DOESN'T IT MEAN "BRAVE"?

Yay week one of this annoying capsule week is nearly over. Thank gosh!

Coby came home from school today all excited about his successful siyum! He said he re-checked all the labels and unlike last siyum, where he caught a 'may contain peanuts' on a bag of cookies that was given to him and all the other kids, everything today was safe for him! My responsible little boy re-reading through all ingredients to make sure it is safe.... So glad today went by without a hitch. Pheeeew! And IYH come 4th grade he won't have to worry about label reading at parties anymore!

We then went to work on getting his dose ready. I was a little less stressed today than yesterday since I didn't have the 'time crunch' of having to run back out to do carpool so I didn't need to make sure his first hour post dosing would be over by 5:10.
I still was not thrilled about working that capsule, but I was less stressed doing so today. (Tomorrow will be another story due to the carpool crunch)
Coby took my phone to grab a pic of my irritation of struggling to get that thing open....




















                                            but then voila- (after a while) it worked!

Holy crap it worked!!!!! Sweet victory!!!

He had asked to dose with applesauce today, instead of pudding, since he knows he always needs to eat a bowl of applesauce after dosing because:

for some reason apples helps keeps the more serious stomach aches away! Coby said he just didn't have room after the carb load before dosing for pudding with the dose and applesauce afterwards, so he just dosed with applesauce and was not a fan of that combo!

YUCK!!!!!!

He was much happier, however,  when he opened up a package that came in the mail today that was addressed to him. It was from my brother who soooo sweetly went through shalach manot they received to pull out safe treats for Cobes and send him a bonus safe shalach manot package. Coby was thrilled. He was even extra excited when at the bottom of the package was a note congratulating him for getting to the capsule stage along with a "Peanuts dvd" entitled, "You're a good sport Charlie Brown!" My brother told Cobes that he is a good sport too! Coby grabbed the dvd to watch it but first decided to take a nibble out of these safe peanuts!

Meanwhile more confusion is coming my way--- what else is new. While we are only about 25% done with the capsule stage (if all goes well---actually one of his best friends was home sick today which makes me extra nervous that Coby may catch it too being that he hangs out with him all the time... so hoping he doesn't especially this week--- I don't even know how a down-dose this week would work.... back to liquid????), I began researching what brand of peanuts we need to be bringing with us to his actual peanut dose which is hopefully just 3 weeks away! I was getting mixed messages though which of course brought me more stress. We were told that 'if all goes well' (do you detect a theme here?) it would take 11 doses to reach the 12 peanut stage. (1/2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12) and that we'd need to bring peanuts that are in the shell to his appointments.
Okay that is simple enough.
Then the PA seemed to recommend that we bring the "UNROASTED" type saying that the unroasted is the MOST allergenic and when you are desensitizing someone you want to be desensitizing them to their strongest of adversaries. Okay that is scary but it makes sense. If you're gonna do something do it right. BUT she also said that if we prefer roasted peanuts that is okay too.
I obviously want what is best for Coby. I want him as desensitized as possible/as safe as possible--- but I also don't want to have to tie the kid down to get the peanuts down the hatch. I want it to taste as good as possible too so he'd be okay eating it each and every day. I actually read in the OIT group of many kids who either hated the taste or got sick of their dosing.... AND BEGAN HIDING THEIR DOSES, PRETENDING THEY WERE DOSING BUT WEREN'T ACTUALLY DOING SO!!!! MONTHS OF TREATMENT DOWN THE TOILET.

Of course I began researching it. I read how unroasted needs to be refrigerated and can be slimy like and can even grow mold. ARE YOU KIDDING???? How can my kiddo gulp down those things day after day after day? But upon further research articles seem to point out the OPPOSITE of what we thought we were told; that it is ROASTED peanuts that contain the strongest form of the allergen as opposed to un-roasted. Well that works for me---- roasted tastes better, isn't prone to mold and it would offer even more protection if we can desensitize him to the strongest form of allergen!

Meanwhile today at yet another call to the compounding place, we were told that James still was not in. Well we knew he wouldn't be since it is not Wednesday,  though why he can't return a damn phone call for something as important as this is beyond me!
Yitz questioned why earlier we were told that James is the ONLY guy who can compound peanut powder there, yet despite James not being in since last week somehow they claimed to have managed to make us additional week 1 and week 2 capsules. So how is that possible?
"Um gee, well- you see, there ARE a couple of guys there who can do it, just James is the main guy." 
Uh, yeah---- I don't hold a lot of faith in these guys. You can not be this unreachable and unreliable and untrustworthy with something as vital as this.
Yet, our doctor and Yitz want to give him one more chance. So now we hope to get through to James tomorrow (since it is Wednesday, so the man is supposed to show up for the first time in a week) to discuss our issues. Our new plan is for me to pick up a new batch of peanut powder at our appointment on Thursday. On Friday Yitz will go back to the local apothecary to pick up the new batch of pills that they re-made for week 2. He will also be dropping off the new batch of peanut powder for them to compound into the correct (PLEASE G-D!!!) capsules for weeks 3 & 4. If the capsules he gives us on Friday for week 2 completely suck too, then we just have to find a way to get to the apothecary up in Suffern and have it done right, (though it will take a bit of turn around time.) These capsules are driving me crazy!!!

But guess what I don't think I had a bad dream last night! In fact I remember dreaming that we had a day off so Yitz decided to surprise me and Coby and bring us to Disneyworld for one day and one night. I was sooooo thrilled. In my dream I remember packing his dose as we rushed to the airport. I was sooooo excited---- but then I woke up. No Disney after all :(. (But I'll take a dream about Disney over those of dosing nightmares and plane crashes any day!!!!)

Tonight when putting Coby down to bed and we were brushing his teeth he pointed to the word 'oral' on his toothbrush and said, 'Oral--- just like oral immunotherapy!'.
I asked him, "Do you know what 'oral' means?"
He replied, "Doesn't it mean 'brave?'"

It might as well babe, it might as well.