Two-stepping our way into fractions of peanuts

He did it y'all!  Brandon successfully made the jump from liquid doses to solid fractions of peanuts! 😭🙌🥜  We are floored, exhilarated, and ready to press on!  He ended up getting to the first full dose of fractions over a two-week period, and that is totally okay with us. 

Going from liquid doses to solids doses was going to be a doubling of his then-current liquid dose.  The last time Brandon doubled his dose was last summer, and that jump ended up causing his throat to start closing up and he got a shot of epinephrine in his arm.  (You can read that blog post here.)  Given that, we were all a bit extra nervous for this jump.  I talked with his allergist the week before his updose on 4/1, and we came up with a plan where he would take half of the dose on 4/1, wait 15 minutes, and then take the second half of the dose if all was going well.  That made all of us breathe a bit easier.

As I mentioned previously, Brandon’s allergist suggested we start his solids dosing journey with Bamba, which is essentially a puffed peanut snack (think of a puffy Cheetos that tastes like a peanut Frito . . . . weird, I know, but that’s a pretty accurate description of it! 😊)  The first full dose of fractions is .1g of a peanut, which equates to .05g of a Bamba.  Yall, it’s tiiiiiiiiny!  Literally, crumbs of one Bamba!  🤣 But hey, it’s REAL peanuts, so it counts!  Eeeeek!  Here’s a picture of what that first dose looked like. 

.1g of Bamba peanut snacks - equivalent to .05g of a peanut

Michael (dad) came to the visit this time to encourage Brandon, so we were both in the room with him, along with little brother Tyler, when he tried the first dose.  It took some coaxing, not surprisingly, but he got that first dose in – wshew!!  He guzzled an entire water bottle along with the dose, along with his dose-standard carbs and applesauce. 

Eyeing that first fractions dose!  Brandon also likes to wear teal shirts (the color of food allergy awareness) on some updose days.  😃

Then we waited.

Nothing. 

And in this case, nothing is a GOOD thing!  😊 

Dr. George came in to visit with us after the first part of the dose, and she was happy to see all was going well.  At that point, discussions began about doing the rest of the dose or stopping for the day.  We ended up putting the decision squarely on Brandon’s shoulders.  It’s his body, his challenge to face . . . . we may have blind-sided him a bit by allowing it to be all up to him, but it was a good step in growth for him.  After some discussions with Dr. George, her medical assistant, and both me and Michael, he settled on waiting for the second half of the dose until another day.  He wanted to walk out of there with a success that day and not have to go back to liquid doses, should a reaction occur.  Perfect, bud.  We support you in that!  👍

Dr. George agreed to allow us to come back for that second part of the updose in one week, instead of waiting our normal two-week interval for subsequent updoses.  So we scheduled for one week out, waited out the rest of our ‘rest period’ in the waiting room, and went home with ZERO REACTIONS!  🙌  This was seriously such an answer to prayer – we had sooooo many people praying for us that day, and that prayer support give us all such strength for this emotionally and physically demanding journey. 

So, one week later, 4/8, Brandon, Tyler, and I went back to Dr. George’s office, and he added in the second ‘half’ of the full updose.  So, yesterday, Brandon successfully updosed to a full .1g of a real peanut, which translates into .2g of Bamba.  He had a bit of throat clearing (one of his normal post-dose symptoms), but he didn’t mention it to me, so I didn’t mention it to him 😊, and it resolved within about 15 minutes. 

So there you have it, friends.  We are on solids!!!  Eeeek!  The dose that he’s currently on is dose 17 out of 30.  Dose 30 is the ‘graduation’ dose of an in-office challenge of 24 peanuts, which would lead us to a maintenance dose of 8 peanuts daily.  Time will tell if 24/8 is his graduation/maintenance dose . . . . some kids go that full way, some stop a bit shorter for various reasons.  His graduation dose will need to be 3x his daily maintenance dose, so if he wants to maintain daily at 4 peanuts, he’ll need to graduate at 12.  Maintain at 6, graduate at 18, etc.

Thanks for continuing to follow our journey.  We SO appreciate all of the feedback and support we are receiving each step of the way. . . . we truly could NOT do this without all of it.   

Until my next update,

~MKB 🐢💙

P.S.  Here are a few more pics from that first updose on 4/1 . . . . . enjoy!  

Little brother (Tyler) comes to nearly every appointment - a patient little soul.  😇

Our very familiar walk back to a room for updosing

Measuring instructions for Mom - the at-home dose prep rests almost entirely on me, which is totally fine, so moving to solids was a new exercise in measuring. 

Peace-out peanut allergy!  🤣 ✌

Victory!  One dose, one appointment at a time.  Freedom is coming!  🥜