Replace Nexium with Zantac 150.

Traditional indications are to take it "at the am and at the pm", but I prefer to use exact intervals, in your case it would be 12 hours, and using a timer on the phone for reminders.

OK, will follow that. I am expecting the PepZIN in the mail tomorrow, so I hope to get more relief. Right now I am trying to eat two hard boiled eggs and an English muffin. I feel hungry, but it's slow going.

This is driving me crazy. Whenever I've had flare ups, they wouldn't have lasted this long!! UGH!! I am SO miserable!!

Downgrade your diet and work from the bottom. You find the food you can stomach and be comfortable with NOW, and then slowly amp up.

In order of easier-to-harder digestion, my scale is:

White Rice
Oatmeal/Mashed potatoes
Baked potatoes
Mashed eggs/Baked salmon
Plain boiled chicken legs

The transition period between oatmeal and mashed eggs should be "oatmeal... 30 minute pause... 1 mashed egg - chewed thoroughly".

I may have omitted one ingredient you may find useful (I use it religiously): digestive enzymes. They allow a compromised stomach to jumpstart the digestive process. They are taken seconds before first food intake (the more immediate, the better).

I take 6 of these before every meal:

http://www.amazon.com/Source-Naturals-Essential-Enzymes-Capsules/dp/B000GFSVPU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426997526&sr=8-1

It says 2 on the box, but they're much weaker than prescription enzymes.

Remember, small, easy to digest meals, every 3 hours. There's no single-pill cure, but with proper regimen, eventually some of these requirements and protocols will start to fall away as you get better, and your life will be less restricted by them.

Eventually the meals won't have to be so bland, the 3-hour interval will expand and disappear, and your only duty will be watching what you eat and taking the pills on time. You will be able to go places and not worry about "sudden surprises".

Thanks so much. This is causing a lot of anxiety too!

On Zantac alone I wasn't experiencing much progress. The thing that kinda worked were steamed broccoli, but it wasn't consistent.

Also, mastic gum helped sometimes.

PepZin GI is where I started feeling some subtle relief on second day of taking.

Yes, there's anxiety in the beginning, when things seem uncontrollable and unpredictable. Many of us have gone through it. You're tracing the well-worn steps.

Just eat what you can eat, don't panic. Don't feel guilty about slacking off, relaxing... You will need to alter your life for a while and pay attention to your stomach. Hopefully your conditions allow you to baby yourself a bit. If they don't, you may need to take some time off work or work remotely... just to be more still... less stress and less exposure to "other" foods.

In the beginning I found it necessary to sit in front of big-screen TV in a large-lit room for a few hours while it played a Youtube video of various tropical locations, with the ocean waves, birds, palm trees, etc. There are 2-4 hour videos on Youtube of this stuff.

It felt NECESSARY. Find what feels necessary to you.

Yes exactly. All I want to do is sleep. That's my reaction. Just forget the pain and agony. I get scared when I have to eat!! I can't wait for the mail tomorrow so I will get the PepZin. I also have Sucralfate expected in the mail, but I want to try the PepZin first. I've read about success stories on both Amazon and elsewhere.

I should've added tvorog (quark/farmer's cheese) to that list. It's somewhere on oatmeal level and with sugar sprinkled for edibility it's a natural acid neutralizer and probiotic.

I found it very helpful to end meals with, and it's been the most "immediate relief" food for me.

It's most easily found in Russian stores as TVOROG or in cyrillics.

This is the thing that gets me..seems every time I step on the scale, I am a half pound or so lighter. I mean, what IS this? Is this water we are losing or actual weight? This cannot be healthy..

As long as you don't neglect protein from your diet, and don't go too "samey", you'll be okay.

Your weight won't be the same as before gastritis, but that doesn't make it abnormal. As long as you have a semi-varied diet which digests properly and you don't feel weak and frail, you'll be OK.

Bananas should be easily digestible too. This was true for me in the beginning, but they didn't seem to cooperate with other foods for me so I ate them standalone.

OK..I did have an endoscopy in August 2014 and they found essentially the same thing as always, gastritis and hiatal hernia. It's hard, though, to think that this weight loss is just from gastritis. I haven't been this weight in about a decade.

It is from gastritis...Ive never been this skinny and what my gastritis was getting better so did my weight.

Also, these digestive enzymes arent they harsh on a stomach since they have that protease enzyme?

I have a bottle and tried two today I think they helped but they also caused more discomfort than usual...or maybe it was coincidence.

My weight stabilizes and remains the same when I am feeling normal and eating normally for sure.

I cant have digestive enzymes with protease, I get an immediate discomfort in my stomach which progresses to burning if I keep using them. That isn't uncommon, especially if you have gastritis

I just received the PepZid NOW, at 7:00 in the evening. I was pretty bad for the first half of the day, so I had no choice but to take Sucralfate, which had arrived, ironically, early this morning. I still feel no relief. Would it be alright to take the PepZid today, even though I took the Sucralfate?