Sunday, November 28, 2010

I am thankful

I am so thankful for this beautiful little boy. He makes me a better person. I know God gave him to me to make me stronger, and because he knew I would give him more love and acceptance than anyone could. It is my job as his mother to raise awareness and fight for the things that are wrong, to make his life mean something far greater than he could imagine and to try to find cures for these horrible disorders. I am so thankful for his love and his happiness. I couldn't imagine his life if he wasn't as happy as he is. You would never know anything was wrong, he is in pain but tries not to show it. He tries to feel good, he tries to understand. I am so thankful for Zachary and love him more everyday.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Dear Friends, As many of you know, our Zachary, suffers

from a rare autoimmune disease called Eosinophilic Esophagitis ("EE"). Kids
with EE are quite literally allergic to food. The proteins in food cause a
build up in the digestive tract and blood of a white blood cell called an
eosinophil.
Eosinophils are meant to attack parasites, but the body of a child with EE
mistakes food for a parasite. As a result, the build up of eosinophils
cause numerous and very serious health problems, including, failure to grow
and thrive, uncontrollable vomiting, severe stomach and throat pain,
inability to sleep, joint pain, just to name a few. Many kids with EE can only eat
1 or 2 foods and have a feeding tube to survive. CURED is a charity that I
am actively involved with that raises money to find a cure for EE. CURED has
donated over $2 million to research over the past 6 years. CURED has begun
a $1 challenge. We are looking to find 500,000 people to each donate $1 or
more to CURED, since that is something that almost everyone can do in
these hard economic times. If you are interested in donating, please write
Zachary on your donation and mail it to CURED at P.O. Box 32,
Lincolnshire, IL 60069. or go to www.curedfoundation.org and make a donation
via pay pal. Furthermore, if you wish to go even a step further, please forward this email to your family and friends. The more we get the word out there, the more
likely it will be that we will reach our goal. Thanks for your help!!! Happy Holidays!!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The month to be thankful

Well, Zach's update isn't the best this month. He is continuing to lose weight, having pain, and vomiting. He has had a barium test done, lots of bloodwork and several doctor visits over the last few weeks. Good news is he doesn't have any obstructions, which they were worried about with all the vomiting. He is still no foods and we are waiting for him to completely clear up (diarrhea wise) before trying any. The allergist is trying to also figure out the least allergic food for us to try when we do food trials again.
On other news, he did have some bloodwork come back and the results were not that great. The blood test measuring the muscle enzyme CK came back elevated which means some type of muscle myopathy. We have to wait another week or so before knowing exactly what is going on so for now we are anxiously waiting. I think the realization that something else is going on has hit pretty hard for most of us. No matter how much you prepare, it is always a shocker to find out something is wrong with one of your children.
Good note though, it is November and that means Thanksgiving....We still have a lot to be thankful for, so we are counting our blessings.