Well, my immune system continues with its trigger happy ways.
Today I left work early and went to my GP mostly to get a referral to another doctor that I need to see for my eyes. Since I was there, I asked if he had access to the biopsy results that I got done on my esophagus back in September. He did, so he read them to me and also gave me a copy.
I honestly wasn't really prepared for this today. I figured since I didn't hear anything, things were fine. The report also said I had chronic gastritis, which would explain why the GI doctor wanted me to get a test for h. pylori about a week after the biopsy.
I don't really know the significance of this stuff. I have done a fair bit of reading on eosinophilic esophagitis, because that's what I suspected from the start. From what I have read it seems like an allergist is probably my next step, and it seems like I should mentally prepare myself for the possibility of being diagnosed with multiple food allergies.
I'm asking around for recommendations for an allergist in my area, because given how many allergic conditions I now have (severe food allergy, asthma, many environmental and seasonal allergies, mild eczema, and now eosinophilic esophagitis) I should probably be seeing one on a regular basis. I've seen an allergist before but was extremely unimpressed with him. If there's one thing I've learned over the years it's that I have to like the doctor I am seeing.
I don't think there is much I can do before I see the GI doctor in January. But at least now I know I am not crazy with the swallowing stuff (which has been improved, but not fully fixed, by having my esophagus dilated)!!! And it proves again the "awesomeness" of my immune system. Heh. It has too much spare time.
Thanks for sharing, Jen! Sorry that you have yet another challenge to deal with! You do such an amazing job of handling these bumps in the road and moving forward! You are quite an inspiration to many people!
My nephew has eosinophilitis , he has many foods he can’t eat. He is in his 20’s now,but has limited food he can eat. He was treated in Boston as an infant he was very sick. But once everything was figured out he has done well. Everyone in his family carries epipens,just in case. Hope you feel better. Nancy
Oh no Jen, I'm sorry you have to worry about all of this too now. I hope you figure out the foods that may be affecting this and get into managing it well. Did they dilate your esophagus? Don't remember reading about that. I'm glad that has help you :)
Thanks, all. I'm sure I'm dealing with it well now, might be dealing with it less well if I am told in the new year that I can't eat X, Y, and Z ... But at least I'll have had a month or two to prepare mentally and collect connections and resources. (I, of course, immediately went out and googled and found an e-mail discussion list, and posted to a forum and a lady who runs a local allergy support group reached out. I LOVE that all these things have online communities!!) I am already used to having one food allergy, but I think multiple ones would be an entirely different ball game, especially in terms of eating out.
I did have my esophagus dilated back in September. It helped a bit (I had an esophageal ring that was dilated). No foods have gotten stuck since then. But I do still have an uncomfortable feeling when I swallow a food sticks going down. But my GI doctor seems to be very good! He said right off the bat that my problems were likely either due to rings (either congenital or caused by EE) or by EE itself. He was dead on with both diagnoses just from my medical history, and from what I read EE often takes YEARS of seeing doctors to get properly diagnosed!
