He Has EoE: Medicine Free (For Now)

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Medicine Free (For Now)

I'm declaring Oliver officially off the Flovent. I was ready to go to every third day two weeks ago, but then he got sick. I kept with the every other day, but then forgot a day. Since he was doing fine, I kept with that pattern one more time and then stopped the medicine altogether. So far so good!

So, for the time being, his EoE is only diet-controlled. It's my understanding that we were using the medications to help his esophagus heal, so that it wouldn't be painful for him to eat. Once we have an endoscopy, we'll know for sure if his esophagus is doing better.

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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.