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

Updose #16 (5 peanuts)

Another updose, another success.  Up to 5 peanuts.  This meant we got to go to Texas Roadhouse without fear for a Mother's Day/Dad's birthday celebration.  Our Doctor said he is really happy with how he is progressing and really feels like we are in a pretty safe place now.  Not only did he go to Texas Roadhouse without fear (we have been before, but always reluctantly) but he got to eat a sample at Sam's club that was a cracker that was sitting in the same cup as a piece of popcorn that had a peanut butter and chocolate drizzle.  He didn't eat the popcorn but he ate the cracker that was touching it.  Talk about some new freedom from worry.  It was so amazing! We are really starting to feel some more freedom from this allergy.  Freedom from worry.  The dosing still gets me nervous from time to time but I am feeling much better.  He also had an incident where he was running outside with his cousins after his dose, within 30 minutes and was ok.  When we realized he was running around we put a stop to it, but it was nice to know that he was ok.

applesauce hulk

waiting to be checked out 

please stop taking pictures!

eating at texas roadhouse without fear

dosing at king kong for dad's birthday dinner

We have really made OIT work for us and our schedules.  It has been much easier than I even thought it could be.  So blessed to have this journey.

Updose #15 (4 peanuts)

On Friday we updosed to 4 peanuts! It went smooth and we got out of there pretty quickly. There wasn't school for elementary students so Camden went with us to the appointment.  We didn't see Dr. Shakir but got to meet Dr. Nelson and he was super nice.  Another successful updose in the books!

updose 15 picture

playing their tablets after the dose

Our April calendar

Updose #14 (3 peanuts)

We are up to 3 peanuts!  That is about 3 grams of peanut! It is so crazy to see him eating his nemesis. We are so grateful that things have gone so smooth so far.  It always starts to raise questions in me about his tolerance before OIT.  Could he have been one of those kids who ate 3 peanuts before reacting? 7? If we would have done a challenge how far would he have made it?  The warm weather is starting and I am getting nervous for the evening doses when he wants to go outside and play after dinner and his dose.  I want him to be ok. I want him to be safe. But I want him to have a normal life where he can eat peanut and also play.  We will just have to see what he can handle as time goes on.  This has been such a blessing so far and we don't have that much more time before he graduates.  Chad took him to his appointment on Friday because I took Callan on his last preschool field trip.  Everything went well and the week is flying by!

taking his dose

being checked out after his dose

the nurse checking all of his vitals

I am thinking of making this for his graduation day as a t-shirt