COBY'S CRUSADE: BLOGGER BOY!

Here we are nearly three months into our OIT journey and Coby continues to be as eager as ever. He cheers himself on, happily takes his dose and I will find random doodles about it around the house such as:

"Adventure OIT jerney"

OIT is an exciting adventure to my kid who faces each dose with wide innocent eyes and excitement in his heart as he imagines the world that will be open to him if OIT is successful.

Coby even decided to start his own blog and within two days of starting (and two entries) he had over A THOUSAND views!

When he expressed interest in starting a blog and I thought it would be interesting to hear his perspective 'out of the mouth of babes' and see it through his eyes. (He knows I write a blog about it but hasn't read it.)

When Coby was trying to figure out what to name his blog, at first he was considering calling it what (he thought) OIT stands for: ORGAN-AL INITIAL THERAPIST. Too cute... After further brainstorming he figured out a great name and proceeded to write and publish his first post. He asked me to share it on my facebook page for friends and family.

Coby then wanted to take it a step further--- he asked that I share it on the OIT group page. (I have not shared mine there since I talk about Jewish stuff sometimes and that may be confusing to the general OIT public AND since some of Coby's nurses are on that page I didn't want to hurt their feelings when I express my fears).

Well, Coby became an overnight success. People began commenting and reaching out to him telling him how brave he is and how helpful his blog is when they share it with their children who were just beginning their OIT process. Other kids reached out to him saying that he is helping them in their paths and they can't wait to read more.

People encouraged him on with, "GO COBY GO!" to which he responded, "I am going to keep on going all the way to the end of OIT!"

I am so lucky Coby is so eagerly engaged in this journey because I'm reading that children who start this a bit later (tweens/teens) have true anxiety about it and many cannot overcome their fears in order to give it a try.

An adventure, a 'jerney'

Every few hours Coby asks me how many 'hits' his blog now has and gasps as he hears the numbers continue to climb! The OIT group even put him on twitter (with permission) and call him BLOGGER BOY!

Meanwhile it's still our new normal of regular day to day stuff . School. Carpools. Dosing. Watching. Observing. Recording 'symptoms' (still random eye rubs, itchiness, stuffiness and lip swipes)

As his dose continues to climb I am filled with such excitement, fear, terror and hope. I know he is approaching another threshold where reactions become more likely. For some reason, many kids have some difficulties getting over the hump of certain doses and I'm nervous as we approach those numbers. We no longer are talking a microscopic speck smaller than a grain of sand, we are talking real numbers here. IYH this Thursday if all is well, we will be updosing to 1/18th of a peanut. How is that even possible????!!!!!!!

Once again I was reminded about why this is a 'must do' for us. What is this reminder? What I now consider, 'white noise'. Yes, I'm still reading, (nearly daily), about kids having anaphylactic reactions to something seemingly innocent. In a way this has almost become white noise to me. It's expected. It shouldn't be---- but it is. The fact is there is NO WAY I would be able to keep my child safe 100% of the time. NO WAY IN HELL! It's sad, but it's true. Case-in-point: A simple can of corn. A can of corn schools or restaurants or camps may barely glance at before serving it to their children. I mean for G-d's sake, it's only corn!!!!

"May contain traces of peanuts."

Yep folks, that is a can of corn. Peanuts aint just in string beans anymore... And I'm not being facetious here- I've seen this on canned string beans and now I am seeing it on corn. It can be EVERYWHERE! Why do OIT? THIS: