How stopping a Proton Pump Inhibitor changed my life



As I wrote here recently, I was asked to stop a drug, Cintodac (a Proton Pump Inhibitor  because it did not allow another drug I was prescribed, to act. As I mentioned, stopping the drug and being put on a milder alternative that came under the class of H2 receptor blockers reduced my appetite and the fluid weight gain between dialysis sessions.

I have lost almost 7 kg of dry weight since I have stopped Cintodac. What’s more important for me is that my fluid weight gains between sessions are now within human limits. Earlier they used to be in the elephantine range.

Having low fluid weight gains provides a lot of benefits. I am not referring to the obvious clinical benefits such as less stress on the heart but of other simpler things. For example, I can now afford to miss dialysis twice a week with ease. I keep changing my number of dialysis sessions per week like nobody’s business. Just recently I had switched to missing two night in a week and blogged about it  But yes, I was back to missing once a week in a few days because the fluid restrictions I had to put myself on were quite onerous. 

Many people could not understand how on earth I could drink so much fluid? Well, neither could I. But now, it all falls in place. It was due to Cintodac. I remember reading on a dialysis blog that if you ate less, you could drink more. The Cintodac increased my appetite so much that I put on a lot of fluid weight due to eating too much. So, not only did I put on dry weight, I also put on a lot of fluid weight.

I was so embarrassed by my fluid weight gain that whenever I was asked what my average fluid weight gain between sessions was, I would always say 2 kgs or some such ridiculously low figure. And imagine my horror when people would be surprised that I even put on that much. I would squirm in my seat thinking about how they would have reacted had I told them my actual average.

But thankfully, that’s more or less settled. Blame it on Cintodac and not on non-compliance. My course of medication completes in about a month. At this point, I do not plan to resume Cintodac.

Comments