He Has EoE

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

This post was written before Oliver's EoE diagnosis, when we thought that he had Celiac.

We had our appointment with the pediatric gastroenterologist and now the little guy has a endoscopy scheduled for next week. I can't say that I'm nervous about the procedure - I've read so much about it that it just seems normal and okay. Part of me hopes that it comes back positive just so we can know and move on. The other part of me does not want that to be the case because I do not want to have to get the other kids tested. Drawing blood on the little one is one thing, but the older kids will be able to verbalize their pain. I'll have to tell them what's going to happen and they'll be scared.

Oliver has several other allergies to contend with, so that makes figuring out what's exactly going on with him just that much more difficult. Yes, removing wheat from my diet and his seemed to be the key to getting him to gain weight, but he also has a wheat allergy, so wheat is trouble no matter how you look at it!

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Who is he?

He is Oliver and he is three years old. Oliver was diagnosed with EoE two weeks after his first birthday. He was diagnosed as failure to thrive at nine months old at which point we pursued some blood tests. His celiac panel came back somewhat positive so we were referred to a pediatric gastroenterologist. We met with the GI on Oliver's first birthday at which point we scheduled an endoscopy to find out exactly what was going on. The endoscopy showed no signs of celiac, but instead a multitude of eosinophils in his esophagus. So celiac was ruled out and Eosinophilic Esophagitis became his new diagnosis.

What is EoE?

An eosinophil is a white blood cell that is an important part of the immune system, just not when found in large numbers in one's esophagus! Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) is the result of an abnormal amount of eosinophils in the esophagus. These eosinophils are often caused by food protein and the eosinophils cause inflammation in the esophagus. Treatment options are dietary management (removal of trigger foods) and topical corticosteroid treatment. The steroids control the inflammation in the esophagus and suppress the eosinophils, but once treatment stops, the eosinophils will return unless the trigger foods are all removed.