Case Summary  |  Chronic heartburn

I've had chronic heartburn (GERD) for around 20 years. In the past, I've taken everything from Tagamet to Nexium. I've had an internal scoping to try and diagnose the problem, which came up clean but discovered half a liter of fluid in my stomach despite not ingesting anything for 18 hours prior to the test.

My current treatment is with Prilosec, over the counter. Without insurance, my prescribed Nexium is too expensive. I read a study saying that doubling the dose of Prilosec is nearly identical to Nexium, and it is. Two Prilosec OTC daily relieves all but the worst instances. In those cases, I rely on Maalox liquid.