Omeprazole

I stayed home today. I haven't had to do that for a gut-related problem in awhile. Not really because my gut hasn't bothered me and not because I don't have hundreds of hours of sick time, but more because I don't like getting the stink eye when I actually use my sick time for being, well, sick. I almost called in yesterday,  but fear of the stink eye forced me to make the commute and get my gimpy self to my office. And you know what? I was miserable all day. So I refused to do it again today. Staying home didn't make me feel any better, but when your gut is grumbling so much that you can feel it moving (along with really angry sounds coming from it, too) there is something comforting about staying horizontal on the couch in your PJs, with your dog at your feet, and nearly unlimited Netflix at your fingers.

I apologize in advance because this post won't be terribly SIBO related or food related. It is a slightly cranky tirade at the makers of Omeprazole - what I believe gave me SIBO. Most know Omeprazole as Prislosec - which is much easier to pronounce and available OTC. It's a PPI - proton pump inhibitor. Its basic purpose, as I understand it, is to lower your acid production. When I went to see my primary MD two years ago, she put me on Omeprazole for my stomach problems; she believed it was acid reflux, I didn't. My husband has suffered with acid reflux since I have known him, and our symptoms were never the same. She did order some tests, but when the ultrasound and blood tests came back basically negative (they found stones in my gall bladder, but she didn't think that was causing my problems), I got the Rx for Omeprazole. It didn't help at all, so she had me double up to two/day, up from one/day.

Two years later, until very recently, I was still taking two pills/day. Earlier this year, I had an endoscopy where I learned that the nodules inside my stomach were benign, but most likely caused by the Omeprazole. My husband was told that the PPI he was on was hampering his calcium levels and he should take calcium supplements to adjust for it. And then the big one - by lowering my acid, the Omeprazole may have caused the bad bacteria to move in and ergo, the SIBO.

On October 15, I followed my ND's recommendation and dropped down from two per day to one. I had heard it was hard to get off of, but I had absolutely no problems. Success! On November 5, I started taking half a capsule by breaking open the blue Omeprazole capsules and emptying the contents into two veggie caps. That was a Saturday. By Monday, my stomach was getting gurgly and gassy, and by Tuesday it was atrocious and I was miserable. I emailed my ND and she said it was most likely the side effects of cutting back on it again. She suggested I go up to 3/4 a pill - which entailed a lot of juggling of capsules - and let her know if I was feeling any better in a few days.

So this morning I stayed in bed, gurgly and uncomfortable, and Googled Omeprazole. Wow. If only I had done that two years ago - I would have never started taking the shit. What I am experiencing is most likely "acid rebound," the crappy side effect that happens when your stomach starts making acid again and over compensates for the fact that it hasn't had enough in a really long time. I read blog after blog of people who can't get off the stuff. They try and try but the symptoms coming off the stuff are just as bad or worse than before they started taking it.

Ironically, just last night we watched a documentary called Food Matters. It addressed the fact that the correct foods are the best medicine for your body, and that pharmaceutical companies don't want people to get better because they make gabillions of dollars from their pill industry. The documentary should have had its own section just about Omeprazole.

With the gurgly stomach of death, I'm not hungry - mainly because any time I try to eat something my stomach revolts. So I only left the house today to go get a Berry Berry smoothie from Laughing Planet for a late lunch, and after a 2+ hour nap, I made the husband some baked tilapia and I just had some of the green beans I made to go with it. I see some more lbs being dropped in my near future.

At least the husband ate well  tonight.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'll go to work - grumbly tummy or not. And hopefully the 3/4 of a pill will do the trick for now, and soon I can go down to 1/2 a pill without the acid rebound. And then down to a 1/4 of a pill and then finally off of this shit all together.

During a time when the Occupy Wall Street/Portland/Elsewhere movements are going on, and the masses are tired of being the deprived 99% with foreclosed homes and no health care and lost jobs to overseas outsourcing, I sit here thinking that I am sure all of the big pharmaceutical execs sit amidst that elite 1%, making money off of making people sicker, not better. To those people, all I have to say is "Suck it." Karma can be a bitch and I hope they get their's sooner rather than later.