OIT Graduate

On Friday July 1st Carter officially graduated from the peanut OIT program by eating 24 peanuts, or in his case 5tsp of peanut butter.  It was such an amazing day!  The office was so great.  They took his picture and gave him a graduation certificate.  We celebrated by going to PF Changs for lunch, something he has been talking about doing since we started.  This means that Carter is in maintenance now and should eat a minimum of 8 peanuts a day but will always eat 12 or more.  We are going for more of 24 once a day.  He prefers peanut butter with nutella as his dose but we have tried a few different things.  He can now free eat as well so he is busy trying different candies with peanut butter in it.  He still has to carry his epi pen and needs to observe a rest period if he is going to eat more than a bite or two of something with peanut butter or peanuts.  Our family just got a huge dose of freedom! A huge thanks to Dr. Shakir at Midwest Allergy and Asthma for being a trail blazer and embracing OIT so our family could live a normal life without so much fear!

ready to start

getting checked out by katy his nurse

a quick pick with mom

and one with dad

and these other supporters

almost done with his sandwich

all gone!

getting checked out by dr. shakir

things sound ok

Thank you Dr. Shakir

with his certificate of OIT completion

i made him that shirt

eating a PF Changs

all the candy he wants to try!

a video of him eating his PB sandwich

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First Peanut Butter Sandwich

On June 16th, Carter got to eat his first peanut butter sandwich!  They gave us the dosing for 12 peanuts which is around 2 1/2 tsps of peanut butter.  He liked it.  We gave it to him plain the first night but has since had it with jelly and nutella.  Nutella is by far his favorite way.  It is so nice to have options! Such a fun milestone!

first pb sandwich

Updose #21 12 peanuts

On Saturday we had our last updose to 12 peanuts!  We waited until Saturday because the boys all had a camp or VBS this week and we didn't want them to miss their final day.  So we all went up as a family and Carter took his final updose.  Everything went smoothly and we didn't have any problems.  He really wants to change to peanut butter but since we were not seeing Dr. Shakir they were not comfortable telling me what dose to use.  So hopefully soon they will let us, I have a call out to the doctor.  That night we went to a Saltdogs baseball game and he dosed while we were there eating dinner. After dinner I noticed the guy behind him was cracking open peanuts from the shell and eating them.  This meant peanut shells all over.  I didn't even flinch.  The guy even asked Carter if he wanted some and he politely declined.  OIT has been amazing and not having to worry about those little things is so nice.  We go back July 1st for our final 24 peanut challenge.  Wish us luck!

final updose of 12 peanuts

down the hatch

dosing at a baseball game

Updose #20 (10 peanuts)

We are one updose away from being done!  Next Saturday we go in for our final updose and then On July 1st we do our 24 peanut challenge!  It is so surreal that it is almost over.  Maintenance is right around the corner.  We are making lists of all the things carter can now enjoy and he is excited to try so many of them. He had a 2 peanut jump this week from 8 to 10. Then next week it is 10 to 12.  So far so good.  It really is becoming second nature to us. We are going to try peanut butter after our 12 dose increase which carter really wants to do.  But eating the peanuts is so easy!  Chad took him to his appointment this week because I was having a garage sale.  Carter was sad to miss out on the lemonade stand while he was gone but got to help out when he got home. Here's to another great week!

he is at 10 nuts

down the hatch

waiting out his time

updose #19 (8 peanuts)

Second week of summer down with lots of fun and new schedule. The doses have fit right in and haven't caused us any trouble.  This week we went up to 8 peanuts without difficulty.  We even spent the weekend at the cabin with lots of allergens.  We did do saline rinses to make sure we stayed on top of environmental allergies but we had a great time and food wasn't a huge issue for the first time.  We didn't have to tell him to ask us before he ate anything. (he knows to stay away from things that actually contain peanuts) So two more updoses to go!  

8 peanuts!

passing time playing tablets

after this we headed to the cabin for the weekend

Updose #18 (7 peanuts)

On the first day of summer we got up super early, made the trek to Omaha for our 18th updose to 7 peanuts!  Of course the brothers came with us to make the appointment that much more enjoyable.  The appointment was uneventful and went super smooth.  Seven peanuts!  Three more updoses and then our final 24 peanut challenge.  It is crazy to think it is almost over!  We have been enjoying eating all the cross contaminated food we can get our hands on without any stress. The feeling is something I can't even describe!  We love OIT!

this is what a weeks worth of peanut doses looks like (this was 6 peanuts)

dosing in the office

carbing up

brother fun

getting checked out by dr. brownell 

this is my life

Updose #17 (6 peanuts)

We updosed to 6 peanuts on Friday. It went smoothly and we are in the home stretch. We scheduled our last updose for June 11th and then 2 weeks after that we have our 24 peanut challenge.  This weekend we got Chinese food for the first time as a family after being cleared for cross contaminated food.  Even though we have always eaten food that is made in a facility or says may contain we have never let Carter eat Chinese food because the risk for CC was really high (we felt).  So we got several dishes for him to try.  He loved most of is except the crab rangoon. Ironically they gave us Kung Pao chicken (made with peanuts) instead of cashew shrimp.  But we just picked out the chicken pieces and gave it to him without worry.  It was so freeing and felt so great to not worry.  It was such a fun week to let him try new things!

eating 6 peanuts

his brother ate some too

posing with peanuts

eating chinese food for the first time

holding the order

ready to enjoy

trying out the chop sticks