GI prescribed Zegerid!!

[Anonymous]

So, Abby had a follow up with her GI last Friday. I took all the Marci-Kids info and Dr. Phillips email with me. After waiting for 1 hr. in the exam room she finally came in.

I told her I wanted to switch from the Prevacid to Zegerid b/c I could give it with food. Abby has been getting more irritated about waiting 30 mins till eating. She said “why are you waiting” I told her what Joel had said and that the Prevacid website even states to give on an empty stomach and she said that “that’s not really true.” She went on to explain her version which I just blocked out.

Then she said that the problem with Zegerid is that there isn’t a lot of dosing info. for infants. She said “didn’t you fax me some info. on that before.” And she looked back at the old email from Dr. Phillips that I faxed her awhile ago along with all the other Marci-Kids info. I told her that I had an email from him from 2 days ago but she wasn’t interested in seeing it. In the old email he rec. 8mg 3x’s per day. She said 24mg was WAY too high of a dose and she would only prescribe 8mg 2x’ per day. The new email he rec. 10mg 3x’s per day. Then I told her she would have to call the insurance company to get it approved and she said she didn’t have time to do it now. Maybe she would have if she had seen us on time. Anyway, when she was leaving the room to write the script she said “you know you are asking me for 1st generation PPI (Prilosec + buffer) and it’s not going to work.” I just nodded my head when I really wanted to choke her.

So today I called the office to make sure she called the insurance company b/c who knows how long it is going to take and the pharmacy has to order it so it will take an extra day. So finally after two calls to the office, the pharmacy called and it was approved.

So,now the only issue is that I am hoping the 8mg 2x’s per day will be enough. She currently takes 7.5mg 2x’s per day of the Prevacid. If it isn’t enough and I call and tell her she needs a higher dose all she is going to say is (a) NO and (b) “I told you it wasn’t going to work.”

So everyone keep your fingers crossed. I can pick it up tomorrow after 12pm.

Should I give it to her tomorrow night or wait to start it on Wed. morning to start?

Andrea

[Anonymous]

my gut feeling is that she will need a higher dose. this is why: prevacid is a stronger drug than zegerid-when my son was on prevacid he needed 27 mg and when we went back to zegerid he needed 36 mg.
i dont get why she made that comment about the 1st generation drug, what is that supposed to mean? doesnt she realize that a buffer will only make the drug more effective , because it turns on more acid pumps which the PPI than can shut down.
doctors 🙄

did she prescribe the 20 mg packs or the 40 mg packs, the 40 mg packs dont have enough buffer if you are giving less than 3.5 ml at a time and therefore need to add 2.5 ml of mylanta or tums desolvables.

nataliachick72006-10-16 15:34:26

[Anonymous]

She prescribed the 20mg packet. I’m susposed to give her 4ml 2x’s per day. I am a little nervous about switching b/c I think the dose is low. But I can’t keep putting up with a fussy baby b/c she is hungry either. GGGRRRRR……..What to do? If my calculations are correct if I give her the 10mg 2x’s per day I would run out of the medication 6 days early. I might check with my sister in law and she if she can get me samples. She a nurse at a GI office in North Carolina. So if the 16mg isn’t working I could give her the 20mg until I can convince the dr. This is so frustrating!!

Andrea

[Anonymous]

I would try it first anyway. Carter is on 10 mgs of prilosec a day, but with the formula change it is enough. He still is a monster if I forget the dose or am a couple of hours late, so he definitely needs it, but he is OK on this dose along with the right formula.

Dylan was another story, but he was OK on 15 mgs of prevacid a day and did not require the higher doses of meds and he was a 22hour a day screamer prior to prevacid and neocate.

Give the dose the Doctor prescribed a try and then go back armed with the reason to go higher if you need to. If you show you are working with her, you may get further with your request if you need more……

Hang in there!!

Ann Marie

[Anonymous]

Hi Andrea;

I agree with giving the perscribed dose for now. If it were me, I’d video her now – eating, or whenever she is showing the most symptoms. If she continues to have symptoms after a week on the perscribed dose, I would – again if it were me – take a video of her on that dose, then call either the GI or your pedi and leave a message stating that you are increasing it to Blah because she IS a bit better, and you think Blah would make her completely symptom free, and to call back if that is an issue, also make an appt for a re-eval – if no call back, increase it to what it should be and in a few days take another video of her improved. Bring the video with you to the appt. Perhaps she will be more inclined to ok an increase if she can see it herself – know what I mean?

Just my opinion!

I am glad you got the Zegerid though. Owen is like a new child on it – even through teething.

Love,
Zoey

[Anonymous]

Hi Zoey-

Doesn’t it suck that Babywhisperer website is down. I am going through withdraw. Anyway, you know the whole story. Abby has done really well on the Prevacid and really isn’t even crying when eating anymore. She is still refluxing but not in pain. Sometimes it is still hard for her to catch her breath though. I would just like the switch b/c she can’t wait the 30 mins anymore after taking the Prevacid to eat. I would also like her to be able to eat dinner with us and now on the Prevacid she can’t eat anything after 5pm. I have started to notice her appetite increasing and I know she really needs to eat b/w 3:30pm and 7:30pm. I will start to video tape her if she gets worse. Thanks.

Andrea

[Anonymous]

Zoey-

I know that you said that Chad rec. giving the Zegerid to Owen at 7am and 3pm. Do you know what his reasoning was for the 3pm dose and not 7pm before bed? I usually gave Abby the Prevacid at 7am and 7pm. I found 5ml syringes, YEAH!!! I got 10!!!

Thanks,

Andrea

[Anonymous]

Andrea,

I dont’ know your situation real well but how about visiting your sister and seeing if you can get into the GI office that she works at? If they are up on the marci-kids dosing and all then it might be worth it to pay for that one office visit out of pocket just to get the right Rx and not run out. We have to go through the same hassle with our insurance company to get “prior approval” of prescriptions too. It sucks.

I hope your little girl does better.

[Author]

Posts