At age 4 Gavin had his first endoscopy (scope), and was diagnosed with Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE). EoE is an inflammatory disease where his immune system sees certain foods as parasites and attacks them with white blood cells, eosinophils, inside his esophagus. These white blood cells cause swelling and inflammation, and if left untreated, can cause reflux type symptoms, vomiting, trouble swallowing, and food getting stuck.
The disease can only be diagnosed and monitored by taking biopsies during an endoscopy to look for eosinophils. Normal people have 0 eosinophils in their esophagus. A count over 15 equals a diagnosis, and then the goal is to find a treatment plan that gets the count down to 0. At Gavin's first scope his eosinophil count was 59. We tried to treat with medication first, using a swallowed steroid slurry to coat the esophagus and treat the inflammation. Gavin's second scope at age 5 showed a count of 53, so we knew the medical treatment route was not working. At that time, we changed to an inhaler for the swallowed steroids, and removed dairy and soy (the top 2 trigger culprits). His 3rd scope a few months later was just what we hoped for...0 eosinophils! He continued this treatment for 2 years and scoped 'clean' again at age 7, so we decided to try dairy and see how much damage it was doing. After 10 months of eating dairy, his count was about 29. We decided to let him continue eating it for quality of life even though he was not at 0. At age 9, due to daily stomach aches and not feeling well all the time, Gavin decided to remove the dairy again, and started feeling better. Since he was back off the food triggers, we decided to try removing the steroids to see how much difference it was making. Obviously we don't want him on steroids daily if it's not absolutely necessary. He stopped taking the Flovent in June of 2016, so today's scope is to see how the numbers look with the food restrictions alone. Praying for 0!! We should have results in about a week, so I will post an update when I have the number.
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