every day. After about 6-7 months my son found Kombucha tea. It did stop the nausea and diahrea after about 3 months of drinking a bottle a day, plus what the doctors said to do. The tea has probiotics, digestive enzymes, and soothes your stomach. The doctors had given up when my son found the tea. I don't think anything else really helped, beside not eating.

Unless you have a miraculous cure, I would post pone your trip. Good luck. I'm sorry your feeling so bad right now.

Shihonage, OMIGOD, thank you so much!!! I will try ALL your suggestions. I've read about PepZin from several people and the success they've had. Right now, I am finding the Nexium VERY irritating and making me even more nauseous. WEIRD, since it was my gold standard for years. But right now, nothing is working for me. I DO feel a tiny bit better today for some reason..I guess because I haven't eaten all day. I just had a bit to eat and I am tolerating it. I think in a few days I will better. Unfortunately, I cannot cancel this trip as it's a whole family thing. BUT, I will be careful with my eating and I will try the regimen. I am so grateful for your response. I was feeling anxious, alone and very scared.

Donica,

Can confirm Shihonage is giving you great advice.

A flare up like you're experiencing can take many weeks to settle down again. Be patient. Progress may be slow, but you will get there.

I think it will be important to prepare thoroughly for your cruise - meds, supplements etc to give you peace of mind. Bring some of your own bland, safe food (rice, crackers etc) along if necessary. Some serious mental preparation too - there will be tempting foods etc, but it's not worth risking further damage at this time. The best way to resist temptation is to avoid it.

I hope you have a wonderful, relaxing, distracting time with your family & rest as much as possible. You will feel improvement soon.

Thank you so much, dear Smile!

I just printed out the instructions and will start the regimen!!

Unreal..I didn't take my Nexium today, thinking it was causing me more nausea. I even started to eat a little bit today. But what is amazing to me that I took one Zantac, and I feel almost normal. I will order the other supplements suggested, but I thought I would tell you one teeny victory. ZANTAC!!

Sticking to Zantac is not a a terrible idea. Even though I'm on Pepcid now (formerly on Zantac), I'm not 100% sure my switch was of benefit.

Zantac is pretty clean. Not as clean as Pepcid, but pretty clean. And it appears to have more lasting power.

If Zantac proves to work for you, maybe it's best not to tempt fates and just stick to Zantac.

But still, you cannot just take it whenever you like. If you want long-term stabilization, start following a strict 1-pill-every-12-hours regimen of Zantac 150, described earlier. Set an alarm on your phone.

And don't eat 30mins before or after taking the pill.

It would also help to note how long it takes between taking a Zantac and when you start feeling burning again. Hopefully a small-frequent-meals regimen can carry you over the 12 hour interval to the next Zantac pill, but if the burning restarts a lot earlier regardless, you may want to switch to taking the pill every 8 hours instead.