Try to imagine what it would be like
to never eat food again. Never. Ever.
That is daily life for 19-year-old Remington Walls of Land O’
Lakes. For the last 15 years he has not been able to eat food and
survives only on a specially formulated amino acid protein drink.
would never know it because he is living his life to the fullest,
beginning his sophomore year at Valdosta State College in Georgia
where last year he served as the baseball team manager. Long-time
residents of Land O’ Lakes, he and his mother Stephanie Walls have
co-authored an inspirational book, Home Plate: A True Story of
Resilience, which chronicles their experience.
Remington and Stephanie Walls
Remington with Florida
Governor Ron DeSantis
Their inspirational book, Home
Plate: A True Story of Resilience
is available on all book platforms,
including Barnes & Noble,
Amazon and NOW Publishing.
You can follow Remington
on social media @WallsRem
and Instagram Remwalls.
TO ADVERTISE CALL 813.501.4894 | VOLUME I • ISSUE II | Land O’ Lakes MAGAZINE | 9
As an infant Remington struggled with a myriad of
doctors. Eventually, the former Land O’ Lakes High School All Stars
baseball player was diagnosed with Eosinophilic Esophagitis at the
age of 3. A year later when his condition worsened, his parents were
told by doctors that their son would no longer be
able to eat food and if he did, it would eat away
the lining of his esophagus walls and he could die.
According to his mother Stephanie, “Food became
Remington’s enemy.”
Eosinophilic Esophagitis is a very rare
esophagus (the tube connecting the mouth to the
stomach). It occurs when a type of white blood
cell, the eosinophil, accumulates in the esophagus.
Remington has an older brother who does not
have the disease. Fortunately, Remington ended
Hospital, where doctors specialize in treating his
condition.
Remington explained, “When I was really
young, I thought ‘this isn’t fair’, but for my whole
family, this eventually became the new ‘normal’
for us. My parents gave me some tough love and explained that this
was my life and I had to toughen up and live. They told me that
I was blessed to have another form of nutrition that I could use. I
started drinking the amino acid based formula when I was four. It
tastes like really bitter orange juice, but I’m used to it.” As he got
a little older, his doctors told him that no one had ever succeeded
with solely drinking these shakes because they can’t drink enough
of them for proper nutrition or they can’t handle the taste. They
told him that everyone with this condition ends up with a feeding
tube and that meant no more sports. Remington replied back, “I’m
not everybody else and I’m not going to be a statistic. You don’t
know me and I’ll make it work. My driving force was to be able to
play baseball and not being able to do that just wasn’t an option.”
Eventually his doctors stopped suggesting the feeding tube to him
because he was able to prove them wrong and be the exception.
In elementary school, he drank 5-6 shakes a day and by high
school he had refrigerators set up all over the school so he could
just grab what he needed throughout the school day. Currently
he consumes 20 drinks a day. With increased sports activity,
Remington increases the number of shakes he takes in that day.
He remains in constant contact with his nutritionist at Cincinnati
Children’s Hospital and continuously monitors his intake and
expenditure of calories to make sure he stays on track.
“My Mom started a book about our experience years ago
with an opportunity to work on a book together so we wrote it
during the summer before I went to college. Our main goal was to
hand but I’m out there striving & making progress every day. The
whole message we wanted to portray is that no matter what you
are going through, you’ve got to tell yourself that you do have that
motivation and strength inside you to make it. It’s just a matter of
bringing that out,” Remington said.
The Walls family has now taken their medical plight to the
public stage. Stephanie explained, “Three years ago, we got word
that our insurance carrier would no longer cover his formula. It
was devastating and this was happening to people every day.
formula. The yearly cost of Remington’s formula now is $26,000.”
Remington and his Mom recently met with Florida Governor,
Ron DeSantis, and helped spearhead legislation where insurance
companies must now cover certain need based nutritional
within the legislature, so Remington would drive from college in
Georgia and meet me in Tallahassee to testify before Congress. It
was a long struggle, but two and a half hours before the end of the
now because the legislation lation that passed is only for State of Florida
Florida
employees, but it will cover up to
to
$20,000 per year in formula.mula. This
new legislation doesn’t ’t help our
family because we are not State
employees, but it is helping elping a lot
of people and we will continue
to push this forward to o get
get
everyone covered.”
The Boy
Who Can’t Eat. By Sandy Parrish
Remington wheeling his
drinks into college