And The Biopsy Says....

[JenKuz]

Hi all,

So I finally had my endoscopy and colonoscopy....

The results are thus:

GERD

Gastritis

Eosinophilia of large bowel

No evidence of parasitic activity

No evidence of villous flattening

Given my enterolab results, I'm wondering if my gluten intolerance could result in increased eosinophilic activity. The problem is that I traveled in Africa a year and a half ago. So my GI doc thinks the eosinophils could be residual from that; he doesn't seem to think it's a huge deal. But everything I *may* have had was treated immediately on returning from the field, and I don't know how long eosinophils would stay elevated after a parasitic infection is long gone. The little bit of research I've been able to do on eosinophilia would seem to explain the intense malabsorption I showed, as well as the nausea, gastritis, reflux, and the chronic diarrhea. But the *cause* of the eosinophilia is the real question.

If anyone has experience with this, I'd love to hear it. Thoughts. Suggestions. Etc.

I guess I'm going to keep going after food intolerances; still avoiding wheat; still waiting for the results of a second round of enterolab tests. And I'm going to start taking claritin regularly. Any other advice would be warmly welcomed.

Jen

[azmom3]

Hi all,

So I finally had my endoscopy and colonoscopy....

The results are thus:

GERD

Gastritis

Eosinophilia of large bowel

No evidence of parasitic activity

No evidence of villous flattening

Given my enterolab results, I'm wondering if my gluten intolerance could result in increased eosinophilic activity. The problem is that I traveled in Africa a year and a half ago. So my GI doc thinks the eosinophils could be residual from that; he doesn't seem to think it's a huge deal. But everything I *may* have had was treated immediately on returning from the field, and I don't know how long eosinophils would stay elevated after a parasitic infection is long gone. The little bit of research I've been able to do on eosinophilia would seem to explain the intense malabsorption I showed, as well as the nausea, gastritis, reflux, and the chronic diarrhea. But the *cause* of the eosinophilia is the real question.

If anyone has experience with this, I'd love to hear it. Thoughts. Suggestions. Etc.

I guess I'm going to keep going after food intolerances; still avoiding wheat; still waiting for the results of a second round of enterolab tests. And I'm going to start taking claritin regularly. Any other advice would be warmly welcomed.

Jen

Hi all,

So I finally had my endoscopy and colonoscopy....

The results are thus:

GERD

Gastritis

Eosinophilia of large bowel

No evidence of parasitic activity

No evidence of villous flattening

Given my enterolab results, I'm wondering if my gluten intolerance could result in increased eosinophilic activity. The problem is that I traveled in Africa a year and a half ago. So my GI doc thinks the eosinophils could be residual from that; he doesn't seem to think it's a huge deal. But everything I *may* have had was treated immediately on returning from the field, and I don't know how long eosinophils would stay elevated after a parasitic infection is long gone. The little bit of research I've been able to do on eosinophilia would seem to explain the intense malabsorption I showed, as well as the nausea, gastritis, reflux, and the chronic diarrhea. But the *cause* of the eosinophilia is the real question.

If anyone has experience with this, I'd love to hear it. Thoughts. Suggestions. Etc.

I guess I'm going to keep going after food intolerances; still avoiding wheat; still waiting for the results of a second round of enterolab tests. And I'm going to start taking claritin regularly. Any other advice would be warmly welcomed.

Jen

Are you taking anything for GERD? They recommended my son take prevacid to see if his symptoms improve. If they improve, it's less likely he has a problem with eosinophilic esophagitis, but if it doesn't, it's more likely. The sooner you can find your allergies and remove them, the quicker you'll get better.

[chrissy]

eosinophils are "allergy cells" you are allergic to something you are eating.

[JenKuz]

eosinophils are "allergy cells" you are allergic to something you are eating.

Yeah, that's kinda what I thought. But they can also be present during parasitic infections when allergy is absent, so that gets a bit confusing in my case...I may well have been parasitized. I treated presumptively without testing immediately on returning from the field with mebendazole to take care of any worms I may have picked up in the village. I never saw any evidence of worms, and all of the O and P work ups have been neg, however. So I don't think a long-past-potential parasite infection would explain it.

Meanwhile, though, I took the skin-prick test for some 50 food allergens, and hazelnuts were the only ones that came up positive. So if it is a food intolerance, it doesn't seem to be one that's IgE-mediated. If I understand right, though, eosinophilia doesn't always have IgE involvement :/ So I don't really know if, like, an IgA-mediated intolerance could cause eosinophilia involvement. Maybe, cause some of those allergy cells have Fc receptors for IgA....less powerful than the IgE receptors, but still capable of causing a response.

Well. I need to do some more research, I think.....

Thanks

[azmom3]

Eosinophilic disorders can also be a result of environmental allergies, not just food allergies. It's not always as easy to avoid things in the environment as it is in your diet. This is how our allergy dr. explained it to us...."High eosinophils in your sinuses is rhinitis and high eosinophils in your lungs is asthma....we understand how to treat those. When it's in your esophagus, colon, or stomache, we're not sure as we're still learning about it. We believe the best way is to remove all allergies (food and environmental)."

The problems you can run into is someone who is allergic to almost everything. They eventually will need extra nutrition and may require a feeding tube. They are in a lose, lose situation...if they eat the foods they're allergic to, they get more inflammation and more severe symptoms, and if they don't they become malnourished.

[Guest cassidy]

How are you feeling on the gluten-free diet? I get gerd from eating gluten. I also have had gastritis - right around the time when I went gluten-free and got off all of my gerd medicine. I also showed no evidence of celiac. However, I feel so much better on the diet. The gerd only comes back when I'm glutened and then it lasts for 3 weeks or so. If you are not feeling better then obviously you have to keep trying to figure it out.

I believe you said that you had tons of antibiotics when you came back from your trip because of the parasites and things you could have been exposed to. Have you had your levels of good bacteria checked? If you don't have enough good bacteria that can really affect your system.

I don't know much about eosinophils so I can't help there. What about leaky gut? I don't know much about it but could that have something to do with this? I'm just thinking if your system is messed up from the gluten and lack of good bacteria maybe it is just inflammed and that is causing these high numbers. I don't know, but it is a guess.