Progress, and please don't try this at home

It has been two weeks since our last updose, and all has been well and busy. We took the boys to the drive-in movies for Valentine's day to see "The Lego Movie." Now I have two little boys running around saying "I'm here to see your butt" and a husband who keeps singing "Everything is awesome!" It's all a crack up really.

I bought the boys these cheap little growing sponge things from the craft store last week and they thought they were the most amazing things ever. It was a great lesson on talking about things dissolving and absorption. The sponges now live in the bath tub.

 

The boys picked out new pets. We've been talking about it for awhile, so we finally took the plunge. The tank sat empty for a few days before we brought these two buddies home. Sadly, the little blue one didn't even last 24 hours, but we have a new bright orange one to keep the little yellow one company. We'll work out way up to about 8 guppies over the next few months. 

 

I took the boys out for lunch one day after Big Monkey had to have a biopsy of a strange growth on his elbow. He was not anticipating a needles and stitches from the dermatologist that day, so he received several bribery treats in return for sitting still. We'll have results on Monday and hoping that they are nothing. For now he is rocking his first two stitches just below his elbow.

We made more peanut doses. I'm getting faster. It no longer takes multiple hours. Just half and hour or so for this many.

And finally, we rounded off the last two weeks with another updose today. I was a little nervous about today's updose. We doubled our lunch dose and now our total dose for the day is the twice what we had a hard time with in December. It was a big step. Big Monkey seemed a little extra tired today and his allergic shiners (dark circles under his eyes) were a bit more prominent, but otherwise he did really well. No hives, no strange feelings, nothing. So that's good!

With that said, please, please do not try anything like this at home. If you or your child have been diagnosed with a food allergy, strictly avoid your allergens unless otherwise directed and under the supervision of a board certified allergist. I have spoken with a few people over the last month who, upon hearing about our journey, have said something along the lines of "oh yes, I decided awhile ago to expose my kids to small amounts of the things they are allergic to. It just makes sense." Thankfully, the people who mentioned this were not talking about anaphylactic allergies, but even then exposure to allergens should be avoided. OIT without proper medical supervision is very dangerous. Even with proper medical supervision OIT can feel very scary. I have a love hate relationship with our updose days. I am excited but also scared out of my mind as to what could happen if his body refuses to tolerate the new amount of peanut protein.

So I leave you with a picture of Big Monkey with his drawing of a monkey. More to come in a few weeks! We'll be back in Dr. R's office and moving forward in some form.