Hello, I have had GERD for a number of years now. I was diagnosed after there was esophogeal damage found during an endoscopy. At the time my doctor perscribed me Dexilant once daily which I began to take for around 2 or 3 months. I then started reading up on how prolonged PPI use can have some nasty side effects so I went back to my doctor to discuss options. I was given Famotidine and another low dose PPI (which I can't remember the name of now) and told I could use those instead if my heartburn got better with just them. I experimented for a while with different medication approaches and eventually came to the conclusion that the most effective method for me was to take Dexilant when I felt that I needed it and antacid tabs (Tums) when those were enough. I have been doing this for probably around a year and a half now and it seems to work fine for me. I probably take 1 dexilant pill every week or week and a half depending on my diet and such. Problem is I recently looked into it and I don't think Dexilant is supposed to be effective when you take it infrequently... I never really thought about it but I never went back to my Doctor to ask of taking Dexilant as needed was a viable way of dealing with GERD. So does anyone else have experience with this? Do you take a PPI as needed? Should I just switch to an OTC because Dexilant doesn't actually work like I think it does? Any advice/lived experience would be very helpful! Thanks!