I have been diagnosed with a pericardial cyst and thought that th...

I have been diagnosed with a pericardial cyst and thought that the problems I have been having were related to this.....until I found this site! I have been taking omerprazole for over a year now and have had several disturbing symptoms. Heart palputations, racing heart, night sweats and hot flashes, sudden onset of nausea that lasts for about 5 to 10 minutes then goes away and horrible chest, back and rib cramping, which is the same feeling as having a severe gall bladder attack. Recently the worst has happened. In the past I have had the sweats thinking it was only menopause and chest pain thinking it was the acid refllux. We shall see....as of today I am stopping the drug to see what happens. In the past week the most severe problems have occured. I started with bronchitis and the antibiotics and prednisone the doctor put me on seemed to be having side effects which I have never had before with them. The only other medication...omerprazole. (haven't had bronchitis since BEFORE I started taking the omerprazole) After the first day I began having severe chest, back and rib cramping which seemed to worsen by the day, more so that ever before. Then came the swelling in the hands and feet until they looked like I had elephantitis. There is aching somewhat in my arms with a strange weakness. And...the heartburn became so bad that I feel like it's coming out of my mouth. So..the doctor increased the omerprazole to 40mg or up to 80mg if needed. I have been taking 40mg and it didn't seem to really cure the reflux! So I was going to increase it. Not now! I believe after reading all the posted side effects everyone has been having, most of my problems are being caused by one thing....omerprazole! I was truely believing I was having a heart attack, but since I just had ALL the tests done and was given a clean bill of health and better with the exception of the pericardial cyst, I couldn't believe this to be the problem, so back to the doctor I went. She has put me on motrin for the pain and skelaxin for the cramping which seems to be helping. But, and this is the big but, I am going to come off the omerprazole and see if this will begin to eleviate the symptoms completely. Will update this in a couple of weeks when the drug is totally out of my system. Thank-you for this site and keep posting.