White Plaques and Furrowing

Roo had his third upper endoscopy yesterday.  As usual, he was a total trooper.  I ripped him out of bed at 5:15 am, slapped a clean diaper on him, and pushed him out the door in his PJ's before he'd have the chance to ask for a drink, which of course, he couldn't have.  The procedure went well overall.  He was a little hesitant to go along with the nurses at first but the "little something to relax him" that the anesthesiologist gave him did the trick almost immediately.  He was all grins and giggles, watching the trails from his fingers, and driving his hospital bed back to surgery complete with "beep- beeps". 

Now, I don't condone substance abuse at any age but man how I wish I had a little bit of that happy juice in the fridge to administer to the kids from time to time.  Looly's hysterical because she scraped her elbow?  Happy juice.  Bean's on another biting spree?  Happy juice.  Roo's chucking Legos at the cat and crying when the poor thing seeks shelter in the basement?  Happy juice.  Accidental shopping spree?  A little happy juice for Mufasa's water bottle while handing over the receipts.  Okay, I guess I'm starting to see why they don't dole out gallon jugs to the parents...

Anyway, we won't have the official results for another day or two but I am ceding victory to the know-it-all GI doctor.  I honestly still can't believe it but the results of the scope were not good.  For the first time ever there was visible evidence of allergy cells (eosinophils) in Roo's esophagus.  Essentially, the doctor could see, and provided me with photos, of the inside of his esophagus complete with nasty little white plaques (pussy groups of allergy cells) and mild furrowing (kind of like little ridges) - two of the tell-tale signs of EoE.  The worst part is that in his previous scopes he never had any visible evidence of EoE.  The biopsies revealed EoE, but his esophagus looked healthy.  Seems like it's gotten significantly worse this year. 

I am beyond bummed.  I so thought he was tolerating the milk.  I'm so sorry that he has to be experiencing pain whenever he eats or swallows for that matter.  And selfishly I'm dreading the return to a dairy-free existence.  I'll save the true lament for once the biopsy results are in but it's not looking good folks.  In fact it looks worse than before.  Maybe I could sneak just a tiny bit of that happy juice for me?  Feel like I could use it.