About

2015

My allergy background

Growing up I never had any severe allergies like anaphylactic peanut allergies.

However, I did carry an EpiPen for a few years after having an allergic reaction outdoors (we never narrowed down the exact cause). Later on I was professionally diagnosed with mild allergies to certain vegetables like beans, peas, and apples.

Interestingly, I tend to react to the skins of vegetables such as cucumbers and peppers. I also avoid nuts because they cause mild reactions, and I have seasonal allergies as well.

Why mention this?

Because these fall under atopic (allergic) diseases, and EOE is part of that same umbrella.

2015

When symptoms first appeared

I didn’t keep notes back then, so the details from around 9 years ago are a bit vague.

But my mom remembers that I had trouble eating certain foods, ate much slower than everyone else, and sometimes coughed food back up because I couldn’t swallow it properly.

After speaking with our family doctor, I was referred to a youth gastroenterologist.

Eventually I was informally diagnosed with EOE. Because I was still young, they recommended avoiding an upper endoscopy at that time.

2018

The treatment attempts

My GI doctor gave me a three-step plan.

1. First, try an elimination diet (red meat and rice were suspected triggers).

2. If that didn’t work, move to acid-reducing medications.

3. If that still failed, try a liquid steroid (which the doctor wanted to avoid if possible).

Over the next couple of years I went through all three steps with no real success.

As time went on, I tried additional medications. Most of them were acid-reducing drugs. None worked.

My doctor also sent me for a barium swallow, and I spent about a year working with a naturopathic doctor trying different herbal tea treatments.

Still nothing changed.

Eventually I aged out of the youth GI program and was referred to a specialist, where I finally had an upper endoscopy that formally confirmed I did in fact have eosinophilic esophagitis.

2021

When things got worse

Around age 20 my reactions started getting worse.

Instead of quick episodes, reactions could last hours, and I often had to induce vomiting just to clear my throat.

It felt like almost every week I was leaving dinner early to deal with another episode.

It was frustrating and honestly embarrassing. I couldn’t enjoy meals anymore, and even talking at the dinner table sometimes triggered reactions.

Meals stopped being something I looked forward to and instead became something that filled me with anxiety.

I started worrying before every meal whether I was about to have another reaction.

2023

The hospital incident

At 21 I had my first major food impaction.

I had been off medication for about eight months and tried eating steak. A piece became stuck in my throat.

At first I assumed it was a normal reaction and tried to induce vomiting like I usually did.

But this time nothing worked.

I couldn’t eat, drink, or swallow saliva. I had to spit constantly, and my breathing started to feel more difficult.

I tried to sleep it off and hoped my throat would relax.

Sixteen hours later I went to the hospital.

They put me on IV because I had lost about seven pounds (fast metabolism). After a few hours I was transferred to gastroenterology where they removed the food and dilated my esophagus.

That experience really shook both me and my family.

It made us realize how serious EOE can actually become.

For months after that, every bite of food made me nervous. I started avoiding social situations that involved meals because I didn’t want to have a reaction somewhere away from home.

EOE wasn’t just affecting my diet anymore, it was starting to affect my social life.

2025

The moment everything clicked

Three months after the hospital visit, I had another reaction.

Oddly enough, it ended up being the most positive reaction I’ve ever had.

While leaning over the toilet trying to induce vomiting again, I suddenly had a realization.

I needed to build a tool.

Something that could help me track what I was eating, what symptoms followed, what elimination diets worked, and help connect the dots between them.

Throughout my EOE journey, I realized how important it was to track everything. Doctors always ask what you ate, when symptoms started, and what changed, but it’s almost impossible to remember accurately.

I wanted something that could log meals, symptoms, elimination diets, and help highlight patterns.

So I started building it.

2026

One year later

After about a year of planning, learning, coding, and testing (well over 1,000 hours), the app is now real.

It’s called BiteSense.

The goal is simple: help people with food-related illnesses track meals, symptoms, elimination diets, and discover correlations between them. It also lets you export reports for doctors and scan menus to check for potential trigger foods.

I built it originally for myself, but I realized it could help others dealing with EOE or similar food sensitivity conditions.

EOE is still something I deal with every day, and I’m still trying to understand my triggers.

But I’m hopeful.

And one day I fully plan on eating another juicy steak with zero problems.