The faces of EGID

My new "boyfriend", Dianna, and her son have been hanging out quite a bit these days. Her son, Paul and my big guy, Robert, are buddies at school. Oh, BTW translation for the term “boyfriend” is - a new friend that I meet and find myself digging so much I talk about them constantly. (Like a new boyfriend)

Anyway, Dianna’s son has what’s called…here goes; it’s long, Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disease, or EGID for short.

Here’s what it is: “EGIDs are a group of diseases characterized by a wide variety of gastrointestinal symptoms including vomiting, swallowing problems, food impaction, abdominal pain, diarrhea, slow growth and bleeding. These symptoms occur in combination with increased numbers of eosinophils in the gastrointestinal lining. Eosinophils are a type of white blood cell that has been primarily associated with allergic diseases but are also found in other diseases.

Depending on the part of the GI tract affected, EGIDs can be called a variety of different names, such as eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), eosinophilic gastritis (EG), eosinophilic gastroenteritis (EGE), and eosinophilic colitis (EC), with the diagnostic term being based primarily on the location of the eosinophils.”

Dianna has started a support group here in the Boston area and recently had a spring fling for the kids who have this disease. Here are some images from the event. She even had Hugh Hanley, local pied piper of kids far and wide. The event was great and a big step for Robert as well. He finally was able to go off and not be afraid of making some new friends. I think that's cause Paul always seems to have his back. I love that kid, Paul. And his mom, well totally "boyfriend" material. Yes, our husbands know. :-)