Suffering from GERD, infected with bacteria, severe abdominal pain, on gentamicin, got relief. Will it start again after stopping?
Patient: Hello Doctor, I have been suffering from GERD for over 5 years now. 3 weeks ago , I was infected with a bacteria resulting in severe abdominal pain. Subsequently , I was put on gentamicin for 10 days and doxy 100 mg for another 10 days alongwith pantocid 40. The doxy course comes to an end today. Doctor has advised to stop all medications. I feel ok now, if not completely alright. My problem is : 1) I believe if I stop all the medications , the abdominal pain will return. 2) more than the pain, my problem is the bowel. Every morning my stomach never used to empty completely. I had to use the was room more than twice every day to clear my stomach. The stools used to be semi solid in nature .3) all of the above come alongwith elevated heart rate. - by being on doxy 100 mg alongwith pantocid 40 mg , the above symptoms are getting better if not completely cured. Do advise what should I do ? Doctor: Hi and welcome to HCM! Thanks for posting your query here. The bacterial infection would have been subsided now after using the antibiotics for 3 weeks. Hence after stopping the medication your problem will not return for sure. The difficulty in passing the stools can be referred as constipation. If there is a difficulty a diet rich in fibre, having lots of water and exercise will help in reducing the problem. All these mentioned will also help you in reducing the GERD problem. The increased heart rate could be because of your anxiety.  Pantocid 40mg will give relief in GERD. You are feeling better because of pantocid. The only affect of using pantop for longer duration-more than 3 months- is rebound acidity. Please continue Pantocid for 2 more weeks. Then you can slowly stop the drug.  Hope this is helpful to you. Regards