Eosinophilic Esophagitis

Before I go into my news for last Tuesday, I have to welcome Heidi Rebekah Bartholomay to the world. She is my sister's second daughter. While my sister was busy having a daughter, I was also in the hospital getting an endoscopy. The ironic thing was that due to sleep apnea, I required full anesthesia for a relatively simple procedure, whereas my sister only got local for a c-section.

The reason I was getting the endoscopy was because I have been having issues with swallowing, also know as dysphagia. Basically I would be eating, and then suddenly the food would get stuck before it got to my stomach. I won't go into all the messy details, but sometimes the food would pass the blockage, other times it wouldn't.

This has been going on for quite a while (first time was about five years ago), but it didn't happen all that often. Maybe once a month it would occur, sometimes it would be months between episodes, other times it would happen everyday for a week. There were certain foods that seemed to have this occur more often, but it seemed just as dependent on my stress level and how empty my stomach was.

The first time I went to the doctor with this, he had me get a barium swallow. The barium swallow revealed that I have a hiatal hernia. Since it wasn't happening that often, and didn't seem to be getting any worse, the doctor suggested just eating more slowly.

A couple years after the initial barium swallow, the situation got worse. I had an episode where the food got caught and I was unable to swallow for several hours, not even water or my own saliva. So I went to the doctor again and was scheduled for another barium swallow. This one revealed the exact same thing as the first, with no new information.

A month and a half ago, I had an even more severe episode. This time I wasn't able to swallow the next day and ended up going to the ER to see if they could do anything. They listened to me explain the inability to swallow, then I got to the part about the hiatal hernia and they said, oh here swallow these pills for heartburn. Eventually it cleared up and I went home.

So, another trip to the doctor, and he referred me to a GI specialist. I met with her and she went through the whole history. She seemed stumped, but scheduled me for an endoscopy so they could look down my throat and see if there was a problem. Eventually I got the appointments scheduled. I actually had to appointments, one to see the anesthesiologist and the second to have the actual procedure.

As I mentioned before, because of my sleep apnea, they needed to put me under for the procedure. So the day of the procedure arrived, and I was a bit nervous. The thought of going under didn't really appeal to me. I also didn't have great hope that they would be able to find out what was causing my problems, since everyone seemed stumped. Oh, also the procedure wasn't until the afternoon and I was told not to eat or drink after midnight.

So I met with the doctor before the procedure and explained the situation. He asked me if I had allergies or asthma, I said yes. He said it sounds like Eosinophilic Esophagitis, which is more prevalent in young men and those with asthma and allergies. Just like that.

So eventually they wheeled me into the procedure room and had me turn on my side. The nurse and the anesthesiologist were talking and then the doctor came in. Then suddenly I was asleep. There was no count down, no are you ready, just out. I came to about forty minutes later. It took another five minutes or so to be fully awake. Then there was about twenty minutes of observation and time for my ride home to get there. During the wait the doctor came out and confirmed his suspicion. He also said the lower portion of my esophagus was narrow, as in narrower than the 1/2 inch scope.

He explained that Eosinophilic Esophagitis is a swelling of the esophagus that is probably caused by a food allergy. He gave me a couple of prescriptions and said I should get tested for food allergies. I was a bit surprised that one of the medicines was Flovent. As an asthmatic, I am familiar with Flovent as an inhaled steroid. In this case however, I'm not suppose to inhale the steroid but swallow it. The other medication comes in these little plastic shot glasses. It is pink, a bit chalky and tastes like medicine. It is also annoying because I'm supposed to take it four times a day, and have to take it on an empty stomach (2 hours after a meal and no food for an hour after). This especially makes breakfast tricky.

Anyway, all that being said, it is a great relief to finally have a name for what's going on. Although I have to say it is annoying that no one came up with this before.

On the drive back from the procedure I was talking with David who was kind enough to chauffeur me. He thought it made sense, since people who have food allergies are often picky eaters, which I most definitely am. The thing he brought up is what's left that could be causing this? I suspect that it's a seasoning that I might tolerate eating in small quantities but is enough to trigger this reaction.

But the main thing I want to point out, is that all those times as a child when I was choking down food I didn't like... Maybe I really was choking it down.