Will They Have To Postpone The Endoscopy?

[azmom3]

My son's endoscopy (checking for celiac and Eos) is scheduled for this Wednesday.

He has had a stuffy, gunky nose and a cough for about 6 weeks now with a few day break about a week ago. He went through 10 days of antibiotics with no improvement (my daughter and I were both on antibiotics for sinus infections at the time, too). He takes pulmicort daily and albuterol as needed. Despite this, he has been in an exceptionally good mood and seems the healthiest he's been since he was 6 months old. He just started getting fussy tonight though and has a 102 degree fever. Are there any problems doing the endoscopy if he's still sick in a couple days? Will they cancel it or should we because of this? We waited 4 1/2 months to see the pediatric GI dr plus an additional 5 weeks to get this appointment....I'm a little stressed about missing this appointment.

[2kids4me]

The anesthesiologist will determine if there will be any additional risk. if he is going under general anesthesia - they likely will not do it if a fever is present. Also if secretions are present (stuffy nose /cough) they may not want to do it. Call and talk to the nurse (there are anesthesia nurses) and discuss any concerns - and also discuss what happens if they postpone - how long will you wait?, also explain the stress of waiting for this appt etc.

I hope he feels better soon! Sleepless night with sick kids adds stress to a stressful time.

Sandy

[Ursa Major]

Taking antibiotics with no improvement indicates it's a virus (which would have been my guess anyway), and antibiotics won't help. His problems could be caused by food intolerances, which wouldn't be helped by depleting his good gut bacteria by antibiotics.

Why don't you try giving him children's acidophilus (you can open the capsules and put the powder into a drink, or just buy the powder form to start with) to replenish his good bacteria, as well as eliminating dairy? Also, you might want to try garlic in whatever form you choose (it's a natural anti-viral as well as anti-bacterial), echinacea tea with honey, vitamin C etc. to boost his immune system.

And yes, call the doctor's office to see what they say, of course, as well.

[azmom3]

Taking antibiotics with no improvement indicates it's a virus (which would have been my guess anyway), and antibiotics won't help. His problems could be caused by food intolerances, which wouldn't be helped by depleting his good gut bacteria by antibiotics.

Why don't you try giving him children's acidophilus (you can open the capsules and put the powder into a drink, or just buy the powder form to start with) to replenish his good bacteria, as well as eliminating dairy? Also, you might want to try garlic in whatever form you choose (it's a natural anti-viral as well as anti-bacterial), echinacea tea with honey, vitamin C etc. to boost his immune system.

And yes, call the doctor's office to see what they say, of course, as well.

You're up way too late, Ursula!

He has been off all dairy, eggs, peanuts and tree nuts for the past 5 weeks (those are all his confirmed allergies so far, but we suspect many more and are having additional testing).

What is acidophius and where do you get it? Local health store? Does it have any flavor or if I mix it in water, will he not even know it's in there?

Both my daughter and I responded to the antibiotics and I figured we all had the same thing, but I guess not. Now that I think about it, this is the same time as last year that he started with the same symptoms. He had quite a few asthma attacks and just lots of respiratory issues through the whole winter (ok, so it's 65 degrees during the day here, but it does drop below freezing once in a while at night and it's still technically considered winter. He has always seemed very susceptible to everything, so maybe he' s just getting back to back to back viruses??

Thanks!

[Ursa Major]

Acidophilus is good gut bacteria, without which yeast will take over. Antibiotics will kill off the good and the bad bacteria, and if you don't replenish the good bacteria afterwards, you can get into all kinds of other health problems (meaning, you'd do well to get some for yourself and your daughter as well). It is tasteless, but I'd put it into juice rather than water, just in case. And yes, the health food store is the place to get it.

And hey, you're one to talk about being up too late!

Anyway, it sounds an awful lot like allergies to me. Or maybe his immune system is so overworked from all his problems, that he does catch anything going around.

Why is a having the endoscopy done, did he test positive on the blood tests? I sure hope he will be feeling better soon!

[azmom3]

Acidophilus is good gut bacteria, without which yeast will take over. Antibiotics will kill off the good and the bad bacteria, and if you don't replenish the good bacteria afterwards, you can get into all kinds of other health problems (meaning, you'd do well to get some for yourself and your daughter as well). It is tasteless, but I'd put it into juice rather than water, just in case. And yes, the health food store is the place to get it.

And hey, you're one to talk about being up too late!

Anyway, it sounds an awful lot like allergies to me. Or maybe his immune system is so overworked from all his problems, that he does catch anything going around.

Why is a having the endoscopy done, did he test positive on the blood tests? I sure hope he will be feeling better soon!

Thanks for all the info!

He does have horrible allergies...food, seasonal, and environmental. The blood test was only positive for IgG (29) and negative for the others. Both our allergist and GI dr (who came highly recommended because of her celiac knowledge) said that it could be celiac, but they are both leaning towards eosinophilic esophagitis because he seems to be allergic to almost everything...literally. They will be scoping for both. they said that a high IgG can be either and we don't want to assume it's celiac if he needs to be treated for EE (which may require Neocate Jr exclusively (or some other special formula), with no foods whatsoever until he heals, which can be weeks or months. Like celiac, the longer it goes untreated, the more damage it can cause. We took out the biggies that we were aware out of his diet, but are pretty sure there are lots of others. His second round of skin tests showed even more allergies. We tried to double check with his blood, but they were unable to get any with 3 attempts, so we'll be doing bloodwork while he's under anesthesia now to help us get more answers. He's still failure to thrive, but has made huge strides since we took out the things we knew for sure. I just don't want to assume that this solved the problem, only to find out later that the damage is really bad. I've read up a lot on both celiac and EE and my different options and consulted with all our doctors. I absolutely LOVE and trust our GI dr. and allergist. They are the first two doctors to actually help us. We've seen improvements in his symptoms since he's been seeing them and I feel like they are leading us in the right direction to getting him better. We went about a year with many different doctors, ER visits and a hospitalization prior to this....and the worst part? He never got better...until these two doctors started helping us.

He doesn't drink any juice right now (HORRIBLE diahrrea with just a couple ounces of diluted apple juice...when he's been constipated his whole life), allergic to oranges, and have been scared to try any others until after we know what's wrong. He just drinks water and Neocate, Jr. right now and a pretty basic diet of foods...including gluten until after the endoscopy.

Anyways, he woke up today with just a little fever of 100.2, compared to 102 last night. He's coughing, clear nasal drainage (probably allergies...like you mentioned), but he has green gunk coming out of his right eye. This has been a reoccuring problem since he was 2 months old, but it usually happens when he has green gunk coming out of his nose, too. I should become a doctor so I can help my family!

[azmom3]

The nurse said we need to have him seen for his eye by his pediatrician today to see if we need to treat it, and his temp needs to be below 100; otherwise, no endoscopy. We've waited so long. I just hope everything works out.

[Ursa Major]

You know that celiac disease can be the cause of allergies, right? Ask Carla, she and her daughter had terrible environmental allergies, which completely cleared up with the gluten-free diet. And who knows, the other problem (too long a word for me to bother with) could also be caused by celiac disease.

So, no matter what the biopsy says, if he was my kid, I'd try a gluten-free diet after the endoscopy, no matter what.

If he doesn't like the acidophilus with water, try maybe chamomile tea with honey (cooled, of course). Most kids like tea, and it might help calm things down a little. I hope his eye clears up, and his fever keeps going down.

[azmom3]

You know that celiac disease can be the cause of allergies, right? Ask Carla, she and her daughter had terrible environmental allergies, which completely cleared up with the gluten-free diet. And who knows, the other problem (too long a word for me to bother with) could also be caused by celiac disease.

So, no matter what the biopsy says, if he was my kid, I'd try a gluten-free diet after the endoscopy, no matter what.

If he doesn't like the acidophilus with water, try maybe chamomile tea with honey (cooled, of course). Most kids like tea, and it might help calm things down a little. I hope his eye clears up, and his fever keeps going down.

gluten-free is definitley the plan! Our whole family is going to do it and see if any of our other problems go away, too. Thanks, Ursula!

[azmom3]

It got postponed! They said with a cold on top of asthma, it just presents too many risks and not worth it. Disappointing that we've waited so long, but happy that they are so cautious and know it's what's best for our son. They are squeezing us in next week, provided he's over this cold. His fever came back tonight and he was so fussy and irritable. All 5 of us have it right now.

[Ursa Major]

Sorry it got postponed, but I am glad it's only a week. I hope you'll all feel better very soon.