PHASE 2!!!!

After 148 days we finally reached PHASE 2!!!! It seemed to take forever but also flew by too! How does that happen?

Coby was sooooo excited yesterday when he took in his final liquid dose.

I was soooo happy that the big storm was back on Tuesday, with the still crappy driving on Wednesday but the driving was fine for today. Pheeeew! Of course as luck would have it, I ended up missing my exit back home and had to Waze onto some side roads that weren't as plowed as others, but all's well that ends well.

And today was our last OIT appointment in the winter!!! We made it through the entire winter with missing only one updose appointment due to a snowstorm! It could have been so much worse! Here's hoping no more snow storms happen in the spring that would affect his Thursday appointments!

Anyway, today Coby wasn't going to "UP"dose, rather "SAME" dose. For some reason the body doesn't like it when switching allergen form, so in hopes of lessening the risk of reaction we were to keep Coby at the same dose as he was last week on the liquid of 100mg.

Was part of me a little bit bummed that we don't get to updose this week?

Sure.

But a bigger part of me was thrilled that we made it to phase 2! And phase 2 is such a short one (if all goes well)---- just four weeks in total! Crazy!

Last night when I tucked Coby into bed he was practically jumping out of his skin, "I am going to eat peanut flour tomorrow!!!!" and he enveloped me in one of his awesome huge bear hugs.

This afternoon as soon as we got into the car to head out to our appointment, the song that was playing on the radio was one of Coby's OIT theme songs he likes to sing ("don't give up, won't give up, don't give up, no no no!"). We took that as a good sign. And funny enough, the last song we heard right before we got home after his appointment was another one of our OIT theme songs ("This is my fight song, take back my life song, prove I'm all right song, my power's turned on, starting right now I'll be strong ,I'll play my fight song, And I don't care if nobody else believes, I still got a lot of fight left in me!")

"I WILL NEVER GIVE UP" OIT shirt

After they checked Coby out and I took out our new dose, Coby actually bugged out a little bit like, "oh my gosh is this really about to happen?"

"Wait, what? We are actually doing this?"

 But he quickly changed his attitude and begged me to take a picture of his true attitude when it comes to peanuts:

I will crush you!!!!

The doctor came in to show us how to get that capsule open and the flour on to the spoon. It's a good thing we ordered a few extra capsules because the first couple just shattered. Both the doctor and I tried to unscrew the capsule to dump the powder on a spoonful of applesauce, but the 'shell' cracked and shattered. Picture fragments of sharp egg shells in the wrong places. So we had to dump it and try again.

(Now mind you, it is quite a nuisance to get these capsules. It requires getting peanut powder up in Suffern and a prescription, bringing it to an apothecary in Teaneck and dropping it off and coming back a few days later to pick it up. The doctor told me in all her experience this has never happened before! Truth be told, we used a different apothecary than this doctor typically uses (they use one closer to their office, we used one closer to us), but she gave us a new prescription and more peanut powder in case we have bad luck with the next few doses as well and need to get some more capsules.)

Well three tries is the charm and we got the peanut powder sans 'shells' onto that spoon. By then there was some peanut dust on the desk, on my pants, my fingers and sleeve. And it was a STRONG smell. Coby exclaimed, "EWWWWW! That smells disgusting!" and held his nose.

I, however, was in shock, "this smells like peanut butter! Holy cow this place smells like peanut butter!" And.... despite the dust everywhere--- Coby did NOT have an airborne reaction to it!!! True, he was not walking past a bin of thousands of peanuts like he was on a prior time that caused a reaction, but I still consider this a victory! I didn't rush to scrub my hands with soap and water to remove all residue. I didn't strip down to my underwear to get my 'contaminated clothes' away from Coby. I just sat there. 

AND NOTHING HAPPENED!!!!!! 

Do you even know how huge that is????

Anyway when it came time for him to actually eat it, we reminded him that no matter what he thinks of the taste he can NOT spew it out. He was a little bit scared but he handled it like a trooper!

Um, I don't know about this...

I am eating peanut flour!!!

Alright, alright I can do this!

After he downed it we were like, "Well, how was it?" And he told us it was good!!! (Later he admitted to me that he mostly still only tasted the apple-sauce, but I'm still optimistic that he was okay with the taste!)

 And the hour passed uneventfully! He did it!!!  Phase one has now officially been completed and phase two has begun! I am in awe!

And now I am praying both for an uneventful week AND the ability to get those damn capsules open without them shattering to pieces... and while I am a nervous wreck for when he begins to eat actual peanuts (if all goes well that would be four weeks from today)--- I cannot wait til this capsule stage is over because opening those things is no joke!