Nut Watch 2013

Sydney and I traveled to Raleigh for her food challenges the week after Thanksgiving.  We spent 11 days testing 7 foods.  I cannot adequately convey what a surreal experience it was to watch your child eat NUTS when we have spent a lifetime avoiding them on fear of death.

Tuesday Dec. 3^rd was her first appt. She received minute amounts of powdered shellfish mixed in applesauce every 15 minutes.   (Seconds after her first dose she sneezed and nearly sent me, and the nurse, into cardiac arrest!)  They slowly increased the amounts as the morning progressed.  By noon there had been no reaction at all and they ordered takeout.  NO KIDDING!  I was hysterical!  For lunch she ate crab wontons and ginger shrimp with oyster sauce from Pei Wei. She loved the crab Rangoon and detested the texture of the shrimp. She only ate 3 because she thought they were "gross."  She didn't have one teeny bit of a reaction all day.  She successfully PASSED the shellfish challenge.

Lunch from Pei Wei has arrived!

Wednesday the 4^th was Brazil nuts. My mother-in-law has issues with Brazil nuts, so I was on edge from the get-go.  This was the first time since that fateful day in 2002 that a nut has crossed those lips.  I was starting to get flashbacks.  The day started out the same way...trace amounts. Each dose is mixed in applesauce until she gets to the actual nut. She eats those plain.  Around 11 am she had about 1/4 of a Brazil nut. That went well so around noon he gave her at least 2 or 3 of them. She had them with no problem.  Actually, I should say with no reaction. She DID have a problem with them. She hated them!  She said they tasted like a cross between dried pasta and grass. Eww.  She successfully PASSED the Brazil nut challenge.

These were the first nuts that crossed those lips in 12 years.  I was QUAKING!

Thursday the 5^th was Pistachios. No issues at all the whole day.  In fact, she LOVED them!  Dr. Nash gave her a huge amount for her dose and then she asked for more (which she got)!  In all, she consumed nearly a cup of pistachios. No reactions or anything. He was able to give me the brand of pistachios he uses.  He has already vetted them for cross contamination to peanuts and other nuts. And they are even available at CVS and Walgreens!  She successfully PASSED the pistachio challenge.

 Do you KNOW how annoying pictures by Mom are?!

The first half of the pistachio picnic Sydney enjoyed.

The following Monday (the 9^th) we returned and faced down Walnuts.  Again with the tiny doses of flour building up to that colossal serving of whole nuts.  Walnuts were greeted with much more enthusiasm by her taste buds.  It was today that I learned Sylvia, Dr. Nash’s RN, was hand cracking all of these nuts.  They had to get nuts in the shell so that there was no possibility of cross contamination with peanuts or hazelnuts.  The poor woman was going to get carpal tunnel by the time we left.  There are 3 more days!  Walnuts: PASSED!

Walnuts!

Tuesday the 10^th brought us Pecans.  It was starting to get creepy how BORING these food challenges were.  (Boring is GOOD, I assure you.)  I tried to balance my gratitude and dread with equal measure.  Pecans didn’t make her flinch and discussions of chocolate pecan pie kept us all entertained (and salivating) that afternoon.  She successfully PASSED pecans!

By the 5th day, Sydney was pretty much done with pictures.

Wednesday the 11^th introduced Almonds.  Now, I wasn’t broadcasting it, but I woke up that morning with my stomach in my throat.  This was the nut that had a “blip” on the blood test results.  If a reaction was going to happen, it would more than likely be today.  How do you shower, dress, eat breakfast and walk out the door with your daughter wondering if today was going to send her to the hospital?  Let me tell you – it’s not easy!  We had a deal all week that I would only ask her “How are you doing?” once per dose.  Getting asked 3,276 times in the 15 minutes between doses had worn on her real quick and she instituted that rule early on.  Today is was sooooo hard to honor that.  I may have asked a few extra (hundred) times.  Fortunately, my worry was for nothing.  Almonds proved no more difficult than any other food she’d had that week.  They have turned out to be her favorite nut and since we’ve been home she often grabs handfuls of them for a snack.  Almonds: PASSED!

She spent 7 days, 6 hours a day just like this.  I think she deserves a prize for not going stir crazy!

Thursday the 12^th was our last day.  Cashews were last on the menu and the day proved to be our quickest.  Cashews are not sold in the shell.*  Dr. Nash had to make up doses with pharmaceutical cashew flour.  Badda Bing, Badda BOOM!  WE ARE DONE!  Cashews are passed and we’re going home!

I do believe those 11 days in Raleigh were the longest in Sydney’s life and the longest in mine.  Every day I am awed by the bravery my girl possesses.  But those 11 days were like nothing I’d ever seen before.  Grace, wit, self-possession.  I want to be just like her when I grow up.

(Thanks to my cousin for naming our adventure.  We had 100 people on Facebook watching for updates throughout the day to see how Sydney was faring.  Without their support, she and I would more than likely have lost it.)

*Facts you learn in this business of food allergy mom: non cross contaminated cashews in the shell are not available. Why is that? Have YOU ever seen a cashew in the shell? No, you have not. I know this because I am the research queen.   Apparently cashews are in the same family as poison ivy and poison sumac. Shelling them is a, shall we say, less than pleasant experience and roasting them is the only way to kill off all the residual toxic oil.