Spy time

Last night I was reminded why it is a necessity for us to explore this OIT and try to protect our Coby to the best of our abilities. One can never 100% trust a label.

Yay "made in a peanut free facility!" Many people would grab the item and not bother reading the label completely, but go ahead, look a few lines above to "allergen information"---- "CONTAINS PEANUTS" WTH?

Each day I am reminded in one way or another how important it is for us to march forward in this journey. And yesterday we got to go back up to Coby's original dose of 50 micrograms. I explained to Coby how 50 micrograms is actually smaller than 1/6,000 of a peanut. Coby gasped and said, "But that's smaller than a grain of sand!" Indeed it is!

And so I observed Coby for that first hour and everything seemed to go okay. WOOT WOOT! "Okay" meaning some scratching and lip rubs etc. but it didn't seem any different than the day before. And remember this was DOUBLE THAT DOSE! CAN this actually work? Is it possible that FINALLY next Thursday we'll really be able to go back to the doctor for his first official updose?! That would take him up to 100 micrograms (1/3,000 a peanut)! (Though honestly, Coby did already have that dose on day one, but since it caused so much scratching and itchiness that is where the doctor called it a day and lowered him one level for his take home dose.)

It would be so exciting if he would be able to tolerate that 100 microgram dose so the next updose would be his first real one to a level he never was at before (notwithstanding the time he ate the two goobers that almost killed him).

Okay Stacey getting ahead of yourself again!

 And onwards we march.

So after doing the placebo experience and learning that some of the symptoms he has been experiencing are not a PHYSICAL response- I wanted to test it further. Why is he itchy? Why are his lips wet? Is it due to his own anxiety knowing that he is consuming his poison? Is he absorbing my own anxiety as totally separate from his own? Or is it because I sit on the couch for an hour just watching him that he feels (subconsciously) he has to 'put on a show'?

So we borrowed a baby monitor with a tv screen so I can try to figure some stuff out. We set it up in the den with it barely being visible- but I also purposely set it up two nights early so by the time we actually used it, it would blend into the furniture and Coby would be none the wiser. In the end Coby never even noticed it! 

peek-a-boo I see you!

Oh yes, so add 'spy' to my many hats I wear in that single hour. 

So when Coby got home from school I told him that I was going to give him his freedom in the den after dosing. As long as he does his 'rest hour' (it's actually two hours but most observation is in hour one) he will get the den to himself. At first he was all excited about that. He dosed, went to the couch and said, "NOW GET OUT!" and pointed to the door. LOL. But as I got ready to go he said, "Stay or I'll miss you." Awwwww. Hugs & Kisses Cobes- see you in an hour. Enjoy me not breathing down your back!

And so- I went upstairs and spied on my boy. 

 I loved seeing his cute little self on that teeny tiny screen. What can I say, my heart melts whenever I see him. And for the next hour 2 levels up I watched my boy. 

Though actually, within the first few moments of starting, Coby decided to flop his body the other way around so all I could see on the screen was his back and legs. I texted Yitz (who worked from home today) to get to the den and figure a way out to flop him back... and so he did.

Coby lay back down... but then he lifted the phone he was playing on--- and it completely hid his head from the screen. OYSH! Once again an SOS text went out to Yitz who went back downstairs and first tried to convince Coby to just watch tv (so no phone blockage)- but Coby said, 'nope'. Yitz then plumped up a pillow for Coby (to give his head some 'height' and even tucked him into a blanket- talk about the royal treatment! But still Coby's head was blocked by the phone, so finally Yitz just told him to sit up and the remaining 55 minutes he remained visible! 

Of course the first few minutes when I couldn't see him and I was stressing (what else is new)- anytime Coby's hand moved towards his face I was trying to guess if those were lip swipes or what- but I chilled myself out knowing even if it were chances are he's fine.

In the end I'm not sure if this experiment taught me anything or not. I did see a whole bunch of scratching- dozens of times in fact. More than other days! But while I did see the mouth thing- I believe it was fewer than 15 times in total which was much less than other days! I didn't see any eye rubbing either. And remember folks. he's back at his starter dose which is DOUBLE the dose he was on two days ago so an increase in some (real) symptoms are to be expected for a little bit.

I know I'm going to have to learn to differentiate which symptoms are due to his body possibly reacting to his poison... and which ones are from the stress of it all. Don't know how I'm going to figure that one out but I feel we made huge strides in this journey over the last few days and I need to accept that as a victory for now.

I will probably do this 'spying thing' one more time tomorrow to see if I can notice more of a difference between me being in the room or me not being in the room with him.

Meanwhile tomorrow is Thanksgiving- and Josh is now home- yay! I haven't seen him in over 5 weeks. This will be his first shabbos home in 12 weeks! He said he has lots of college work to do- and Mikey says he has lots of work to do too--- but I don't care- I'm grabbing all my boys for some family time tomorrow and we will start off the day by heading to the first showing of Moana! (because disney time is family time in our household) Why the first showing? Well besides it being almost half the cost--- the first movie of the day is always the safest--- the theatre is the cleanest and there's less of a chance of finding a stray peanut in a seat. We will still use a baby wipe to wipe down his seat before allowing him to touch it but the first movie is "safe enough". Wouldn't it be nice if this OIT thing worked and we can see a movie whatever time in the day we would like--- how awesome would that be! It's those little things that matter!

AND A HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ONE AND ALL! 

Look at me- even using the "peanuts gang" here. We're coming for you Snoopy!!!!