Still have heartburn

[Kalanit]

On sunday was the last time I took nexium. Early monday morning I gave birth. Now, on wednesday morning my horrible heartburn is back with a vengeance. I never had any heartburn before the pregnancy. Anyone have experience with whether or not it will go away eventually? Because I have read many woman who continued having it for life afterwards. I really was hoping not to have long term effects, but I doubt that will happen now...

[Pamcakes]

I had continued heartburn after my DD was born. I needed to stay on protonix (an equivalent to nexium) for almost a year. First, you may need some time to let your stomach and esophagus heal. Also, there is literature that says suddenly stopping a PPI (the type of drug nexium is) can cause a rebound in acid production. It's best to wean off of these drugs. You can try lowering the dose gradually by switching to a smaller pill, and eventually starting to take it every other day, then every second day, etc. Another option is changing from a PPI to an H2 blocker (like Zantac or pepcid). They reduce acid to a lesser extent. Then wean off of the H2 blocker in the same way. If your symptoms flare up, just go back to the dose that controlled them and wean it even more slowly. Good luck! You should eventually be able to get off them, but it might take some time.

[AnneCan]

I second what Pamcakes said. ...it could just be an abundance of acid now that you've stopped your meds. You may need to ween instead of going cold turkey or try Zantac again for a bit on low dose. Your system is probably really confused right now too since you've started eating again....it probably doesn't know how much to produce. I wouldn't worry just yet that you'll have long term effects; it could just be your system adjusting in the short term. Hope it's not a long term thing! I had some reflux/heartburn for a few months after DD was born (which I never had before), but it wasn't like during HG time, it would only come here and there (not daily), and medication could control it.