Stomach pain leads to discover of high eosinophil count

[lamomof4]

When my daughter(16 and healthy) continued to complain of on again off again stomach pains for almost 2 years and being treated by general practioneer, I decided to take her to a gastro doctor. With the first blood test they discovered a high eosinophil count and reordered the test again. When it came back they told me because of how high it was they did not think it was allergies but probably a parasite.  I was told the normal range was 0 to 5 and hers was 35. She had an chest xray,ultrasound, endoscope, and colonoscopy w/biopsies. All came back negative for parasites. She has no signs of eczema, arthritis, hay fever or drug interaction. The only thing they did find through all these tests was that she had a small hiearnal(SP?) hernia and that shouldn't cause the count.  Now they have taken more blood for a smear test. What I would like to know is if this test comes back high too, what questions should I ask? Should I seek help with another type specialist? what else could cause a high count?

[Singh001]

I am suffered from  stomach pain last one month  today I go to the hospital for blood test and then my eosinophil is very high normal 7% but my cell is 45% it's too high pls help me anyone knows about this disesase

[fingerz81]

Really interesting to read your story. I have had exactly the same symptoms for around three years. After a heavy night out (quite rare these days, I'm more often out on one of my bicycles than drinking one or two alcoholic drinks), I started to have stomach cramps and diarrhea after most meals except for porridge. Especially reheated foods, so thinking resistant starch is an element to the trigger. After a week and a half I went to the doctor and requested a blood sample. I had a blood test and my EC count is through the roof. Exercise is tough and I feel lethargic. The length of time and symptoms/triggers you describe match me perfectly. I am going to a Haematologist here in the uk in a few weeks so I will mention the parasite case to them.
Hope you are all recovered/recovering from your symptoms. A great resource. I will feedback if I get positive results.      

[Pixie_Kittie]

I hope by now you were able to solve this problem but on the off chance you did not I'm going to tell you a little bit about what happened to me. I was 30 years old and the following day after my sons 2nd birthday I was in the hospital for 2 weeks. And it actually goes back further then that. I had already been having on again off again bouts of diarrhea which my doctor at the time figured was IBS, as he stated because the only odd thing in my tests was I had elevated eosinophil levels, that he would look into what it means but believed it was nothing to worry about. So fast forward to October 10 2008, I went to my friends wedding. The following day on I thought maybe I had a hangover even though I had never in my life had a hangover that caused so much abdominal pain. My other symptoms were vomiting and diarrhea. the next day on 10/12/08 I thought I was better until I had something to eat again i experienced all 3 symptoms. even though friends and family said maybe i should cancel my sons birthday party and see a doctor I said I could not cancel the party for the most important person in my life. Although the vomiting had stopped occurring for his party the other symptoms were present after i would eat save for the 1 time i had vomited 1st thing after breakfast that morning on the 13th. his party was at 2pm I avoided eating, but people at the party could tell i was unwell and still thought i should  go to the hospital. Instead I promised everyone that I would go to the hospital the following day If i did not feel better. Naturally I did not feel better the following day so I went to the hospital. The 1st hospital i went to at first in a round about way asked if I was an alcoholic, I found it interesting that my family was offended by this and I was not. My Mom my aunt & my sister said to the doc that I rarely drank alcoholic beverages. I confirmed this with the doc stating that I have never even been one to go out drinking every weekend never mind daily. The doctor actually then flatly stated "well we don't usually see patients with pancreatitis like this except in alcoholics" that comment from the doc came out right after my other aunt who was a nurse showed up to the hospital. and stated as the rest of my family had been that that I'm not a big drinker, (I did tell the doctor that even though I had consumed alcoholic beverages at my friends wedding, it had been the 1st time in over 3 years) but i think the doctor got offended when my aunt (the nurse) started suggesting different tests to run on me she said "I think you need to find out what is really making my niece sick seeing as its not alcoholism". After I was there for 1 week I was released I was instructed to stay away from fats in my diet, and if I was still having problems I could come back and bypass waiting in the ER. Well as soon as I ate the severe pain started again the hospital staff at the 1st hospital stated i was going to have to wait in ER for 2&1/2 hours despite what the doc said. Because the pain was unbearable i could not wait that long. Well the second hospital found the problem they asked if I had been out of the country, of course I had not. I was told I had a parasite more seen in 3rd world countries. They gave me somewhere around 10 pills to swallow at ounce. Very quickly (finally) I felt almost 100% better. I was released from that hospital putting my total stay at 2 weeks. So  if your daughter is still sick (hopefully not) It may be a parasite, if she has been checked for everything else like celiac disease and you still have no answers Take care and god bless.

[mommaparr]

Just saw your comment.  My son suffered the same things.  Years later determined to be abdominal migraines.  Have you checked on that?

[TimAE]

If your daughter traveled to a foreign country (like Costa Rica) there is still strong indications of a parasite infection. Just because the docs can't find a parasite does not mean it isn't in there. Long story short, the lab was never able to find a parasite in my stools. I would up researching the local I visited and found that hookworm and schistosomiasis were endemic. I demanded a prescription for both of these parasites and felt perfectly fine a week after taking the meds (albendazole and something else). Coincidence? I think not.

[JenM2]

My son was also diagnosed with EE recently. His counts in esophagus were over 100. He also had stomach pain that we attributed to acid reflux since he was a year old. It is due to food allergy.  He had outgrown his egg, chicken, wheat, peanut and tree nut allergies.(We thought) but obviously he is having allergy to something. We are doing the elimination diet now and have started with milk then egg and so on because his skin tests won't show what it is. If doc is saying he has an allergy to a food u should avoid it. Rather do that than to have your child in pain plus it could get worse and he could start having breathing issues or have scar tissue build up in throat like my son. Good luck and may your son get well.

[CTK67]

Your child most likely has eosinophic gastroenteritis.  All of the symptoms point to EG.  I was diagnosed with EG at age 10...I'm now in my 40's. I had terrible stomach pains and my blood counts were substantially off.  I was diagnosed from everything to Crones to Celiac.  When a specialist finally determined it was EG, I took a 6 month round of steroids.  My hemoglobin increased, my stomach problems went away, and my eo's went to a normal range (0-4).  More and more doctors are becoming aware of EG, but most are not.  Hopefully your child will not have to go through a two year battery of tests like I did.  I took cromilyn sodium internally through my teens and it managed my EG effectively.  As an adult, I still battle increased eosinophil counts and I have to go in for an iron drip every 1-2 years to get my hemoglobin back up.  As an adult, I live pretty normally.  Of course my job does not involve anything labor intensive to the body.  As you may know, eo's go to the site of any trauma.  If I use a hammer for several hours, it will make my hands and forearms swell up.  My advice would be to go see a specialist who knows what EG is.  Best of luck.

[lawson3]

my son has been diagnosed with ee. His biopsy  eosinophilic count was 60 in his esophagus and eosinophilic blood count was11. we are checking allergies, but does any one know what else could cause this to be high? the food allergies they say he has don't seem to bother him. He vomits & has belly pains for no ryhme or reason.

[monty15400]

I posted a very similar story about my husband.  High eosinophil count (up to 48% at one time) and all biopsies have come back negative.  All stool samples negative but they did do a 2nd deeper biopsy in the endoscope and found eosinophils within several areas of his GI tract.  Have your doctor look into eosinophilic gastroenteritis also....or eosinophilic esophagitis.  This is where they are going with us but 2 1/2 weeks of Prednisone isn't cutting it. They think it's caused by food allergies.  Have your daughter tested by an allergist to be sure.  I hope we can all find some answers!

[CalGal]

Have your doc check for the presence of celiac disease. It's not a usual correlation with celiac, but high peripheral eosinophilia can be found in some with unexplained pain due to celiac problems. Cross-check the probably negative biopsy for celiac - if it was done - with both a genetic test (allele) and a fecal antibody test.