Off the Sauce

The verdict is in and while it wasn't what we wanted to hear, at least we can begin healing up Roo's welted, pus-ridden esophagus now.  I still have no idea how or why we didn't notice any change in eating habits, behavior, etc. with the reintroduction of milk last spring, but I do know that all those cheddar goldfish crackers and ice cream cones this summer were not as innocuous and they seemed.  Aside from the white plaques and pus, his eosinophil count was back up to 20-30 hpf (per high power field in the microscope).  Normal is zero.  Chronic GERD sufferers can have up to about 5.  Our hospital makes the EE diagnosis with 20 hpf, some places diagnose anyone above 15 hpf.  So, it could be worse since his initial count was 70-80 hpf a year ago, but needless to say we've eliminated dairy once again.

Believe it or not I'm still waiting to hear what our official course of action is from the doctor's office.  We've been instructed to take away all the milk, whey, casein, etc. and we've made the switch back to soy infant formula with much less kicking and screaming than I anticipated.  I'm guessing we'll need to rescope in 8-10 weeks to see if he's clean but don't know for sure.

We're heading back to speech therapy for a new evaluation on Friday.  I can hardly wait.  I am so looking forward to a day when every meal takes less than an hour to consume.  He tries but he's just so painfully slow, and then of course, there's the constant threat of the gag.  He threw up Saturday night moments before the babysitter arrived, and gagged on a chick pea at breakfast this morning.  I don't know what I was thinking with the chick pea.  Just got a little ahead of myself, I guess.  Depending on how the new evaluation goes, we might need to start looking into some early intervention programs for the oral delay.  Hmmm...why do I feel like I've been here before?