Science Fair

Abigail started talking about the Science Fair as soon as the school year started this year, and her daddy said he would do it with her.

She chose to do some 'real' science and focused on Eosinophilic Esophogitis. In a simple nutshell, there is {as of now} no cure for this disease. And there has been no medicine found/made that is specifically for this disease. The best way to manage EoE is food avoidance {foods a person is allergic to}. But in some rare cases {Abigail}, even after years of "elimination diet" of taking her off foods and reintroducing them one at time, we still haven't found the foods she's for sure allergic to. {it's complicated, I know}

But doctors have found that one medicine that is meant for asthma patients {meant to be breathed in with an inhaler}, if swallowed by EoE patients with a sticky liquid can coat the esophogus and help with inflammation when eosinophils are too high.

It's not a perfect, life long solution, but it helps.

So, since she was 22 months old, Abigail has been taking 7 splenda or honey with this liquid medicine. It's mixed into a 'slurry' and then swallowed before bedtime.

Her experiment was to replicate an esophogus and use different types of sticky liquid to see what would hold the medicine on to the esophagus the best.

Here is what she found:



It's pretty clear that the splenda works to hold the medicine on the esophagus the best. And that honey doesn't work well at all.

We so proud that Abigail takes an active role in this disease and wants to help find a cure. She felt empowered through this project. And that is so amazing since many days she simply feels like a victim.



Those are the teacher judges looking over and scoring her project.





And guess what? She won!!!



Finding a way to manage a disease is purposeful science and we all learned so much from this experience!



So proud of you Abigail!