Daily dosing just got easier!!

This is obviously a morning dose (bed head :) but she is SO excited to start dosing with peanut m&m's. Could this get any better?!?

Oh, just eaten 3 peanuts!

Like it's nothing, she tosses three peanuts into her mouth, chews them up and continues with her day like it's no big deal. I, on the other hand, still get choked up just watching her. I'm so proud of how far she has come! 

Daily routine.

Although this seems normal to me now, I'm sure this picture will be fun to look back on after we are all finished with this program. But for now we are a regulated machine with these protocols! I should have added applesauce and toast to this picture- OIT breakfast of champions! 

Congratulations Abby!!

This is our darling friend Abby, who just graduated from peanut OIT! She has been there since we started in June and has been our guiding rock star all along the way.  Before starting this process just touching a Reese's peanut butter cup wrapper caused her to react and need her epi pen! Her previous allergy Dr. had told her there was no hope for her peanut allergy to ever get better or improve. She was given a teddy bear to take home and on the way home she told her mom she wanted to name her bear "Hope". Now, having just graduated from PA OIT, she gave her bear to Dr. Jones because he had been the one to give her hope when she had all but given up. And now she's off to TEXAS ROADHOUSE!!! Whoohoo!!! 

For the first time in 7 years...

Well, I did it!  (Even though I never took my eyes off them :)  I bought peanuts!  I felt like they were watching me as I picked them up, put them in my cart, walked around the store with them, put them in my grocery bag, then into my car, then IN MY HOUSE! For 7 years I have not let anything come into my house that has even been processed with peanuts, and now they are in my kitchen! This is a good thing! But I still double bagged them and put them up high in the highest cupboard I could find! (Baby steps :) They sat there for 4 days until it was time to take them out to shell them for her appointment the next morning. Shelling them in my kitchen was actually easier than I thought. I was excited to be at this milestone of the process!

FIST WHOLE PEANUT!!!!!

A moment I thought would never be possible just happened...Kaylie just ate her FIRST WHOLE PEANUT!!!! The first thing she said was "it tastes like a sunflower seed" and she had a huge smile on her face! I of course was balling (happy tears of uncontrollable joy)! We have come so far in just a few short months. When we first started, I would get anxiety just being in the patient room that was decorated with Reece's peanut butter pictures and pillows  And now this brave girl just stared her peanut in the face and showed it who was boss! So proud of my Kaylie-bug and so grateful for a wonderful Dr. Douglas Jones!! Thank you for helping Kaylie take control of her own future!!

Three little peanuts!

Kaylie has made some life long friends! Zara (who's moved here from Australia to do OIT with Dr. Jones) and Braylee! These three have bonded because of their peanut allergies. They cheer each other on and support each other during each milestone as they travel through this OIT journey together. 

I'm so grateful for these three brave and beautiful girls!

The Peanut Police!

After going to Kaylie's lunch room everyday this week and creating our own peanut free table...(due to an understaffed school) I feel like these sweet girls are now pros at the new peanut free lunch table! They are the peanut police and help protect Kaylie every day!!! Thank you to these sweet angles!!

Some of the most amazing women I have ever met!

This group of ladies has become some of my favorite friends! Thanks to these beautiful allergy moms going through OIT with us, because they have all inspired me, supported me, and encouraged me in so many ways. I feel so lucky to be among such strong women.

From Liquid to mixed applesauce!

After many weeks of dosing with liquid, Kaylie is moving on to peanut flour that I will be mixing in applesauce or pudding. This is all in preparation to work up to her first whole peanut!

TOP TEN WAYS TO AVOID GETTING SICK WHILE DOING OIT!

doTERRA essential oils and suppliments have been SO HELPFUL in preventing Kaylie from getting sick during OIT. Getting sick can delay from updosing and drag out the process. So far, everytime Kaylie brings home a bug from school, she is able to kick it in just a couple days, not effecting her peanut dose at all! I give credit to her, first and foremost for being religious about washing her hands after school, but I also know that we have done our part to prevent and promote a healthy lifestyle. Click on this link to my blog to see my top ten ways to prevent getting sick!  www.doterralized.blogspot.com

Successful updose after a scary set back

Last week we had some major OIT drama. Wednesday evening around 5pm Kaylie came running down the stairs with both hands clutched around her throat. I could tell by the look in her eyes something was seriously wrong. She struggled to speak and said "Mom! I feel like I can't breath!" I jumped up, grabbed the epi pen, and was about to inject her, when I had the thought to call Dr. Jones quickly on his cell. He picked up immediately and I told him what was happening. He instructed me on exactly what to do, while asking me very specific questions. I did exactly as he instructed giving her zantac for an H2 blocker, gave her some water, and watched her closely to make sure it didn't progress into something worse. She could breath, and swallow, but she said it felt like someone was squeezing her throat. She didn't have any other symptoms like hives or anything. This was very strange because it had been 9 hrs since her morning dose and I hadn't given her an evening dose yet. After about 45 minutes of holding her and watching her, she finally said she felt normal and off she ran to go play again. I stood in my kitchen in shock, thinking "what just happened?" She ate a good dinner that night and Dr. Jones lowered her evening dose from 1.5 ml to 1 ml. She fell asleep fine, but woke up at 4am and threw up. After cleaning it up I layed in bed with her and we stayed awake until it was time to get up. Luckily our weekly appointment was the next morning. He gave her a thorough examination and she looked great. He wanted to keep her at the same 1.5 ml dose for one more week though, just so we could give her body a break. He concluded it may be her other allergies acting up which somehow triggered this sort of response during OIT or she may have been coming down with something. He upped her daily dose of Allegra to get her other allergies under control. Once He said Kaylie was fine, I lost it! I had held it together this whole time for her, but now that I knew Dr was there to take care of her, I could take my own personal moment of panic :)  Dr. Jones was so kind and let me go cry it out in one of their other patient rooms. He walked me through it looking me in the eye telling me he wouldn't let anything happen to Kaylie. That was exactly what I needed to hear. Looking back I can't believe I didn't give her the epi pen. I'm so glad I called Dr. Jones and trusted his judgment. The whole episode still seems so bizarre, but I'm glad it's over, and I'm happy to report that this week we successfully updosed to 2ml!!! This is our last week on the liquid, and next week she will start the powder! I'm so proud of my little Kaylie bug she has been so brave through it all. She was so proud of herself when Dr. Jones told her she could updose to 2ml this week. She is so strong, and I know she will do whatever it takes. This girl is a fighter!

tastes like peanut koolaid!

Kaylie thought it would be fun if I updosed with her tonight (with her left over peanut juice). I have to admit I was curious!

OIT BFF's

This is Kaylie's new friend Zara. Her Mom and Dad moved their whole family to Utah temporarily all the way from Australia! Zara and Kaylie are the same age, and both doing OIT for their peanut allergies. Zara has a little brother, Taj that is Gavin's age and they became instant buddies. Gavin calls him "Taj Mahal"! They also have a baby boy just a few months older than Drew.  We invited their family come over to our house for the 24th of July for a big firework show since they have never done fireworks before since they are illegal in Australia. We love our new OIT family, and are so happy we are doing this together!

Is this actually a Dr.'s appointment?

We are loving getting to know our new OIT Family. Every Thursday Morning at 7:00am with these girls!  This week was a loom bracelet making party! I love how Dr. Jones sit's down and talks with them like he's one of the girls! This has been the most unexpected enjoyable part of this whole process- the families that are going through this process with us, who we are getting to know and growing to love! 

Also, I'm so happy to report that Kaylie's asthma is totally under control! She is in such good hands with Dr. Jones. She's been handling her doses like a rock star!

Utah, of all places...

I'm a big believer in "Everything happens for a reason". However sometimes we don't find out what that reason is for a long time. In this case, it took four years. 4 years ago, we were living in our dream Condo in perfect West Wood, California. 45 minutes away from Disney Land, 20 minutes to the beach, 70 degree weather all year round, winter looked like fall, my husband had a very highly sought after job, life couldn't get any better. we LOVED living in Los Angeles. We had made it our home. We loved our circle of friends that had become our family. We had lived there going on 4 years, which may not seem long, but it was long for us, since we had moved a lot since we had been married (we lived in Manhattan before moving to LA) Anyway, our plan was to put our roots down in California. so when his company started an office in Salt Lake City and offered it to him to head up this new office, we were thrown for a loop. This was an amazing offer for his career, and both of our families lived in UT. But we were hesitant to leave because we were so happy where we were and hadn't planed on ever leaving. We ultimately prayed about about it and felt like it was the right choice to move to Utah.  It was a tough move, and very sad to leave our dream life. I am not a winter person, and I pouted our whole first year after moving to Utah. However, as I saw how much Kaylie loved the snow, my heart softened (a little :) and I began to accept the fact that this was now our home. At Kaylie's first updose appointment, we got to meet the other moms and kids there updosing on Thursday mornings. It was fun to meet them and hear all their peanut stories and their experience so far with OIT. The first mom I talked to told me she lived in Las Vegas and she drove over 6 hrs to get here! She makes this trek every Wednesday night, stayes over in a hotel, comes to her appointment Thursday morning, then drives back to Vegas. She does the EVERY WEEK! Wow! I couldn't believe it! Then I met Amber, and she told me she had MOVED here with her kids temporarily all the way from Hawaii just to see Dr. Jones!!! Whoa. I could not believe it. I realized Dr. Jones was one of the few Dr.'s in the world to offer this program. The next week I connected with a mom on facebook, who lives in Australia, and is moving to... yep, UTAH! To give her daughter this gift of OIT. So here I am, living in Utah, of all places, not more than a 15 minute drive to Dr Jones,  and it hits me. I'm so lucky to be here.

Surviving the first week

The first week was a bit rough to be honest. Kaylie's asthma started acting up. weather by the peanut dose, or her outdoor allergies, I'm not sure, but she struggled a lot this week, and I had to use her rescue inhaler multiple times. It scared me pretty bad, and triggered my anxiety. Her asthma is usually very mild, but because we had just started this peanut treatment, I was afraid she was going into anaphylactic shock.  I woke up every night in the middle of the night in a full blown panic attack and had to go check on her to make sure she was still breathing and alive. When I told Dr. Jones about her asthma, he immediately put her on daily asthma medication to keep it under control during this OIT process. I am praying we will get the hang of this, and things will go more smoothly for us. But we did survive our first week!

Day 1

Kaylie and I packed our bags for our 7 hour appointment to begin the oral food challenge of giving her extremely small doses of peanut flour through out the day. Not knowing exactly what to expect I was extremely nervous! The first time they gave her the first dose she stood up and announced "I just ate some peanut!" Although VERY diluted, it was a HUGE accomplishment for her and I both! We felt like we were taking that leap of faith and we survived the first dose! As the day went on, they continued to give her increased doses every 15 minutes, monitoring her very closing all day. It was a long day, and I think we played at least 40 games on UNO, of which Kaylie won 39 :) I panicked every time she sneezed or sniffled. Dr. Jones and his staff were so kind and understanding and answered all my MANY questions. I felt such an exciting energy in the room with the other moms that I met, and I felt so good to be part of such a miraculous opportunity!

"That's our Doctor!"

I never watch the news, because it's usually all negative and so depressing, but I just so happened to turn it on one evening before bed and this clip came on about a different approach to peanut allergies. I thought to myself, "Oh, it's probably the same stuff I've seen before, but I am always interesting in all things peanut allergy related so I continued watching, and all of a sudden I see Dr. Jones! And yelled for my husband to come watch and I said, "Look! This is Kaylie's allergy Doctor on the news!" so we watched this clip and we were so inspired! I felt like the time was right for us to begin this journey. I called Dr. Jones the next day. Utah doctor takes new approach to food allergies - Good4Utah.com

Is that Processed with Peanuts?

This is a question my 6 year old daughter Kaylie asks at least 20 times a day. Anytime anyone anywhere offers her a treat, snack or even a drink she knows that this question could save her life. The slightest cross contamination that could occur from being processed with peanuts could cause Kaylie to go into anaphylactic shock closing off her airways. We first founds out she was allergic when she was one and we lived in Los Angeles, CA. I was eating a peanut butter sandwich and she broke out in hives all over just from being around me and touching the peanut butter on my hand. I immediately made her an appointment with an allergist and she was officially diagnosed with a severe, life threatening peanut allergy. I asks the allergist about the possibility of the desensitization program I had researched on the internet. I was told it was not a possibility for her because  her allergy was so severe and because she had asthma, and that it was a brand new treatment still in the experimental phases. Her Doctor then proceeded to tell me horror story after horror story of peanut related deaths, accomplishing her goal of scaring me into being overly paranoid and careful. Ever since that day She hasn't been able to eat anything without reading the ingredient labels first to make sure it's safe. If there are no ingredients listed, she simply cannot take that risk, and she doesn't eat it. Every trip to the grocery store includes checking ingredient labels on EVERYTHING that I buy, looking for that dreaded phrase "processed in a facility that processes peanuts" before I put it in my cart. As a mother it is absolutely terrifying sending her off to school or to a friends house. Every time she leaves the house I know there is a risk that if she is exposed to peanuts it's as dangerous as if a gun has gun off. For her, her allergy is a restricted way of life. She can't eat birthday cake at a birthday party. She can't eat out at a restaurant. She can't eat candy thrown at a parade, she can't sit with her friends at the park if they packed a peanut butter sandwich. The older she gets she becomes more aware of the "isolation" factor that all children with peanut allergies experience. It's heart breaking to see the look on her face time after time when she is the only one who can't do what her friends are doing. This has simply become a way of life for us. However I always hoped that we would find a solution, and I've never stopped looking. We moved to Utah When Kaylie was three, and we carefully chose the best allergy Dr. we could find, Dr. Jones at Rocky Mountain Allergy . When Kaylie turned five I took her in for her annual allergy testing appointment, Dr. Jones brought up the possibility of desensitizing her. I immediately discounted the thought because of what I had been previously told. But the idea lingered in the back on my mind and it took me a full year to wrap my head around the idea that this might be possible for her. It was right after Kaylie finished kindergarten and was about to enter 1st grade with the "school lunch" scene that I finally decided it was time. It was no coincidence that I saw our own Dr. Jones on the news reporting about another little boy who had just successfully completed the program. That was the push I needed, and I called his office the very next week and made the appointment.