Zantac side effects?

I was given a 2 week course of Zantac to be taken morning and evening for two weeks. Immediately after taking them, I felt good and a lot of the troubles I have been having with my mouth(white spots on tongue, sore throat) disappeared. Then, on the fourth day, it all returned with a vengeance. Sore throat, dry cough, white coated tongue, and since then has only gotten worse. I stopped the Zantac after about 12 days and on that day my neck started to ache like crazy. The day after I was in pain and had a bad sore throat, still dry coughing. Is this a side effect of the Zantac? Or is this a sign my throat is healing from never having taken this kind of medicine before?

[Kaneda2112]

Is the tongue just white all over or in patches? Patches I believe typically indicate some sort of yeast infection (I believe it's called thrush - appears as whitish, velvety lesions in the mouth and on the tongue. Underneath the whitish material, there is red tissue that may bleed easily. The lesions can slowly increase in number and size.) that will require further treatment. If you had Thrush, your doctor probably would have caught it I imagine.

A quick scan of the 'net indicates the following common sire effects of Zantac -

    Headache
    Constipation
    Diarrhea
    Upset stomach (nausea) or vomiting
    Abdominal pain (stomach pain)
    Rash

[mrproblemface]

Well, I went to two different doctors, they each did a fungal swab and both came back negative. The spots are sort of like white rings with a red center. I saw an oral surgeon for a consultation and she said it looks like geographic tongue, however, geographic tongue moves around and changes shape. Mine basically stay in the same place and reappear every day. They can be scraped off with a tongue brush which rules out leukoplakia which can't be scraped off. I'm convinced this either has something to do with my stomach and GERD, or I have oral cancer and it has some remarkable stealth ability to avoid detection by all these doctors.

About the Zantac, the pain has moved from my neck to my lower jaw now, I'm hoping it's almost over whatever is happening to me. I'm so tired of all of this... I just wish I knew what was happening to me...  :(

[Kaneda2112]

Sorry to hear you're still suffering. Did they do a biopsy of the tissue? In all the descriptions I've read of geographic tongue, it does say that they MAY move - not that they always do. A small point, but perhaps relevant in your case?

Maybe you should see an experienced dentist - as they specialize in that area as well.

Just a thought.

[mrproblemface]

That is a good point, I have also read that they may move, which suggests that in some cases like mine, they stay in the same place. They didn't biopsy it, they only did a fungal swab. I wonder if that was even good enough, or whether a fungal swab could miss an infection that a biopsy might catch?

I'm stuck on a long business trip at the moment but when I get back I intend to see an oral surgeon about it again. The last time I saw an oral surgeon she only looked at it and said it was geographic tongue, after asking me if I have had an HIV test(I am negative). This stuff must be like a red light for HIV or something, every time I show it to another doctor it's the first thing they ask. I was also debating whether I should also see an ENT or not, as these problems originated after taking medication an ENT prescribed, so maybe seeing a different ENT might shed some light on whether I was prescribed something wrong...

[Kaneda2112]

The reason they asked about HIV is that I believe that candida (thrush) can occur in people with immuno-suppressed conditions. All the best in your search for answers!