re: two or three years on Cimetidine

[Guest guest]

,

I wondered if anyone would ask me about that! It's not been two or three

years of continuous use. It's more like a year, then a break, 16 months,

then a break and another 16 months and counting.

My daughter has tried Cimetidine twice: once before a tonsillectomy, and

then several months after. Before her tonsillectomy, the drug did nothing.

A year later, she had her tonsils out and kept fevering and after a

particularly bad episode, the Dr. put her back on Cimetidine, which reduced

the regularity and severity of fevers to a point where she had maybe one

every two months or so. About 16 months after that, we weaned her off the

medication. Two months after her last dose she started having severe

episodes again and the Dr. decided that since the drug had few side effects,

that my daughter was healthy while taking it, that it was keeping her

healthy, that she should go back on. So, after five or six long months of

taking Cimetidine again and waiting for it to work, she's getting the

benefits of it and I'll not tinker with it again for a long time.

I knew that children were only taking it for a year but it seems that my

daughter needs this for much longer than the regularly prescribed time. I

was concerned about it but the Dr. assured me that it is 'benign' or as

harmless as any harmless drug can be(!) and that my daughter's and our

family's quality of life is so much better with it. My daughter seems to be

an unusual case but from what I understand, there's no 'normal' .

Sidney in SC