In September of 2002, I had a heart episode: palpitations with a heart rate up to 190. James rushed me to the emergency room and I was in the hospital for two days. They never did find out what happened, but they put me on a beta blocker and also gave me Protonix, as the attending doctor's theory was that it was caused by a severe acid reflux episode. I admitted to her that I had been having terrible trouble with digesting my food properly at that time and that night had been very sick because we had eaten spaghetti with my home-made meat sauce. I don't use pepper, eat spicy foods and rarely eat any types of fatty foods; carbs are my downfall. But even the blandest of roast chicken would send me running for the Tums...I was swallowing sometimes a dozen of them a day—or more.

The Protonix came as a revelation. It was incredible that I could eat again without getting sick to my stomach. Salad dressings were still a problem (probably the acidity of the vinegar) and anything of that nature, like barbecue sauce, but otherwise it was wonderful to eat and not have to "reach for the Rolaids."

A year or so back I got a letter from Kaiser Permanente that said they had removed Protonix from their formulary and I was to take OTC Prilosec instead. I was pissed, because the Prilosec costs the same money for half the amount of pills. I was even more annoyed when I found out it doesn't work as well, either. Although I'm not to the point where I was before September of 2002, where things like a plain hamburger or sometimes even a piece of bread would make me sick, now I get indigestion again after eating any cooked meat and odd things like cantaloupe, strawberries, kiwi fruit, and the yogurt I had to eat last month after taking antibiotics. (The yogurt thing was too weird; I was eating chocolate-flavored yogurt and when it came up on me it tasted like strawberries!)

I planned to tell the doctor about this when I went for a checkup this year, but now I'm really annoyed: I am having trouble with my computer at work and the helpdesk person asked me to try logging on to a different computer to see if it was my own CPU at fault. I used the office of a co-worker who is out and there, spread out on her desk, were bottles of her prescription meds. I noticed a brand new one was for Protonix. I noticed they were all prescribed by and from the pharmacy of Kaiser Permanente. Grrrrr...

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:03:00 AM

Comments:

Aw. That's too bad, Linda; I'm sorry. I have Kaiser as well, and my premium goes up EXPONENTIALLY every year--sometimes more often--despite the fact that I have no pre-existing conditions. They're evil. EVIL!

# posted by  Tina : 5:16:00 PM

 

Gosh, no, in general we like them. They've been good to us and we like the doctors. They were very concerned when James had that mysterious fever in the spring, and took great care of me when I had surgery last year. But a few weeks ago I got a survey about the Protonix/Prilosec issue. It's possible that they are transferring people back and I haven't gotten notice yet. It bugs me that no one has told me yet.

# posted by  Linda : 5:53:00 PM

 

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