Sean went on Thursday for his first increase in his dose of peanut. It was the same dose that caused him to have a reaction during the first day, so I was nervous that we might have another reaction. He had experienced some minor reactions to the previous dose at home, and this time he would be taking double that dose. His minor reactions at home included one hive one day and a red welt-like spot on his cheek another day. The red welt-like spot happened as he started playing roughly with his brother right at the 2-hour mark after his dose. A rest period of two to four hours is recommended, so that was our lesson that we definitely need to keep the rest period closer to the long end of that range. However, the single hive happened a good 7.5 hours after his dose. Dr. M. said that it could have been something unrelated to the peanut dose, but I'm not entirely sure. This one happened while he was outside playing in the heat, so perhaps the hot weather had something to do with it. The spot disappeared after a few minutes inside in the air conditioning.
When we went to the office for Sean's first dose increase, we were placed in a room with another boy who was doing peanut OIT, as well as his father. This boy had already worked his way up to real peanuts and was there to increase his dose to five full peanuts! He had some anxieties related to his food allergy, which is totally understandable. Sean isn't old enough to understand the severity of his condition, so he doesn't yet experience anxiety about it. I'm certain it would be quite the emotional obstacle to have to force yourself to eat a food that you know could cause you serious illness or even death. This boy said he did not want to eat five peanuts, but he did it anyway, and he did great! He was quite an inspiration to us newbies. Five whole peanuts! We're only on 5 tiny milligrams of peanut in liquid, so we definitely have a long way to go before we make it to that point. I just hope we DO make it to that point. With an 80% success rate, I can only hope that Sean isn't the 1 out of 5 who will fail and have to live a life of strict peanut avoidance and fear of a severe reaction.
Sean was given his dose, and I was a little discouraged to see one little hive pop up right between his eyes. Thankfully, it didn't progress beyond that and it went away quickly. Dr. M. said those sorts of things are fairly common in the beginning of treatment, but as we progress further, we should see less and less of it. Sean is now up to 5mg of peanut flour (about 2mg peanut protein) in a liquid twice a day. So far, our home doses have gone well, and I hope that continues!
We'll only be able to return to the office for dose increases every two weeks because of my work schedule and the fact that it's a 4-5 hour road trip each way for us. The treatment could be completed in about 6 months if everything went perfectly and we were able to return every week for dose increases. But with our slower pace, I am expecting this to take at least one year, if not longer. His dose may need to be reduced any time he gets sick, in order to reduce the risk of reactions. I'm assuming with this being his first year of preschool and kids being little walking Petri dishes, he will likely be sick a lot. I'm definitely not expecting this to be a quick and easy fix. It's not a race, after all. It's a journey. I'm sure there will be bumps in the road, and I just hope that those bumps are minor enough not to destroy Sean's spirit and will to continue on (not to mention my own!).
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