Vampires, Pudding, and the Personal Poison

We’ve settled into a daily routine with OIT.  It’s hard to believe that feeding my kid her personal poison every morning has become routine.  The protocol we are on is best described a “low and slow.”  So even though she is 4 months into it, we’re just snuggling in and getting comfortable for the long haul. 

Her protocol requires that she has her PP (Peanut Protein or Personal Poison – you decide) each day within 2 hours of when she had it the day before.  Don’t worry, it’s not as convoluted as it sounds.  Basically if she has it at 8am on Tuesday, she can have it at any time between 6am and 10am on Wednesday (2 hours before or 2 hours after).  It is great to have this flexibility.  We’re able to move dosing around with relative ease based on activities for the day or week.  Which is a good thing because I’ve recently discovered that teenagers are part vampire.  Seriously.  (Maybe that’s why many of them like vampire books.)  They sleep all day and are up all night.  Sun streaming in the bedroom window can send them into paroxysms of pain.  Fortunately, in lieu of blood for sustenance they manage quite happily on an endless supply of pizza.

After she doses, she can’t raise her heart rate for 2 hours.  She also can’t go anywhere.  This has been a point of contention because she wants to just GO.  The possibility of a major reaction in the car while driving down I-95 at 70mph (or thereabouts) just doesn’t seem to be a deterrent.  Teenagers are amazing. 

The actual dosing of her peanut flour is done by mixing it into a medium of her choice (approved by Dr. Nash).  Generally, they use applesauce in the office for updoses.  She liked that at first, but the more the peanut flour the more it messes with the taste.  (Sydney had me try the peanut flour with old, extra doses.  We were curious how ‘peanutty’ it tasted.  I took the 100mg like a shot without mix-ins.  It’s pretty darn strong!)  We’ve now moved on to pudding.  Dr. Nash has suggested ice cream, which drew a lot of enthusiasm from the peanut gallery.

We are 4 months into this protocol and are looking at another 7 to 8 months of updosing every other week.  After that we get to visit Dr. Nash just once a month.  I know that Sydney and I will both be overjoyed when that happens.  I think that the biggest challenge for us on this journey has been, well, the journey…