Prilosec

hey guys...My doctor put me on prilosec after my surgery...I am about 7 weeks out, no problems...My post op visit is about 2 weeks away....Will I be taking prilosec for the rest of my life?...I don't have hearburn now and I think it was to keep ulcers away....what is the scoop? thanks

I'm a little ahead of you and am on Prevacid which I'm assuming is a similar product. I asked my doc the same question at my 1 wk visit. He told me I'd be on it for 6 months and then if there were no complications I'd be through. I take it that it's to make sure that your stomach acid doesn't eat away at your new stomach until it has a chance to fully heal.  I hope I get off of it. It's not that it's that bad, it's just that I hate to have to keep up with what I've taken that day and what I haven't. I'd be really pleased if I could go the rest of my life taking a couple of multis and some calcium every day.

Great question for your visit two weeks from now. My doc has all his patients on Previcid for the first 6 months post-op.  Then, nothing.... Best Wishes- Dx

I would be interested in what he says. Seems each Surgeon and or hospital has it's own protocol. Glad to hear all is well. Talk to you later

 Bobby, If you get any "skinnier", you ain't going to be allowed to have that surgery!...lol...Hell, you've lost 34lbs without surgery, ive lost 50 with surgery...keep up the good work!...elvis

Just as with post-op diet plans, every surgery practice seems to have different approaches to post-op stomach (or is that stomachs?) acid control. My surgeon prescribed 30 days of Zantac (ranitidine) syrup.  We don't appear to need to take it afterwards simply as a prophylactic measure.  Zantac is a H2 blocker rather than a PPI like Prilosec.  H2 blockers are very effective drugs, but they're blown out of the water by PPIs. How long you have to take Prilosec is a great question to ask your surgeon; I haven't ever heard of someone having to take it for life, unless they had a previous track record of GI ulcers or they had to continue taking NSAIDs. /Steve

Sig ..  you don't mention which kind of surgery you had ..  I know with DS we are told sometimes we may have to take a daily Prilosec for life to avoid ulcers in our sleeve ..  I was fortunate (I guess) and only took them for the first few months out and seemed to do O.K. after going off them ..    I think RNYers often have to also take Prilosec, sometimes for a long time as well ..   The thing that sucks about Prilosec is the COST though, IMHO ..   It's the most expensive OTC anti-acid medication out there ..  I've asked my pharmacist about that and when is the price ever going to go substantially down ..   his answer is that Prilosec currently has a monopoly on their product (i.e. the patent) and that won't expire yet for quite some time, preventing anyone from marketing a competing or generic version of same as of yet ..   &8-(

I had to do Prevacid for 30 days after surgery.  It was a chewable tablet -- $130 for 30 tablets at Costco. Had I had to do it again, I would have skipped the expensive prescription and just bought the over the counter prilosec and used that -- much cheaper.  But, just home from the hospital, didn't know that I'd be able to swallow a pill so fast.  Could have saved myself a bunch of money.

Rx Prilosec is available as a generic, which means that it usually is included on the lowest tier for co-pays, for those of us who have insurance with a prescription drug benefit. Proctor and Gamble was given exclusive rights for a couple of years to sell Prilosec OTC.  Eventually, this too will be be able to be sold by other OTC drug companies, though I'm not sure exactly when. /Steve

When I first had the surgery they didn't mention it.  At my 6 month visit they asked me to start taking Prilosec.  It seems that they have had a couple of patients experiencing ulcers 1+ years out and are using it as a preventive measure. Brian