updose #13 (2 peanuts)

Last week on one peanut went so smooth (knock on wood)!  He likes the taste of them which is great after a full week of eating.  On Friday we updosed to 2 peanuts.  In all actually we go by weight and it really ends up being about 2.5 peanuts.  His brothers sometime eat the peanuts with him for moral support.  I say moral support but it isn't difficult for Carter to eat them and the other boys are enjoying eating peanuts too since they were never in our house.  The boys got to spend the night at grandma's on Saturday and they did a great job dosing him and keeping him safe so it was a win win! Looking forward to being done and eating foods that contain peanut butter or peanuts.  I think getting to the number where he can try peanut butter is the next thing he is looking forward to.

eating 2 peanuts

not too bad

eating applesauce 

he still smiles :)

Updose #12 First Peanut

We made it!  A huge milestone! Carter had his first peanut last Friday!  It was such a huge day.  He was really excited to try it out and knew this was a huge step in his OIT journey.  I was a lot more nervous than I thought I would be, but I didn't need to be.  He ate it like a champ and did well.  He liked the taste.  He said it tasted like it smelled.  I think he was really proud of himself.  We know have to weigh out peanuts that are between .85 and 1.05 grams. He has tolerated it well so far and it seems much easier, but also a little more scary.  It is such a huge dose of peanut.  We are trucking right along and it is going by so much faster than I anticipated.  I just can't believe that he is eating a peanut.  Here are some pictures from the day and a video of him eating his first peanut.

right before his dose

getting his picture taken with Dr. Shakir before he eats his first peanut

here is the dose weighed out

can't believe he is holding that jar

just eating some carbs

our weight chart

he asked if we could stop at juice stop after for a little treat

here is the video

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Updose #11 500mg (peanut flour)

This is our last week on peanut flour! (500mg) Although it hasn't been that bad, we can't wait till we get to actual peanuts next week.  The hardest part of the flour is opening the capsules and getting all the flour out.  It tends to stick and if you squeeze on the capsule too hard it breaks!  We have found the bigger the capsule (higher the dose) the easier it is. Carter has mixed his in ice cream, applesauce and cool whip.  He, by far, loves the cool whip the most and is what we use the most.  We heard that using applesauce is suppose to be good for their tummies so we used that sometimes too.  He hasn't had any stomach issues since starting (knock on wood) and really no complaints of much.  Actually I take that back, he HATES waiting for 2 hours to get his heart rate back up.  I think if he understood what it feels like to go into anaphylatic shock it would be easier for him understand why I am asking him to slow down.  He knows just from what we have told him what could happen and I think to an 8 year old those words don't hold a lot of weight.  While I am so happy that he doesn't have a lot of fear of his allergy, which has made OIT so smooth, I  do wish he had a healthy dose of fear to keep him from going nuts during his observation time.  I am looking forward to maintenance so that he can just dose once, in the morning hopefully, and be free to do what he wants the rest of the day. I am so amazed that in a few short days he will be trying his first peanut!  This is such a crazy journey!  Praying the rest of the week goes smooth so we can updose to 1 peanut on Friday.

eating a go go squeeze before his dose in the office on Friday  morning

showing off his last bottle of peanut flour

I really get to eat a peanut next week?

we even dose while we are out and about.  last week we ate at long john silvers and dosed while we were there!

Updose #10 250mg (peanut flour)

We had another uneventful week, thankfully.  He is up to 250mg of peanut flour and doing well with it.  He is technically at full peanut dose.  Next week he will go up to 500mg of peanut flour and then he gets to have his first peanut.  He is really excited to eat his first peanut.  Cam was diagnosed with strep on Monday and we are praying that Carter doesn't get it.  I did call the doctor and he wants us to dose through the sickness but to let him know.  I am just hoping we won't have to worry about it because he will stay healthy.

taking his dose

how he feels about me taking his picture

it was a family affair since all the kids had good friday off

we went and ate at Jimmy's Egg after his appointment

hiding under the table

Updose #9 (175mg)

Well, I am posting from the office this morning. Here for updose #9! 175mg of peanut flour. Callan was off from preschool so he got to tag along with us this morning. We didn't have any issues this week. We started singular and Carter feels like it is helping with his allergies and being able to breathe through his nose better. We are officially over a half of a peanut! Can't believe it! Only a few more weeks on the peanut flour and we are on our way to an actually peanut!

Updose #8 (100mg peanut flour)

Well I wish I could say we had an uneventful week but we did have a little scare this week.  Thankfully it probably had nothing to do with the peanut dose, but just a combination of seasonal allergies and unfortunate choke and aspiration event.  We were at a cabin on Monday and Tuesday and the kids played outside non-stop.  Carter has seasonal allergies (or maybe year round allergies, we just never got him tested) He takes zyrtec and flonase in the spring and fall. He hasn't started taking them yet but Chad got hit bad with allergies and a cold on Tuesday night while we were at the cabin.  On Wednesday at dinner Carter choked on a piece of broccoli and it made him throw up.  He felt really bad and assured me he was not sick.  He ate more dinner and then we waited about 20 more minutes to make sure he wasn't actually sick.  He was fine so we gave him his 50mg dose (the same dose he had been on for almost 2 weeks)  We all watched American Ninja Warrior we had DVR'd for the next hour and there were no issues.  By the time he went down to bed he seemed to be just fine.  But he came up a few minutes later with audible inspiratory wheezing. He said he felt like it was harder to breath.  I panicked and make him take benadryl (which is not in the protocol but I was scared) and then had him sit at the table.  We turned on the TV to keep his mind off of what was going on and I listened to him with my stethoscope. He was moving air great but I could hear a little wheezing in his upper airway.  I did get the epi pen out and my shoes on in case I had to take him to the ER.  It didn't progress anymore but we were watching him like a hawk.  By this time (30mintues) the benadryl is kickign in and he is getting tired. So we let him lay down on the couch and I called the on-call doctor.  He wasn't Carter's doctor and isn't an OIT doctor but he knows the protocol. When I told him what happened he thought that he probably aspirated a little when he threw up earlier and was having a little stridor from irritation from the vomiting.  It made sense and I felt better. He said we didn't need to use epi and we could give the next dose as planned.  I was going to call in the morning just to be sure, but Carter seemed fine.  I gave him his dose and he was fine.  But about 1hr and 30minutes into the rest time he said he has a lot of nasal drainage and it was bothering his throat. I listened with my stethoscope and heard a tiny wheeze in the same place as the night before.  It was the only time I heard it and it went away fast.  I called the doctors office and gave him a zyrtec.  When they called back they said they really thought it was still just due to the throwing up incident and not the peanut dose.  We gave the regular dose as scheduled and went to our updose appointment as planned on Friday and everything went smooth from there.  He is having him take zyrtec and nasacort at night and singular in the morning to try and clear up all the nasal swelling and get his seasonal allergies under control.  I do think he has a cold now with a cough again.  But hopefully with the nice weather we will all be healthy soon. It was our spring break this last week so Camden joined us on our updose appointment.  Carter updosed to 100mg peanut flour and did great.  He has done well all week too!  I think we only have 2 or 3 more weeks of flour and we are on to real peanuts.  What a crazy journey this is!  updose #8 100mg peanut flour.
I also saw on my facebook that 7 years ago today we found out that Carter really is allergic to peanuts. He had tested positive to them during his blood work we did when he reacted to eggs at 1 year. But we didn't know if he was actually allergic.  On March 14 2009 Chad gave him some peanut butter and he threw up and got hives about 30 minutes after ingestion.  This was after he did ok with peanut butter captain crunch, and a granola bar with peanut flour in it.  It was a devastating day.  Who would have thought that 7 years later he would be eating 100mg of peanut flour and be doing ok.

spring break updose #8 100mg 

brothers playing with their tablets together

my facebook post from 7 years ago

The comments from the facebook post

updose #7

We made it! We made it to peanut flour this week.  He is staying on 50mg of peanut protein because they have seen kids react when they switch mediums so he is on the same dose just in flour form.  He can mix it with anything he wants such as applesauce, ice cream, pudding, yogurt and even coolwhip. Another girl in the office doing OIT suggested cool whip so he wanted to try that.  He has loved it in cool whip but we also tried applesauce as well.  He has had no troubles so far.  It feels like it is going so fast.  He is currently eating 1/5 of a peanut twice a day! Even though this journey can be nerve racking we are so happy that this is even an option for us.  We hope to continue an uneventful journey the rest of the way through.  His doses start to go up faster now.  Next week he will be on 100mg, then 150mg and so on until 250mg.  That will be the equivalent of one peanut and he will then switch over to actual peanuts.

our february calendar

holding his peanut flour pills

way to go carter

we had dinner at freddy's later that night