DIFFICULTY SWALLOWING?
IT COULD BE EoE.

It was like a cotton ball stuck in the back of my throat.

I couldn't even get my spit to go down. That's when I knew it was bad.

I'm Wendy, and I have been diagnosed with Eosinophilic Esophagitis, or EoE.

I'd like to thank Regeneron and Sanofi for sponsoring me to share my story about living with EoE. This is my experience, and yours may be different.

EoE causes difficulty in swallowing by letting the body create too many eosinophils.

They begin to line the esophagus slowly over time, which is part of the inflammatory issue.

With my EoE, it's almost as if my throat had fingers coming out, grabbing the food and just holding on to it and keeping it there. You can't get food down. It comes back up. You're gagging and out it has to come.

The first time that I realized something was wrong would have been my freshman year in college. I just began noticing, okay, foods that I'm eating that are exceptionally dry were constantly being stuck in my throat, and it became a weekly thing. It became multiple times a week. It was turning into a daily experience.

With EoE, you start to find coping mechanisms because it is very difficult to live with.

I was having to cut my food into tiny little pieces to make sure that it went down.

I was chewing bites, you know, 60, 75 times. I would constantly have to sip water after everything.

But I also began to kind of withdraw from community settings, from family gatherings, which revolve primarily around food, around a dinner, around a meal.

It took a trip to the E.R. to get me to understand how serious this was.

When I went to the E.R., they found that my esophagus had closed and I had two strictures.

It felt like a life threatening, a life threatening moment. I was told, hey, you've got eosinophilic esophagitis.

After I was diagnosed, my doctor and I talked about a range of treatments. From topical steroids to pills to slurries, you know, mixtures that I would have to take. So having a diagnosis and and getting a name to this disease was a relief. It was a relief that it wasn't in my head.

There are treatment options out there. And if you can find one that will work for you, it can make such a positive impact on how you get to live your day in and day out life.

I can have a picnic. I can have fun with the family. I can make a meal, I can go out for a meal.

I don't want to miss any of that. I don't want food to be the issue that causes me to miss those moments. I don't want to miss it. I want to be a part of it.

I decided to share my story because I realized there were other people out there that might be dealing with this and not know what it is and that it's a real issue. And it's an under-diagnosed illness. There's not a lot of information out there about it. I know everyone's different, but if you are feeling those symptoms, those tight- the tightening feelings in the esophagus or in your throat and the closure, go have a conversation about it. Go get it looked at. You don't want to wait to get help.