EoE: Eosinophilic esophagitis... and other big words I cannot pronounce.

Disclaimer

I'm not a doctor, although I did play one in the TV pilot for Gideon's Crossing

If you don't understand something google it.

If you know more than me about this then say something (please support your statements with links so I can learn more).

If you are having a medical emergency, hang up and dial 911

Back Story

You know when you take too big of a bite or you swallow something without chewing it up well enough and it gets stuck like half way down? Well, this use to happen to my mom all the time, she hypothesized that there was some kind of deformity she must have, like a sink trap, where food would get stuck. Once at Disneyland she regurgitated food onto the floor near Star Tours.  As a young kid I was pretty stunned since she would also fear monger us away from touching anything because "some one might have vomited there" .. and now I'm kinda watching it! Well, she passed this on to me so thank you for that... so into my adulthood I had just sorta accepted this as a genetic abnormality that I was meant to suffer from and there was no cure and, if I were anything like my folks,  I would die from heart disease long before this really became a worse issue.

So I'm sitting, enjoying an expensive dinner and BAM, no food will pass.  I sip some water to kinda force things down and its not passing, and now I have another problem, food tube is filling up with water and spit and starting to drip over into the air tube... thats not gonna end well...

You know how people say, their whole life has led them to this one moment? Well this is not like that, but kinda is.  I got into SCUBA diving and loved it, so I had worked on staying calm under pressure (pun intended) and specifically keeping calm when it came to not being able to breath.  Don't panic goes a long way!  I also LOVED watching magicians and even learned some tricks as a youth.  One that was always interesting were Circus Freaks and Regurgitateors (people that would swallow stuff and bring it back up but not in a vomit kinda way).

So I'm staying calm as best I can as I'm getting ready to start drowning in my own food and saliva when I think, well, gravity still works, maybe I can kinda rattle and "hork" some of this out.  So I head to the restroom, lean over so my head is far down hill, and start kinda thinking about swallowing but in reverse and out comes some water, saliva, and small bits of food.  Huh, I've not "cleared a whole" but I sure bought my self some time before I drown!  So I keep going and before I knew it I had moved enough material that the next sip of water got the rest to pass down!

Now with my new found trick I felt empowered and in much less fear of someday dying from this abnormality that only my family suffer from.  Its like being a Teenwolf but with no cool moves or soundtrack.

In fact, I learned some other great tricks too, ever taken soda water and made dancing beans well, it seems the same thing kinda helps inflate the esophagus when you are trying to swallow, or helps dislodge things that are kinda stuck in there.  

If you stick to foods that soften up when they get wet (like tortilla chips, and pasta) then you can also kinda slowly sip water to get it to kinda slide on down.

Use super cold liquid since cold can get things to shrink a little (probably just a placebo but whatever)

Diagnosis

So I go to get an endoscopy since I'm an adult with health insurance.  I'm thinking we will finally see this "sink trap" thing. Come to find out there is not a "sink trap", but rather a swelling in the lining of the esophagus!  This restricts the diameter so food just won't pass to the stomach.  It also means the endoscopy scope they use for adults wont fit and they have to switch to the kiddy one, hense my nickname "baby throat".

They say they want me to go for allergy tests and do some other stuff and I'm like "sure, we will get around to it, for now I just want to rub this into the face of my friend, my best friend, that had always teased me about getting food stuck!" BAM, I have a medical condition you insensitive jerk!

So I did what normal adult males do, I ignored it for like 10yrs.

Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) was not well known and is now known to affect about 1 in every 2,000 people. So about 10yrs ago info was still lacking so I didn't really bother looking to hard for details.

Food started to get stuck a lot more often so I go in and ask my General Practitioner if I could have a referral to get a blood test for some potential food allergies that are making my throat swell shut.  She reviewed my old file and refers me to a GI for the expert opinion.

New GI is very kind and wants to scope me. I don't wanna get scoped but she basically won't take no for an answer. She uses the fear mongering I had grown up with to "encourage" me to let her get a biopsy and confirm the diagnosis of Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). She also wants to check to see if there is a permanent obstruction that has formed because of EoE which will require surgery. Yikes, I wanna get ahead of surgery so fine, lets check... oh, and since its probably EoE which is probably caused by a food allergy, she wanted me to cut out dairy products.

Going the extra mile

I decide to google "EoE elimination diet" and find a nice little PDF I can work from as a guide.  It outlines the top 6 food allergies: Milk, eggs, wheat, soy, nuts / tree nuts, sea food / shellfish.

This is basically a list of the foods I eat everyday.  Basically all the best foods somehow fall into this category. So I jump in with both feet since I know I'm gonna have to do this soon anyway when they confirm diagnosis, and I'm gonna start now because I'm gonna mess it up so I need some practice.

Reading Food Labels

So it seems that basically everything is made with either wheat, milk, or soy. I really do mean everything.  So if you are gonna skip those things you basically are eating whole fruits and veggies.  Salad dressings got it in there, chocolate, oatmeal! The worst is to find something that seems to fit then to see the warning: "produced on shared machinery that also produces the list of things you cannot eat".  Seriously.

So here I am thinking to myself, I need to eat something, and all the food I normally eat is something I need to avoid, at least for now, so I'll go buy some apples or something? But there is a factor that you might not be considering in a diet change like this... teeth.  I kinda have bad teeth, well, to be fair, I think the issue is the gums (mine are soft and receding).  So eating a lot of hard crunchy veggies and fruits is now making my teeth hurt!  So eating, one of my favorite past times, is gone.

Hopefully Optimistic

Well, if I can identify things I must avoid, maybe there are things I'm okay having (maybe I can get chocolate back?) and this should generally improve my life/health which can extend your life.  But do I really want to live in this new hell even longer than I had previously anticipated?

I'm thinking this will probably all be a good thing, and I guess I can always reserve the option of hastening my end by getting a double grilled cheese with a giant chocolate malt... but for now, I guess I'll keep fighting.

I've been better: toof if-use

So there I am, minding my own business, doing what I'm told is ones of the most important things for my overall health, and BLAM! My tooth falls out! 

Now before we get to far you should know oral hygiene was not really something that was instilled in me as a child... In fact, personal hygiene in general was rather sparse for me as a child.  My sister in law can still remember while we were in line at magic mountain and I was scathing at my neck complaining of being itchy, then bragging that it had been two weeks without a bath... But this story is about teeth. 

Growing up we would spend our summers in McCall Idaho, then a small sleepy little mountain paradise, now a more popular mountain paradise.  It was here where we were transported back in time for about 3mos and did just about nothing modern. This is also where we would see the town dentist who was also the mayor.  He had one of these old school dentist chairs with pulley arm driven drill.  If you didn't cooperate he wouldn't use Novocaine, if you did you got a shined dime at the end of your visit. 

Well once a year visits to the dentist isn't all that bad... The problem comes when you stop visiting the town with you're dentist and no one thinks about getting a new one. So fast forward to high school, maybe 4yrs after the last time at the dentist and you're sitting down to breakfast.  A big bowl of generic brand corn flakes with granulated sugar sprinkled on (because just buying frosted flakes was unhealthy). You take a bite and something feels different.  You tounge your back tooth to feel something that must be stuck to the back. Maybe one of the corn flakes was somehow stuck to your teeth and was poking your tounge... Then you realize it's your tooth.  Your tooth is some how poking your tounge. Then you realize your tooth has cracked open and the hollowed out cavernous canyon edge is poking you. 

I remember that next trip to the dentist. Everything was shiny and new, almost space aged! They had a TV in the ceiling you could watch cable while having work done! That wasn't the reason I remember those dentist visits... And it wasn't that I spent days in his chair during the subsequent trips, it was the first time I had seen that kind of look on someone's face caused by me. 

The dentist peered into my mouth as everything seemed to start out normal. Then he looked up at my eyes, then to his assistant, then back in my mouth, then he excused himself to go "talk" to my mother. I can only imagine the thoughts that went through his mind, neglect, abuse, astonishment, anger... I remember because that's what his face portrayed to me. I don't remember being in pain, and I don't remember much detail, just that I spent many hours in that chair watching music videos in VH1 and MTV, Whilst this dentist worked on my teeth in blocks. 

So now it's 20yrs later, I've been taking care of my own teeth for a while now, and one of the best dentists in the world now "owns" my mouth! Anything that needed to be redone had been redone and things are great!  The last few cleanings had gone so well I didn't even get there usual "you should floss more".  So while I'm at home, getting ready for bed, got an early morning but I deceased to stay up a little later watching a movie with the wife. Finally getting to my oral hygiene routine when "pop... Clank" my crown just feel off! 

Mind you, by this time the back four teeth on each side have been crowned and some even root canaled. What the what?!? There was no pain so I thought maybe it just fell off... Then there was pain. Not one of these root canal teeth. Maybe it just had bad cement... For the past few years... Well I'll just take a look:

Crown seems okay, a little corrosion or decay maybe... Looks like rust. Well let's take a look at this tooth: 

What the... I know I have a dental mirror around her somewhere:

Oh Frosted Flakes that doesn't look good. 

I make the appointment for the dentist, who recently broker his hand snowboarding, and see his colleague.  I begin with letting him know that anything that ends in there word "implant" will be a little upsetting.  He takes one quick look and chooses his words carefully.  I guessed it... Implant.

As he explained, Dental implants can take about 9mos from start to finish, think of it like having a baby he says.  Oh kill me now...

The oral surgeon is super nice and has been doing this for years.  The tooth cracks into there prices: 

He tells me all about the cadaver bone they will be using as bone graft to build up my jaw to accept the implant in another few months. Sounds good. Then he tells me to get some rest and to not blow my nose or snort for a few weeks... Say what? 

When I got my wisdoms teeth out the focus was on no straws so you didn't make a dry socket. But if your tooth roots are long enough on the uppers they will grow into your sinuses... What the?!?! So if I blow my nose or snort or really even sneeze hard I'm gonna perforated my sinus and blow out a bunch of dead person bone shards into my mouth!!! How did I get so lucky?!?

But the good news is it seens like it's healing normally... Save for the massive headache and general feeling of wishing I was dead: 

Now off for my antibiotics, analgesics, decongestant, and baby food.

EL Wire Stroller (or TRON Stroller)

I got this clearly genius idea the other day... Why not outline our stroller with elwire so we can't lose it and so people will see it when we are out and about?!?  So I got a multi pack of battery powered el wire and duct taped it to the stroller!  I used clear duct tape and clear packing tape depending on what surface I was attaching it too (the clear duct tape held surprisingly well to the cloth of the stroller)

Behold: (http://youtu.be/-zBAyL5z0rw)

My wife only allowed this to happen because it was my birthday, however, for the record, we were constantly complimented!  Most people were indirect, simply walking by and commenting amongst themselves.  We did bump into another elwire stroller that even had a magnetized headlight!  (Our el wire was cooler though)

I think the next version will either be all one color, two colors like highlights, or "animated" / "chase" elwire!!!  In all reality, it will probably never happen again... But at least I had my day!

I guess I AM an expert...

As I fight through life I am often referred to as an expert in the field of computers.  This has never held much water for me because they were not comments from nerd peers... until now.

I was wondering during my morning commute (which allows for a LOT of wondering) how one can be considered an expert.  Would one need to be published?  Would one need to be granted something from some accredited authority?

Some googling resulted in http://expertenough.com/1276/how-do-you-know-when-youre-expert-enough

It points out:

ex·pert

ˈekˌspərt/

noun

1. 1.

   a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area.

   "experts in child development"

   synonyms:

   specialist, authority, pundit; More

adjective

1. 1.

   having or involving authoritative knowledge.

   "he had received expert academic advice"

   synonyms:

   skillful, skilled, adept, accomplished, talented, fine; More

Which means to some I am above an expert, however, to others I am merely a novice.  I feel funny asking people if I am an expert in something or if they think I'm good enough at a particular task.  And when people refer to me as a guru I feel embarrassed and dismiss it quickly.

I have recently become aware that I am an expert in my profession, at least to the people that I support.  The customers I deal with are the top in their fields, they are seasoned professionals with years (decades) of experience with computer systems.  When they say things to me like, "thats genius" or, "I would not have thought of that" I feel accomplished.  But that I don't think about is even if they are not complementing me they are still coming to me for help.  In fact, I have some customers that seek me out over other techs!  I've asked why and have been told it is because they know I will do a thorough job and that it will be done correctly.

So if you are someone who is working toward an educational or professional goal and are wanting to know if you are an expert you can ask around to peers and see if they think you are or just think about how many of your peers come to you with questions.

For the sake of the children!

I just read (most of) an article (Rolling Stone: Sexting, Shame and Suicide) about how a 15yr old girl committed suicide after being embarrassed by people who sexually assaulted her!  Wait, what?  Thankfully none of these things were even close to the reality I was exposed to!

I'm not sure where to attribute my successfully navigating the harsh reality of life to.  I was teased a lot as a kid [insert childhood video that I never want to see again] and rightly so since I was on basically the lowest rung you can get to socially.  I was a redheaded 200lbs 10yrs old and was at least a year younger than most of my classmates.  Most people, at least when I grew up, would not tease a "differently abled" (retarded) child, since I was just a fat redhead it was open season!  I have no memory of how I was able to deal with the shaming and bullying.  I don't recall ever being beaten up, I was punched in the throat once, leaned that lesson pretty quickly.

So when I read an article about some teen girl who killed herself after being bullied I first think, thats sad but sheesh, suck it up, it couldn't have been that bad.  Then I keep reading and see it was because someone raped her and published the pictures of it to their peer group at school... WTF?  You have got to be kidding me!  Okay, she was dressing sexy (short shorts, thong pulled out the top, skimpy tops showing her boobs off, etc.) so there is a moment where you could think "she was asking for it dressed that way"... then you realize she was getting really drunk and "making out" with a a couple of the boys at the part so you might think "well theres your problem"... then you find out she passed out drunk and the boys dragged her into a room where they assaulted her (details withheld) and took pictures of themselves doing it.

At this point I shift focus away from this poor young girl's bad decisions and think about what kind of degenerates the boys in this story are!

I am a youth leader for a large group of boy ages 12yrs - 18yrs.  I "teach" a sunday church "class" of 8yrs - 11yrs old boys every sunday.  I have two boys of my own now.  I was once a boy between the ages of 8yrs - 18yrs old.  I feel that these boys could have been helped some how to keep themselves doing this!

I'm not one to blame the alcohol, I don't think its a great idea to get all sloppy drunk at that age, but it is not like alcohol causes you to become a pervert!  It lowers your inhibitions which means you have to have been broken in the first place!

I would like all boys within the reach of this message to know that you are the ones in control!  You choose to be a pervert or not!  You can choose to bully others or not!  You choose to be affected by bullying!  You choose to allow others to bully others while you do nothing!

You kids these days need to look out for each other.  Your presence at a party where something like this happens can implicate you or your innocent friends in a crime!  Who is to say someone doesn't blame you for what happened?!

My friends in high school use to tell raunchy jokes and use foul language.  We decided girls didn't want to be around that kind of person so we decided to help each other out.  We chose to punch anyone of us that was being offensive.  This worked well!

By policing yourself and your friends you are keeping the problems to a minimum and you might save a life!  That life you save might be your own!

Oh how the mighty have fallen! [UPDATE]

BlendTech sent me out a replacement and made the process simple and easy.  I have been reducing the amount of frozen fruit I am putting in.  I have also upped the kale volume a little.  The most common mix is:

• approx. 3C Kale
• a layer of frozen mango
• a layer of frozen fruit mix
• approx. 12OZ of Orang Juice
• fill to cover with water

With this mix I hit the "whole juice" button and it ends up thin like juice not thick like a smoothie... and I hafta say, I kinda like that better.

No smoke so far so I'm gonna say this situation is fixed... I'll let you know if that changes.

Oh how the mighty have fallen!

This post is being brought to you by Siri...

So I decided to see if I can blog via phone via Siri. So far so good to sentences down the rest to go...

I love my blend tech blender. Now when I say this I don't mean it in a creepy sort of have the blender next to me on my night stand. Or have to take it with me when I go on vacation. What I mean is I use my blend tech blender every morning cycling through it's preprogrammed cycles three or four times. If you're wondering why so many cycles I: a. want my food completely silky smooth and b. I run at two or three times with food and then once with soap for cleaning.

Imagine my surprise when this morning after filling the blender container with the normal complement of food it errored and stopped blend. Errored you ask yes I have a touchscreen blend tech design Series blender. I filled it with my normal complement of fruits and vegetables: some kale, carrots, mangoes, berries, peaches, and topped it off with some orange juice for liquid.

I loaded it, up hit go, and it spun up for just a few seconds then stopped. It displayed some sort of error code I of course ignored it and just powered off and powered on the blender. After hitting go again I let it run for a few seconds and realized it was making kind of a funny sound. Because any of the high-priced high-powered blenders are allowed to keep my blender behind a cupboard door. Once I opened the cupboard I noticed there was a thick black smoke inside the cabinet. I immediately powered the blender off and ran it outside in case it was going to burst into flames. Fortunately there was no continued drama just continued smoking. I brought it back inside plugged it in and it displayed an "I'm overheated symbol"... Yeah thanks. 

I called blend tech customer service who said we need to do some further troubleshooting to figure out the cause. I'm confident we will find a solution. I might need a new blender which I'm also confident they will supply for free with no hassle. But my goodness I've seen on the Wille blend YouTube channel a blend tech blender chop up a broom handle! Again oh how the mighty have fallen.