Today is Friday so that means

It is dose up day. Today Megan moved up to 5 peanuts two times a day. Tonight I mixed Megan's 1 tsp of peanut butter along with her 1 Tbsp of egg powder that she also has to take in order to maintain her egg desensitization. I used chocolate pudding and it smelled so good. Megan was not liking the peanut butter taste all that well. She asked me if I would make more peanut clusters instead. She told me to make sure that all of the peanuts were covered with chocolate because she doesn't like to see the peanuts, LOL. I guess I will be stocking up on Enjoy Life chocolate chips. We are only at 5 peanuts I can't imagine how this is going to go down when she has to do 12 peanuts twice a day, WOWZERS!!!

One peanut at a time

This week I bought Megan her FIRST JAR OF PEANUT BUTTER!!! She has the option of dosing with peanut butter that is carefully measured out. There are only a couple of brands that are nut free so I went with Peanut Butter & Co. One tsp of peanut butter = 5 peanuts. This Friday Megan will be moving up to FIVE PEANUTS!!! Right now Megan is enjoying her homemade peanut clusters that I made her. As she increases the amount of peanut we will probably have to stick with either peanut butter or peanut powder until she reaches maintenance. Just to recap, Megan's upcoming dose increases are as follows: 5 peanuts twice daily, 6 peanuts twice daily, 7 peanuts twice daily, 8 peanuts twice daily, 10 peanuts twice daily, 12 peanuts twice daily!!! In a bit over 6 weeks Megan will be done with her PEANUT DESENSITIZATION!!!!!!!

Megan is up to 4 peanuts!!!

Today Megan moved up to the 4 peanut dose. She is doing great and has had no issues with her dosings.

Three, 3, III.......

Today Megan is up to the three peanut dose for a total of six peanuts a day!!!

Add in some chocolate and you have...........

Megan has decided that she is not too fond of peanuts. I am having to resort to more creative means to get in her twice a day peanut dose. She tends to be a bit of a chipmunk storing the peanuts in her cheeks and then taking too long to chew them up. Today I decided to melt some Enjoy Life chocolate chips and make peanut clusters. I counted out the peanuts and put them on waxed paper and spooned the chocolate onto the peanuts. Who doesn't like chocolate and peanuts!!!! If for some reason my child is strange, LOL, and doesn't like the peanut/chocolate combo then I will move onto a mortar and pestle and grind up her peanut and add it into pudding or something else.

Back to PEANUT FLOUR

After consulting with Dr. Wasserman's office we have decided to go with peanut flour for now in order to get in our peanut doses twice a day. Time to stock up on more chocolate pudding, LOL. Megan currently uses chocolate pudding at night when she doses with her egg powder that she needs to maintain her desensitization for egg. We will need to purchase peanut flour from Byrdmill.com.

Peanut War

Megan has decided that she does not want to eat her peanuts. She hoards them in her mouth chewing and chewing and chewing and chewing. Instead of dosing with peanuts we will move to either peanut flour that can be mixed into pudding or dose with a nut free peanut butter. If Megan was nut safe she could dose with peanut M&M's but that is not an option.

Back up to two peanuts again!!

After our disappointing and very scary setback last week today Megan increased back up to two peanuts again. I will say that it is hard for me to not think about the four peanuts that she would be at this week if it were not for what happened last week. I try to keep in mind that this is a process that sometimes has bumps in the road.

Shelling peanuts

It seems so crazy in my mind that I am actually shelling peanuts. I would have never imagined a couple of years ago that I would be doing this. Because Megan has tree nut allergies, in addition to her peanut allergy, she is only allowed to use peanuts from the shell for desensitization and after. Megan will be unable to eat many products with peanuts in them due to cross contamination with tree nuts after she finishes desensitization. But the HUGE upside is that she will be safe around peanuts!!!!!

One peanut is better than none!!

As I have been sulking about Megan decreasing from three peanuts back down to one I realized how silly I was being. Good grief, my child is eating a PEANUT!!!!!!!! I never imagined her eating peanut and so the fact that she is even eating one peanut is amazing.

Two steps back...

Megan is still in the hospital but if all goes well this morning then Dr. Wasserman has written orders for her to go home. Dr. Wasserman decided that with all that has happened Megan needed to be bumped back down to one peanut twice a day. Though this is disappointing I'd rather be play safe so one peanut it is. Megan's asthma is still not under control so she is having to do breathing treatments every four hours and is on steroids.

A bump in the road......

After dosing Megan is supposed to avoid exercise and do quiet activities for two hours. Well, last night after about an hour and fifteen minutes she went outside to play with friends. The combination of being outside (pollens) and supervised activity where she was a bit active put Megan's system over the edge. Being "a bit" active inside does not seem to be an issue. It is so hard to keep Megan the monkey still for two hours. She had a significant anaphylactic reaction. She ended up having to be admitted to the hospital due to asthma issues from the reaction. Megan has been doing so well with peanut desensitization and we will try to focus on that. It was an ugly reminder of how severe food allergies can be. This reaction made us even more thankful for desensitization and what it will mean for her IN THE END. It has been a heartbreaking set back and very scary. Megan will decrease her peanut amount so that her system is not overtaxed.

ROCK AND ROLL......

Megan is now up to 3 peanuts twice a day!!!!!!!!!!