Research Study!

We are excited about the opportunity to be involved in a research study for Pseudohypoaldosteronism!  The study will involve Ryan, myself and Chase.  It is being conducted by the leading researchers in the USA on the disorder and we feel so blessed to have been accepted.  We hope to get blood draws done within the next week and all the information they need returned to them.  We felt like some doors were closed with some news we got last week, but God has opened another one!

The biopsies from Monday's endoscopy were clear of eosionophils! What a wonderful blessing! This further confirms Chase is not reacting allergically to food which is awesome to completely rule out. However, it does mean that his eosinophilic colitis is an immune response and we don't know why. In a sense, his body is attacking his colon and is causing the severe colitis. The GI doctor told us Chase's body is fighting around the clock just to try to function normally; this explains why he is tired a lot. The colitis has to be treated aggressively and they told us the topical steroids were no longer going to be an option. They found he has mild gastritis in his stomach and he is going to start a new antacid type medication to treat it. After a few weeks of treatment for his stomach and after some immunizations he is lacking, he will start high doses of systemic steroids. The hope is a high dose treatment will put the colitis into remission. They will suppress his immune system, so we will have to try to keep him away from germs as much a possible. He will take them over the course of a month. His GI doctor is going to monitor him weekly while he is treated. He currently has a viral illness with a high fever and rash so we have get him better before we begin all of this. We are being referred to a cardiologist to take a closer look at his high blood pressure. It seems to be creeping up again, but the dizziness, blurred vision and falling spells have gotten a lot better. His strength and smiles continue to amaze us daily.