Stopping Prevacid

I can't get in touch with my doctor...he's busy with a flu epidemic, I guess, and hasn't called me back.

I'd like to try stopping Prevacid to see if I might feel better without it.  I've been on it for a couple years.  

I take 30 mg once daily, usually at night.  I didn't take it last night.  I got to thinking that maybe I shouldn't stop all at once.  Perhaps I should take one tonight, then another Friday, and the last one on Monday?

What do you think?  

[debaser23]

Well, since nobody commented I thought I'd say what I did and how it went.

I started to taper first by taking a dose every other day for five days, and then I was going to skip two days in between.  But then I had trouble keeping track of things and just quit all together.  I spoke with two pharmacists first and they'd both said I could stop Prevacid immediately, so when I quit I didn't think it was a big deal.

Of course, I had a pretty bad resurgence of acid reflux.  It's pretty clear Prevacid works!  It never made my reflux go away, really, but apparently it was keeping it from getting really bad.  I started treating it with Maalox.

At the same time, though, I'd been having terrible panic attacks for weeks (I suffer with anxiety).  I had a prescription for Klonopin laying around but was afraid to take it for a long time as I hate medication with a passion.  Sunday I finally started taking it.

Crazy thing, I'm no longer on Prevacid but am now on Klonopin...very little acid reflux all the sudden.

I'm not suggesting that acid reflux people should be prescribed Klonopin.  BUT if you're suffering anxiety anway, it COULD be that which causes your reflux to be worse.  The stomach seems to be the organ that absorbs a lot of our anxiousness for whatever reason.  It's not only the reflux...my stomach feels much better in many ways.

In the interest of full disclosure I need to mention that it's only been two days that I've had full doses of the Klonopin (.5 mg BID).  I suppose it's possible that this is some kind of coincidence, but I doubt it.  That's just an opinion, though; nothing can be proven in two days.