Dylan Dreyer Reveals 6-Year-Old Son's Diagnosis After Year of Pain
Dylan Dreyer is opening up about the health diagnosis that was recently given to her oldest son, who she said has spent the last year in "constant" pain.
On Wednesday, May 24, the Today show co-host revealed that her 6-year-old son, Calvin Bradley, was recently diagnosed with celiac disease.
Dreyer—who shares Calvin with husband Brian Fichera—told People that her little boy was "constantly complaining of stomach pain every day."
"I'd ask him, 'What does it feel like?' and he'd say sharp pain, and this was going on for months and months," she explained.
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The mom of three—who also shares sons Oliver George, 2, and Russel "Rusty" James, 19 months, with Fichera—went on to reveal that they had taken Calvin to the emergency room a number of times in the past, still getting no answers about the cause of his pain.
"We ended up taking him to the emergency room overnight just because we thought maybe it's his appendix or something, so they did an ultrasound of his appendix, which looked fine. The stomach pain continued for months and months, and he also often complained about a headache or pain in his ears," she said.
"We took him to the ENT to check his ears, which were good. They thought he had molars coming in, but then he also had a weird rash on his head. If you moved his hair away to look at it, his hair would fall out in chunks," she added. "All these things were happening that we just had no idea how or if they were all connected."
Eventually, the doctors performed an endoscopy, which required them to put Calvin under anesthesia, an experience Dreyer called "awful" and "uncomfortable" to watch.
"You don't like seeing it," she said. "But they did the endoscopy and it turned out he had a stomach ulcer which explains his pain."
After getting further testing done, doctors determined back in March that the ulcer was a result of celiac disease, a condition that causes digestive problems when you a person eats gluten.
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Dreyer recalled being "very concerned," after receiving the diagnosis, considering she didn't know much about the condition at first. However, she is just "grateful" that it didn't end up being something worse.
Now, Dreyer is committed to keeping things safe for her son, involved throwing away "half the stuff" in her kitchen to avoid cross-contamination.
Calvin's school teacher also keeps gluten-free snacks in the classroom to keep him from feeling left out when the other kids get treats in class.
"It's a life change and my goal is to make sure Calvin sees it as no big deal," Dryer added.
Next: Dylan Dreyer Documents Son's First Class Trip to the Zoo in 'Happy' Shots