100 Top Pediatric Health Blogs

Ross and I are proud and honored to announce that Mothers Encouraging Mothers of Eosinophilic Children has been reconized on 100 Top Pediatric Health Blogs. You can view this site by clicking on the link labeled "Top 100 Pediatric Health Blogs" on the top right-hand side of this page. There are many pedicatric related issues ranging from health and wellness to rare childhood diseases. I encourage you all to check it out; it is really very informative and can hopefully connect families dealing with the same issues.

Joy and Patience

"Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." -James 1:2-3

I have known this verse since I was a child, but came across it again in my reading last night. This verse and this verse alone may be the single most important verse for my family and the trails we are facing together. "Count it all joy..." I can honestly say that I see the joy in this disease called Eosinophilic Esophagitis. Yes my daughter and my husband both have this disease, but I see that my God has a bigger plan. A plan bigger than the disease, bigger than not being able to eat, bigger than the strange and confused looks, and much bigger than the tears. I know that this is for HIS glory. I am honored and blessed to be the wife of an incredibly strong man that restricts his foods so that he can be healthier, and so that someday he can tell his baby girl that he made sacrifices that paid off so they can both be well. A man who is willing to face this disease knowing that God is standing there with him through it all. Ross and I are equally as blessed to know that our Heavenly Father entrusted us to provide for such a sweet and beautiful little girl. Although Abigail isn't able to eat the foods we eat, she has brought us joy beyond words. Her name has truly brought meaning to our lives; even more so than we could have ever imagined. Abigail means "My father's joy," and she is just that. Not only has EE brought us joy, but it has also brought us patience. Patience in waiting for doctor's appointments, money to provide the medical care needed, test results, and the unknown. Through this trial we have met amazing people with children that posses unexplainable strength. We have seen doctors with passion like nothing I have ever seen before. We have become a part of a church family that many do not find in their lifetime, and relied on family and friends for the support they have promised to show. So, if asked, yes I have found divine joy and patience during this trial, and thank God that He knew that with Him we could handle it. This trial is a process, but someday I know there will be healing, and we will give Him and Him alone all of the glory!

Cicninnati Follow-Up

After much anticipation, we have our next trip to Cincinnati planned out. We will be leaving December 14th and returning December 19. Abigail will be scoped on Monday, and the rest of the week will be dedicated to finding out more about the severity of Ross' case of EE. He will have his consultaion with the GI on Tuesday, allergy tested on Wednesday, and scoped on Thursday. We sent Ross' initial pathology reports and slides to Cincinnati, and the results were more shocking than we had expected. His highest eosinophil count was 169 eos/hpf. Needless to say, we are anxious to hear what Cincy has to say about his treatment options!

Second Meeting

Thank you Cassidy and Laura for another successful meeting. It was great to express our concerns, pain, sadness, and frustrations with other mothers who understand life with an EGID. Don't forget to find your recipes. We are pulling our resources and recipes together to hopefully help one another out. Who knows, one day we may have a cookbook!

Also, a special thanks to Cassidy for letting us borrow her cotton candy machine. I can't wait to Abigail's face when she takes that first bite!

Newest Developments

Our newest development consists of Ross having acute symptoms of eosinophilic esophagitis. For two weeks he felt as if someone was strangeling him; so on August 20he had an EGD. The scope showed a pretty nasty looking esophagus just to be frank. He has several rings, furrowing, strictures, and plaque. All indicative of EE. While waiting for the pathology reports from the biopsies taken, we decided to have him allergy tested. He had been tested for environmental allergens as a teenager; but they tested limited foods. His results showed the following: wheat, corn, oat, rice, rye, onion, yeast, green bean, green pea, orange, and soy. This is in addition to peanut, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish we already knew to be positive. Finally we received the results from the biopsies. He has 50 eos/hpf in his distal esophagus and 80 eos/hpf in his mid esophagus. If you have read Abigail's Story, you will see that her eos/hpf were 90; so they are both in pretty rough shape. We are hoping that since Ross' symptoms have just now exacerbated many years since his first onset (which looking back, was when he was a toddler), that his case will be less severe than Abigail's. We have been having difficulty finding an adult GI that has experience with EE, so we are also taking him to Cincinnati. We have begun the process and look forward to an acceptance call within the next 2 to 4 weeks.

Our Trip to Cincinnati

Our trip to Cincinnati was absolutely amazing! Other than the speeding ticket that we got on our way to have Abigail's patch testing read ;). Oh well, you win some you loose some. Back to our week in Cincy. On Monday, Abigail had her scope and amazingly her esophagus looked better than it ever has. However once we got the pathology results later in the week; they found eos still present. Dr. P. said that since the disease was still prevalent, he wanted to remove bananas (the one and only food) from her diet. Honestly, this was kind of a sigh of relief because we were terrified to introduce new foods. So long story short, she is drinking her Neocate Jr. only, and she may have the original Dum Dum Sucker flavors, Pixy Stix,and Smarties in order to maintain her oral motor skills. On Tuesday Abigail had allergy skin prick testing and also patch testing. The prick testing was well....horrible! She sreamed and flailed her body; wanting desperately to scratch the whelps that popped up immediately. Her testing confirmed the following allergies: milk, casein, eggs, wheat, peas, peanut, tree nuts, corn, barley, rye, mustard and sunflower seeds. Luckily however, her patch tests all came back negative. Like I said previously we removed the bananas (even though she did not test positive) because she has never been scoped on formula only. The theory is that if she has no eos present on formula only then she has the allergic-type of EE, and if there are still eos present; then she has the non-allergic type. Of coarse we will be holding our breathe for the next three months as we wait to find out at our next scope which type of EE she has. Here's to hoping that it is the allergic-type! I say this because although it is difficult to treat, it is much easier to control than the non-allergic type. I think that should get everyone up-to-date with our progress. I have attatched some pictures from our trip below.


Daddy, Mommy, Abigial, and Patches the Bear before the EGD.



Mommy holding Abigail as they are putting Abigail to sleep.



Abigail playing in the Allergy waiting room.



Look closely and you can see the whelps!



Abigail's Patch Testing.

CIncinnati Here We Come...

Finally, I thought this day would never come! Tomorrow we will be leaving to take Abigail to the Cincinnati Center for Eosinophilic Disorders in Cincinnati, OH. I am looking forward to being further educated on this disease, getting answers to our many questions, and finding the best treatment options for Abigail. We will be gone August 9-16.

Since I last posted, Abigail had an MRI of her brain. Everything came back normal with no lesions or abnormalities. She also had an orthopedic appointment. Her doctor wants to give her lower extremeties a little more time to correct themselves; we have a follow-up in 6 months.

Now that you are caught up, I am looking forward to posting our results from Cincy soon!