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Current State of VSG/GERD

I just saw a post by a woman who is in stage 3 kidney failure due to long term use of PPIs. Which is why I got off those things very soon after my VSG surgery. If you take them, you should start stepping down from them immediately. The product I talk about in this post would be an excellent way to do that. Read on. However, if you’ve not read it, I’d read my other post which includes the links to PPI research before reading this one if you want the full picture. The kidney specific articles are here and here. I also have several posts about getting off PPIs, you’ll see them in the category.

The woman with kidney failure and my current status have prompted me to write an updated post about my VSG and long term GERD issues. I’ve not written anything about it in detail since 2021 when I tried acupuncture – which didn’t do much, sadly. I wrote a passing note within a deck building post last summer, but I have not written anything detailed, which will now be rectified.

Ok, so let’s go back to my last batch of writing from 2021. I did acupuncture, and while I do feel acupuncture is helpful for many issues, I got little results even with the Chinese Death Tea™.

I got into a routine with ONLY famotidine (H2 blocker), 3x a day, totaling 40mg/day and antacids (calcium). This was fine until 2024, when I started throwing up. Often.

I thought I was just overeating, but when the spitting and puking kept happening, I started to pay attention. It was NOT volume related, it was something else. I did some digging and found that throwing up typically begins with VSG patients around the 8-10 yr mark. Why? It is the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) spasming and/or becoming weak. When I mentioned this within my deck building post, I was thinking it was gall bladder, but no.

So I kept on with my famotidine routine and tried to be extremely careful when eating (read: eating TINY amounts at a time) to not miss the signals that I would end up puking. This went on until about a month ago (June 2025) when I was looking at FB and an ad caught my eye. It was an ad proclaiming Kiss My Acid Goodbye!, which of course, has the perfect tone for me. So I clicked it and read about the product and decided to roll the dice on a fucking FB ad.

I interrogated the dude who said he was behind the product – I even ran his emails through AI detection! – and he was, indeed a real guy who was ALSO a VSG patient who had the same puking experience that I am dealing with. I started the KMAG supplement (you can read all about it here: How KMAG works) and after a month, I can say that it definitely does SOMETHING. I’ve cut down famotidine to 10mg Pepcid at bedtime only and I’ve only had 3 pukes in that time, with a few spits w/out puking. I should probably go to 2x/day with it, but I take SO MANY fucking supps. I take: multivitamin, NAC (because I’m a sot), vit D+K sublingual, B12 sublingual, liquid glucosamine/chondroitin (nasty), concentrated liquid biotin/collagen and liquid magnesium (to offset the calcium, which is becoming a non-thing), PLUS the KMAG. It’s a lot.

I do feel that KMAG is healing my ravaged stomach and LES, it’s taking some time, but ALL natural supplements take time.

So that’s where I am with VSG/GERD and supplements. I feel that KMAG is doing its job healing up damage and soothing the LES spasms that are the likely culprit of the puking.

If you want to read ALL my posts relating to VSG, PPIs and managing GERD, here is the category, which is recent first, so you’ll need to go backwards to get to the beginning.

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PPI Stepdown

I’ve been on PPIs (Nexium, esomeprazole) since my VSG surgery in 2016. My four year anniversary is coming up and I really don’t want to continue on PPIs. They are prescribed liberally and people are on them for YEARS, just like me, but now we’re starting to see some of the longterm problems of taking a PPI (Proton Pump Inhibitor) such as H Pylori, malabsorption of minerals and even kidney damage. This article is a good round up of all that PPIs can damage. You can’t just stop taking a PPI because of rebound GERD that is worse than the original. The proton pumps (digestive acid) go into overdrive without the inhibitor – which is what’s happened the last two times I attempted to get off PPIs.

I’ve been having more and more issues with the PPI in the last year. I started having intense histamine reactions to random foods a few months ago, so I found a histamine blocker (Seeking Health Histamine Block is AWESOME!) that worked. I had to take it daily to keep the reactions from happening. When I researched it, guess what was the culprit? Yep. PPI.

Next, I started having leg cramps. I know that PPIs retard mineral absorption, and after some research, I confirmed that the PPI was likely interfering with potassium as well as calcium and magnesium. So I got a potassium supplement.

THEN, I realised that the list of things I was taking to OFFSET the damn PPI was getting longer and longer. It made no sense to keep adding more and more supplements to offset a drug that has known issues for long term use.

So, I began my step down from 1.5 tablets a day (1 20mg in the morning and a half tab before bed; 30mg/day) about six weeks ago. First I moved the time I took the single pill to evenings so it would peak while I am asleep. Breakthrough GERD is worse at night when you’re laying down. I dropped the second dose entirely. This worked pretty well, there were random bouts of GERD at random times, but it was OK for the most part.

Last week, I changed to half a tab at 9pm ONLY. So far, so good. I still have random bouts of GERD that have no pattern. I can chew a few TUMS to tame them down. I have a bed wedge, which has helped with the occasional night time breakthrough GERD. But it’s the same as the one dose was, so I’m encouraged.

I’ll stick with the half tab for a few more weeks, then I’ll attempt ZERO PPI. It’ll work or it won’t. I’m hopeful that it will work and I can get by with random bouts of GERD that can be handled with TUMS. Or perhaps I can go back to an H2 blocker (Tagamet, etc.) at night if necessary. The H2s have far fewer side effects than the PPIs.

I hope I can be rid of PPIs once and for all. They are TERRIBLE for you.

I will post again with the results of the end of PPIs.

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Almost Four Years!

Esomeprazole image courtesy Shutterstock.

It’s been almost four years since my VSG surgery. It feels like a lifetime ago. Lots of crap has happened since then: my car died, so I got a new car, Nick’s job ended, pub project failed, and now we are recovering.

I’ve been taking Nexium (esomeprazole) daily since my VSG surgery in May 2016. After the healing period, I discovered that I had HORRIBLE GERD if I didn’t take some sort of PPI. They had me on Prilosec (omeprazole) after surgery, but it was giving me the absolute worst side effects, so I knew I couldn’t keep taking it. I tried H2 blockers (Tagamet, etc.), but they didn’t work well for me. So I ended up on esomeprazole, twice a day, a full 20mg tablet in the morning and a half tab before bed. I have been doing this for almost four years.

While I have zero GERD while on this PPI, I have a multitude of other issues to deal with. The only physical side effect I’ve had from the get-go is diarrhea. However, PPIs affect absorption of vitamins and minerals, not to mention that they are seeing kidney damage start to crop up with people who have been on it for years. The nature of how a PPI works prohibits the absorption of calcium in particular, but it basically messes up absorption of everything.

I’ve been taking supplements to try to offset the affects of esomeprazole. I’ve been taking these things for four years:
– a good quality multivitamin
– calcium/magnesium supplement
– Vit D + K supplement
– Vit B supplement
– selenium
– CoQ10

Things have been mostly fine until recently. I suddenly started having histamine reactions. They were sparse at first, but have become an almost daily occurrence. So I started taking a histamine blocker (actually a DAO supplement) to get these reactions under control. I also started having leg cramps regularly, so I added potassium to my supplements. These extra supplements helped, but…

THEN I started to realise that ALL THESE THINGS are side effects of the PPI. I did some research and sure enough, the PPI can alter the digestion of histamines, therefore causing these reactions. I already knew about the prevention of minerals being absorbed. So I decided that what needs to happen is getting off these terrible PPIs and therefore not having all these side effects. NOT TO MENTION the other things that are happening to me long term, that I’m not even aware of, such as kidney damage and gods know what. Pubmed abstract on kidney damage. An often reposted paper by Dr Al Aly of the VA St Louis.

So, last week, I began my attempt to get off the PPI. I dropped the night time dose and moved my whole tablet dose to 5pm. By moving the whole tablet dose, the meds peak during the night and wear off in the late afternoon, when I am upright and less susceptible to heartburn. So far, so good. I’ve had some issues with break through heartburn late in the day, but nothing too terrible.

In my attempts to get off the PPI in the past, I think I’ve moved too fast. This time I’m going to stay at this dose for a month, then try knocking it down to a half pill only at night for a month, then off. I think (hope!) the key to getting off a PPI with little rebound GERD is going slowly to wean off. I hope my altered stomach can figure it out and allow me to get back to normal. ::fingers crossed::

The thing about PPIs is that the amount of the dose is irrelevant as far as absorption goes. Taking 20mg or 60mg still blocks absorption of nutrients due to the lack of digestive acids which are needed to break down foods. So I MUST be off them completely. EVERYONE should be off them, really. Doctors do not know or care to tell patients that long term PPI use is VERY bad for them. It’s easier to prescribe a PPI and be done with it. I know, as a PPI user, that yes, they do work to keep GERD at bay, but at what cost?? I really wish Drs would STOP prescribing shit to people to fix a symptom without even a thought about long term issues! Statins are another drug that is prescribed liberally without one whit of concern about the LONG LIST of interactions they have.

I’ll post here again when I step down to a half pill at night. I hope I can get off the PPI for good and I hope these posts can help others get off them, too. PPIs are not a long term solution, despite Drs prescribing them that way. Take control of your health! Research every drug you are prescribed! I guarantee you that your Dr has NOT. I hope I’ll have good news in a couple of months!