Apples, Sweet Potatoes and Rice...OH MY!

Tanner has gained 5 pounds!

This is amazing news. With no symptoms and a positive weight gain it looks like Tanner gets to keep apples, sweet potato and rice along with his Elecare of course. He also got to move up to a booster seat now that he is over 40 pounds. He is very excited about that.

He is starting Pre-K on the 12th, which I am very nervous about. I am in the process of getting a hold of someone at the school to give me information about food allergy policy. I can already see this is going to be tough. I will keep you all updated.

Thank you for all the prayers they are working and Tanner is doing great!

Whats New

Well it has been a long time! We have been without a computer for a while so I have not been able to give you all an update.

Tanner gets to eat!

Tanner finished his 3 months of formula only. He had an endoscopy on May 14th and his scope came back clean. This is amazing! We really needed some good news. What this means is that Tanner can now start food trials. We got together with the allergist and came up with a list of foods that Tanner tested negative to being allergic to on skin and blood tests. Typically after 3 months and 3 foods another scope would be done to determine if the food has caused an increase in eosinophils. If there is an increase all three foods would be taken away and we would have to start all over.

When we went into the hospital for the endoscopy the doctor asked us if Tanner is having any symptoms (vomiting, diarrhea, rash...etc). When I replied that he did not but he has not had symptoms even when the eosinophi count comes back in the 80's. He told us that we needed to decide what our goal was. Are we fighting eosinophils or symptoms. In other words are we willing to have higher eosinophil counts as long as Tanner is thriving and not feeling sick or is our goal to have 0 eosinophil counts even if that means taking all food away again. When put that way we have decided as long as Tanner is doing well and is not sick we will continue to allow him foods. We will still do trials one month at a time just to be safe. This also means that we will be doing less endoscopy's. Maybe one a year just to make sure all it healthy looking and tissue is not damaged. After weighing all the options it just makes more since to do things this way. It can not be good to be put under every 3 months at such a young age.

Tanner is currently eating apples and sweet potatoes and is doing well. On My 14th he weighed 38 pounds and at his 4 year check-up on June 18he weighed in at 39.5. He may actually make it into size 4 pants this year!

Tanner's stay in the hospital

At Tanners 4 year checkup on Friday he received 3 vaccinations. He should have got 4 but the pediatrician refused to do the MMR without consent for the allergist. I was happy to hear that because I was stressed out about the egg in the MMR. So he got the DTaP and Polio vaccine in the left leg and the Chicken Pox in the right leg. Tanner got up on Sat. and dressed himself in pants so we did not see his leg all day. That night when Blue went to put him in the bath his entire leg was bright red and swollen. I called the allergist thinking it was a reaction. The allergist said it sounded more like an infection starting. He told me to give him Tylenol and put a cold compress on his leg. If it got worse we were to go to the ER but if not he would see us first thing Monday morning. On Sunday evening we were watching Toy Story (for the millionth time) and Tanner said "mommy can you fix this bump on my lip?" so I look over and his lip is swollen a little. So I go to the bathroom to get some benedryl and by the time I get back to him his lips have doubled in size. At that point I put him in the car to go to the ER. By the time we got to the parking lot his lips were triple the normal size and his eyes and cheeks were swollen as well. Then he starts complaining that his throat felt like something was stuck in it. If we were not in the parking lot of the hospital I would have used the Epi-Pen. \

We walk in and they take one look at him and start working on him. When I told the doctor I thought this was from a vaccine he informed me of how rare that is. I preceded to tell him that if there is a 1 in a million chance my kid would be the one. Then I tell him about Tanners leg where the shots were given and he looks at it and says yeah he has cellulitis (bad infection) in that leg. Tanner was admitted so that IV antibiotic could be given. Then it all clicked in the doctors head. He seems to think that Tanner probably did have a small reaction to the vaccine and then this infection started and Tanners body went into overload causing a very bad reaction that I am certain would have been anaphylactic shock had I not taken him in when I did.

Tanner spent 2 days in the hospital. He is home now and doing great. He just seems to bounce right back no matter what happens. Thank You all for the prayers and support. I don't know what we would do without such great family and friends.

***Tanner Update***

After 3 months of no food, formula only Tanner is doing much better. He had an endoscopy on May 14th. and the results were awesome. There was 10 eos in the top of the esophagus (probably from environmental allergies) and 3 in the middle and 0 in the lower. This is a drastic improvement from 3 months ago when the numbers were 88,64 and 44.


We are starting food trials. Tanner will chose a food to trial for one month. Then he can pick another to trial for a month and so on. After 3 foods (and 3 months) he will have another endoscopy to see how his body is reacting to the food. If the results are good he gets to keep the 3 foods. If the results are high eos he will lose the 3 foods and we will have to start over again. We are staying away from rice, since I think rice is what was causing his problems before. We are also going to wait on introducing meat for a while. I asked Tanner what fruit or veggie he wanted to try first and his choice was apples. He has now been eating apples for 10 days and he seems to be doing great. He has already picked the next 2 foods, carrots and pickles. I am praying he will tolerate these foods so that we can continue on.



Tanner never fails to amaze me with his strength

Day 3 of formula only

Well yesterday (day 2) was a good day for Tanner. He was very well behaved and a love bug. I really think that food was affecting him in so many different ways including making him irritable and just mean sometimes. These past 3 days he has been a new child and I love it.

Today things got a little hard. He asked for food several times today and by 6pm we were in the car and he started yelling that he wanted food NOW. It broke my heart. I had to call home and tell everyone to eat and I would keep him out for a while. I just could not bring him home to see us eat dinner.When we got home I went in the room and ate while he hung out with daddy. We did meet up with fellow EE parents Susi and Rick and their daughter Alyssa. Alyssa talked with Tanner about her feeding tube and even showed it to him. Tanner has decided that he is going to drink his Elecare so that he does not have to get a feeding tube. He drank 32 ounces (960 calories)today and will probably get up for more in the night. Monday and Tues he drank no more that 21 ounces (630 calories) I am so grateful for the support that I get from all the other Eos parents. I am very grateful that Alyssa is so comfortable with talking with other kids about this disease. I think it really helped Tanner to hang out and talk with her tonight. He has not stopped talking and asking questions about her.

Tanner is such a tough kid! I love him and just wish he did not have to have EE. We need a cure!

Day one Formula only

Yesterday was day one of no food for Tanner. Only 89 days left to go. He actually did better than I thought he would. He asked for a snack in the morning and when I said "remember we talked about how you can't have food anymore, only formula" he was bummed out but got a bottle and went on with life. At dinner non of us felt right eating so I said to him "Tanner we are about to eat dinner would you like a bottle or dum dum? he said no thank you and sat on the couch and watched Dora. He was perfectly fine with not eating dinner. We will see what today brings. Tanner never fails to surprise me with how strong he is.

Tanners Endocopy results

I wanted to update all of you on Tanner’s latest test results. As you all know Tanner had a Scope in August and his EOS numbers were higher than they had ever been. The G.I suggested that we go formula only. After talking with the Allergist we decided that we would cut his diet from 15 foods to 5 for 3 months and see if that would bring the numbers down. So for the past 3 months all Tanner has had to eat is pork, rice, olives, apples and broccoli.
Tanner had an endoscopy on January 29th to see how he was doing on this new limited diet. The procedure went well and Tanner woke up in a much better mood than he did the last time. The doctor said he thought everything looked good, but let’s wait for the biopsy results. The doctor called me today to tell me that the numbers are even higher than in August and the tissue looked “unhealthy”. Then he once again tells me he thinks it is time to go formula only. We could do steroids but that would be temporary (no more than 6 months) then we would be right back where we are.
After praying and much thought Blue and I have decided to go formula only and allow Tanners body time to heal. This decision was not an easy one and will be hard on all of us. I think it will be harder on us than it will on Tanner. I think as his body heals we will see a much happier, healthier child. Not that he looks unhealthy now. Maybe he will actually sleep through the night J
Please keep Tanner in your prayers; this is going to be a rough 3 months. Thank you all for your support and being such great friends and family.

Tanner is doing great!

Tanner has been on his new diet of pork, rice, broccoli, olives and apples for almost a month now. He is doing very well. I am so surprised at how well he is taking all this. Trick or treating went well I was able to trade all of his candy in for dum-dums and smarties and he did not seem to care.
Last week at a party I have overheard Tanner tell people that offer him cookies and candy " I can't have that anymore" It breaks my heart but gives me peace of mind knowing that he will not just take food from anyone.

We went to my nieces birthday party last weekend, the first birthday we have gone to since the new diet. I was worried how Tanner would react when he did not have his own cupcake. In the past I was able to make a cupcake for him but now his diet is so limited I just cant. Tanner sang Happy Birthday and said wow cool cake and went about his playing. When my mom said "he cant have any cake? even if we take the frosting off" I wanted to cry. Then I looked over at Tanner running and laughing and said "It bothers you more than it does him."

For the first time since this disease took a hold o our lives I am looking forward to the holidays. The past few years I was so worried that someone hand Tanner a treat and he would take it. This year we can all enjoy and not stress out about it so much knowing that Tanner can say "no I am allergic."

Just wanted to share some good news with you all for a change. Right now all is great and Tanner is a happy kid. God has blessed us with an amazing, smart, strong, loving son. I am thankful everyday to have Tanner in my life.