MOVING RIGHT ALONG... HAPPY UP-DOSE DAY!

Woot, woot- first week of capsules completed! And on to bottle number two of four!

And hello Spring!!! We are now rounding third base---- we began OIT in the fall, continued throughout the entire winter and now it is the spring. To everything there is a season...

Coby is just beyond thrilled at his progress and it is on his mind a lot. Take a look at four of his ten spelling sentences this week: 

At today's updose I got the capsule open in under ten seconds!!! Yay for bigger and more sturdier capsules! Coby exclaimed, "there is so much more peanut now!" Yes indeed bud, that is the goal. It actually took a few extra licks of the spoon to get all the peanut residue off! He needed to resort to holding his nose to deal with the 'fried worms' smell, but he did it!

Add caption

And in case you didn't catch a good glimpse at this week's OIT shirt:

CRUSHING IT DAILY!

During our observation hour Yitz contacted me about a party Coby is supposed to attend this weekend. We confirmed the pizza is safe and now we are trying to figure out if the cake is.

Is it safe for him to eat? 

Is it safe enough for him to be near? 

If it is safe enough for him to be next to but not to eat should we have him leave before the cake is served? 

Should we have him stay and watch all his friends eat it? How much will that upset him? 

And how wonderful is it that this may be one of the last times we have this issue! 

How freeing will it be when he can just go to the party- and enjoy! Bliss! In just a few weeks time, he may be cleared for 'cross contamination'. (Some doctors do that at 3 peanuts, others wait until the end.)

A few minutes after dosing Coby began complaining about being itchy and scratching at his arm. My heart did a little pitter patter, but I inspected him and there was no evidence of hives and the itching subsided, so pheeeew!

Today we also had a much better sound-track next to us compared to what we had a few weeks ago. A few weeks ago we witnessed a child go into anaphylaxis. Today.... we witnessed a child graduate from OIT. The whole staff took him to a room, surrounded him, applauded for him and handed him a graduation bag and a diploma.

I cannot imagine.... actually I think I can. 

I cannot wait. 

I will (IYH) be more proud of this graduation than most other ones. 

When the doctor checked him out at the end she even said, "before you know it, it will be you!" 

Well, we still have several more months to go, but if all goes well, we may be just past the half way point!!!! (I also don't know if graduation happens at the final updose of 12 peanuts... or after passing the food challenge of 24 peanuts a month later.)

Coby asked the doctor, "Can't I just eat half a peanut now? Or a quarter of a peanut--- I'm past that point anyway!" My eager little boy! (Of course she said 'not quite yet!')

I admitted to the doctor that I hadn't eaten anything with peanuts in over six years because of this and is it possible that I could have developed the allergy too. (There is research that shows that if you avoid a food that could be an allergenic one for a period of time you may develop an allergy to it--- it's not too often, but does occur.) She said since I didn't have the allergy in the past, I should be fine --- and maybe both me and Coby can have our very first peanut butter bite together! Awwwww. Though truth be told I'll be scared for both of us that day!!!

In the car ride home I asked Coby, "how are you doing?"

His response.... "Better than ever!"

That's my boy!!!!

I just updosed to 175mg! 48% of a peanut!!!!

MATH MACHLOKET: If you want to make your brain spin read on:

Recently I learned that there is actually a machloket about how much each peanut dose actually is....

 Someclaim a full peanut weighs 250-300mg (which is what I have been going by all along.) Other are saying each peanut has 250-300mg of protein and a peanut actually weighs 500mg.

So I was wondering if all of the signs I've been making this entire time for Coby have ended up being twice as high as what they actually should have been (ie- when I said he was at 1/3--- was it actually 1/6?) We spoke at length with the doctor about this and went through the math of it all, and by the end of the conversation the doctor himself was confused... 

The doctor started off by saying  that peanuts are 100% protein and the capsules are just 40% protein.

 But how would that make any sense since according to some the weight of a peanut is 500 and the protein is what is 250-300, that would make the protein 50% of a peanut, not 100! He also told us that when they make the capsules they 'defat' the peanut before crushing it down to contain 40% of protein. Yitz then asked  if you remove fat wouldn't that mean it is being substituted by even more protein so it would end up having EVEN MORE protein than an actual peanut or are other things being added to the flour to bring up the weight. We also pointed out that if you look at a label the nutritional value of a peanut is just 16% protein, so where does the 100% come from? And if you use the number 16% and if the flour indeed has 40% then isn't that would be more than twice the amount of a peanut! 

The doctor admitted that we make a lot of sense and he wasn't sure anymore. He actually appreciated the conversation and the brain gears turning. They were simply following protocol of the pioneers of OIT without trying to figure out all the math.  He told us he was going bring our question back to Dr. Nash at Duke (the pioneers of OIT in Texas) but has no solid answer for us yet. 

Yep, we're stumping the pros!!!! (By the time we get an answer it probably won't even matter anymore because I KNOW that his final peanut dose- hopefully in 2 weeks is at least a full peanut and the following week is actual peanut anyway!)

SO.... if I go by what I was going by all along of 250-300mg in weight then today's updose would have been 64% of a peanut. If I say that a full weight of a peanut is actually 500mg then it would be just 32% of a peanut. Since everyone is all confused now, for the purpose of Coby's sign I figured I'd ajust verage the two numbers of 32 and 64 and got the 48% I put in the sign above.... (Then come next week 250mg would either be half a peanut or a full peanut, and the following week of 50mg0 would be minimally a whole OR close to two, after that we are up to actual nuts anyway.)