Jesus said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it." John 11:4



You Are Not Alone!

We started this blog as a support to those families in Arkansas and around the country who are faced with raising a child with a life-altering eosinophilic disorder. It has been estimated that one out of 3,000 people have been diagnosed with an eosinophilic disorder. Children suffering from eosinophilic disorders have a myriad of problems. Some of which include: vomiting, diarrhea, feeding refusal, malnutrition, difficulty swallowing, and failure to thrive, just to name a few.

Could you imagine a life without food? For these children, that is a very real possibility. Many of them are on a very restrictive diet of special elemental formula. Those fortunate enough to still be eating foods are very limited as to what they can eat, and still have to drink an elemental formula to maintain a nutritionally complete diet. Not only do these kids have a restrictive diet, but many of them have feeding tubes and endure several surgeries and procedures. These children show us parents incredible strength and endurance! It is our hope that other families dealing with this disease realize they are not alone, and that more people will become aware of this disease. Hopefully this blog will be a support to those living with eosinophilic disorders.

NOTE: House Resolution 296 passed in 2007 declaring the third week of May, National Eosinophil Awareness Week.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Day 3...Allergy Results and a Fever

And the whelps begin. If you look closely you will be able to see the whelps form from his skin prick testing.




Here is a list of foods that Ross has tested positive for: milk, wheat, peanut, soy, apple, banana, blueberry, cantaloupe, coconut, lemon, orange, strawberry, watermelon, barley, corn, oat, rice, rye, sesame, sunflower, all tree nuts, all fish, all seafood, green bean, broccoli, carrot, celery, lettuce, onion, pea, tomato, molds, ragweed, grass, trees, weeds, mites, cockroach, and cat. Basically, he is going to be a meat and potatoes kind of guy. It could always be worse. We will have to wait to see what his scopes show tomorrow before the doctors will be able to make a plan of action for his treatment. Poor guy is doing his prep for his upper and lower endoscopy that he will have at 8:00 in the morning. As soon as we have results, we will let everyone know.

Wow! Abigail has grown up so much from the last time we were in this allergy waiting room. What happened to my little baby? She is really beginning to turn into a little girl.


Now for the fever part...Abigail started running a temp. of 101.2 degrees. We are assuming that she has picked up a virus from spending the past three days in and out of doctor's offices. We are praying that she doesn't have the flu! The hospital has a strict visitation policy in place during flu season where children under 12 aren't allowed to visit and all of the "community toys" are locked away, but she still managed to pick up something. I guess we should feel fortunate that this is the first time that she has gotten sick from one of our many visits to the doctor.

Snow, GI Visit, and a Little Fun



Ross' appointment with the GI went well today. Dr. Kushner was very nice and more importantly, he was well educated in EE. He asked a lot of questions about Ross' previous history and prepared us for the scope on Thursday. Tomorrow's appointment with the allergist will be more eventful I'm sure. That appointment will be at 11:30 am.

On another note, it snowed here a little today. Unlike Arkansas, they know how to treat and scrap the roads here. However, if you ask people that live here, they say they don't know what they are doing...obviously they haven't been to Arkansas when it snows! :)

We have been able to have some fun while we were here this time. We went to dinner with our friends that we met the first trip we came to Cincinnati. Poor Conner wanted to get down and play like any normal 18 month old, so he ended up with Grandpa for a while. Next time Conner, we will have to go somewhere that will allow you and Abbz to run around and play! Thanks guys for working us into your busy schedule and for a wonderful dinner.

Monday, Dec. 14, 2008



Our sweet baby had her 7th scope on Monday. Abigail did very well, and Dr. Putnum said that her esophagus looked normal. He also said that when they look that good most of the time the results come back clean. That is what we have been praying for. If that is the case, it will be her first clean scope she has had since she was diagnosed a year ago. We will hopefully have the results before we head back home on Friday. All in all today was a quiet day. Tomorrow, Ross has his consultation visit with the GI at 8 am.