For Faith, the end is in sight! Last week we spent nine hours in the office of Dr. Mayer to begin day one of oral immunotherapy for walnuts and pecans.
The dose starts very minute and is increased each 1/2 hour throughout the day. We have never stayed this long and in the first round of OIT we needed to stop for an itchy throat MUCH earlier.
As a result of our all day stay at Dr. Mayer's office, Faith went home with only three weeks of the liquid solution "D" and then onward to flour and actual whole nuts. It should take approximately 14 weeks for her to reach what Dr. Mayer considers to be "bite proof".
Hunter is a few doses away from bite proof for cashew and pistachios. We will then go through the oral challenges to determine if he is allergic to any other nuts.
Tori is done and enjoying eating whatever she chooses to eat!
My nephew Blake is working his way through oral challenges and will begin OIT in the near future as well.
We are so tremendously blessed with this opportunity. Dr. Mayer and staff are selfless and have devoted so much time into helping people of all ages to find freedom from food allergies.
Since we started OIT last may, Dr. Mayer has graduated 100 more people through OIT for a total of 200 people completing OIT in his practice.
We thank God for Dr. Mayer's commitment and look forward to a future with freedom!
Friday, April 21, 2017
OIT Update - Celebrating the Milestones after 10 Months!
Wow! What a difference 10 months can make!
Tori is bite proof to cashews and pistachios. She passed food challenges and is not allergic to any other nuts.
Faith is bite proof to cashews and pistachios, however she did not pass the walnut challenge, and will begin round two of OIT in April.
Hunter is three doses away from becoming bite proof to cashews and pistachios and we are hoping like Tori, he passes oral challenges for the other nuts and will be on maintenance.
Imagining a future that my kids no longer need to miss out on celebrations, summer camps and other outings seems almost too good to be true....and yet it is true! They are talking about what it will be like to go on vacation and be able to eat at a restaurant! While Tori is already in this place, Faith and Hunter are not quite there yet.
I will say overall this process has been relatively uneventful. We are blessed to say that there have been no serious reactions. Two challenges that we have dealt with: 1) taking time off school to get to appointments and 2) getting passed the psychological challenge of ingesting nuts after years of strict avoidance.
We do continue to work through each issue, and have found many ways to camouflage the taste and texture of the nuts. I don't believe anyone of us would trade the victory and the future filled with freedom for the inconvenience and challenges we have encountered. If asked, we would highly recommend OIT to anyone living devastation of food allergies.
For more information as well as contact information for Dr Chad Mayer, please see his website at www.oitcenter.com.
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