Friday's the day....

Today was our appointment with Kaleb's new G.I. specialist. First, let me recap how we got there. Over the last 2 months, Kaleb has been feeling horrible. He chokes on his food, has horrible reflux, randomly vomits, and screams out in pain all night long.  The last week has almost been unbearable. I thought Saturday night I was going to have to drive the child to the E.R. because he was completely inconsolable. He's also lost almost 2 pounds in a month and has hardly been eating anything. Hence, the referral to the G.I. Specialist.

We met with Dr. Aljabi this morning. She was GREAT! She had an instant connection with Eddie because she is from Costa Rica (and Eddie from Colombia), so they shared that Hispanic heritage. She spoke with us for a while listening to all of Kaleb's symptoms and told us what we had been thinking for a while - all symptoms point to Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EE). She also mentioned that he may have Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis as well (which is in the lower part of the digestive system). Basically they are caused by food allergies. Because he may be eating something he's still allergic to, there's a build up of white blood cells in his esophagus. This build up quickly causes his esophagus to swell, which is why he's having the eating and choking problems.

Unfortunately, the only way to diagnose this is through an endoscopy, which is scheduled for this Friday morning. They will give him heavy sedatives through an IV and do the scope and take biopsies of his esophagus and digestive system. They will send them to pathology and have results back within a week. They are also going to run a panel of allergy tests, but thankfully can take the blood from the IV while he's sedated so they don't have to stick him again.

Dr. Aljabi was explaining the treatment and my heart sank. She stated they wanted to get him to a state of "remission", meaning this would probably be a life long disease. He would first be put on an elemental diet, which is nothing but a special (aka expensive) formula. If that doesn't work to help heal things, they would start steroids and inhalers as well. I sat there wanting to cry. How do you explain to a 1 year old that is used to eating 3 meals a day that he simply can't eat? I was reading several articles about people with this disease and one 14 year-old girl said she's just now to a point where she can eat 3 foods - banana, pears, and sweet potatoes. Is this the kind of life my child is going to have? As if food allergies wasn't enough!

She did state that she and 2 other physicians have a clinic at Deaconess Gateway for patients with this disease. She said if she thought he needed to be referred to some other specialty hospital or program, she would, but as of now she feels the 3 physicians that work together (she, his current allergist, and another pediatric dr.) can handle it. She said they would consult each other for treatment as well as work together with a dietician to adjust his nutritional plan.

I don't know how things are going to play out, but I'm praying Matthew 7:7 -
 "Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."

I'm trusting that God is going to give the healing to Kaleb that we are all asking for. I know he's capable of it and I'm having the faith he's going to do it. Please join me in praying this bold prayer, as well as for things on Friday to go well. As his mama, I'm a nervous wreck. I would take all of this pain away from him and go through the tests for him if I could. But through all of it, I know God has a plan and will use all of this for HIS glory.