ROY -- At home with his mother during Christmas break, 13-year-old Jadyn Wayment stayed up all night during last week's snowstorm, playing a video game with a friend.
It was a game of Jeopardy that Jadyn admits he finds fascinating.
Maybe it's because risk and danger are a daily part of Jadyn's everyday life.
Diagnosed with EE (eosinophilic esophagitis) in November, the youth has struggled with the disorder for about 12 years without knowing why swallowing food was so difficult for him.
Once doctors recognized his symptoms last month, they found his condition to be so severe they recommended him for a national study that starts in March.
"It's a blessing that we are finally finding the answers," said his mother, Sandy Carter.
Carter said the study, conducted by Cincinnati Children's Hospital, will actually take place at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City.
With some of the nation's top experts conducting the study, the mother is hoping Jadyn will finally get a handle on managing his symptoms.
"He kept telling me, 'Mom, I can't swallow,' " she said. "As soon as he'd take a bite of something, he'd head for the bathroom and throw up."
Such incidents will likely return or even worsen over the next few weeks as Jadyn goes without his usual medications so he can go into the study free of their influence.
EE is a disorder in which one's body produces a higher number of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell. These cells then attack the person's throat, creating difficulty swallowing and sometimes difficulty breathing.
According to the American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders, the complication often is associated with severe allergies and is believed to be genetic. Carter's brother and father also may have the disorder, as they have each suffered from throat issues and periodically get their throats stretched.
Jadyn also has severe allergies. In fact, for most of his life, Carter said, she believed her son's only problem was his allergies.
Last March, Jadyn had a reaction to peanut oil in the air from a recipe other students were baking in his cooking class -- and it sent him to the hospital.
At one point, he was tested for allergies to 66 environmental factors, such as animals, weeds and molds, and was found positive for all 66, Carter said.
"The doctor said it was slowly killing him," she said.
That news, coupled with her concern for symptoms the allergist said were not related to allergies, sent Jadyn to a primary care doctor and then to Primary Children's Medical Center for a gastrointestinal test, where specialists finally recognized his illness.
"It was so severe, it was forming cysts around his blood cells," Carter said. "Eventually, it would have turned into cancer."
That's why the family is excited to see Jadyn become part of the study. They're hoping to learn from the experts exactly which foods he should avoid and what other issues may exist because of his disorder.
His mother believes once Jadyn has a handle on his symptoms, he'll start to gain weight.
"His biggest thing is his size," Carter said of her son, who at 76 pounds is admittedly the smallest eighth-grader at South Ogden Junior High.
"It's not fun," Jadyn said about being short. "People sometimes tell short jokes," he said, adding that "Frodo," a small character in "The Lord of the Rings," is a name he often hears.
Carter said the school basketball coach told her son his size is what kept him off the school team, but he does play junior high baseball as the second baseman.
Jadyn said his disorder compels him to do his best, as he wants to prove himself, even though he sometimes has to leave the field when he's having an asthma attack.
He's hoping his classmates will read about him in the newspaper.
"It gives them a reason to know why I'm short," he said.
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