Fed Up

One small piece of penne pasta.  That’s how our food allergy journey started.  Yes, I remember the SHAPE of the pasta.  You don’t forget many details of your child’s first allergic reaction.  And so it began:  Allergic to wheat, then eggs, then peanuts and tree nuts. Reading labels.  Learning how to cook without the staples of flour and eggs.   Two hour trips to the grocery store, just to discover exactly what my kid COULD eat.  Benadryl.  Epipens.  The search for an understanding preschool and a safe restaurant.  Hives.  Vomiting.  An ER visit thrown in for good measure.

Brendan on his first birthday in 2005.
His first birthday cake was free of wheat, barley, rye, eggs, peanuts, and tree nuts.

There have been victories along the route of our journey, too.  The first successful birthday cake.  Outgrowing our wheat allergy.  Sweet friends who refuse to bring peanut butter in their lunches so that they can sit next to my boy.  Sweet families who make their child’s birthday cake safe for my kiddo, too.

And so here we are, ten years after that fateful piece of pasta.  We've settled into a routine:  Always bring your lunch to school.  Read every label, every time you are in the grocery store.  Read it again before you make dinner, just to be safe.  Eat at the same handful of restaurants.  Remember that the chicken nuggets are safe at McDonald’s but only the chicken STRIPS are safe at Whataburger.  Bring your own cupcake to birthday parties.  Sit at the end of the table at lunch.

Brendan this March at Disney World, showing off safe cupcakes.

But we weren’t supposed to still be in this routine.  There was supposed to be a FIX by now.  Since he was a baby, they’d been telling me, “There will be a FIX in the next few years.  Not a cure, but a FIX.  Some way to make his life easier.”  You see, clinical trials of Oral Immunotherapy, where they feed allergic children small, increasing amounts of their allergens, had just begun when Brendan was diagnosed.  Ten years later, with an 85% success rate, OIT is still in clinical trials, and we are still reading labels and avoiding allergens.  

And so, I am FED UP.  Fed up with food allergies.  Fed up with waiting for clinical trials to become common practice.  Fed up with the mantra of complete avoidance.  Luckily for me, a handful of allergists are FED UP, too, and they've begun offering OIT in their private practices, despite warnings from the American Academy of Asthma, Allergy, and Immunology.

And so, on April 8, we journeyed to Dallas and met Dr. Silvers for the first time.  If all goes well, April 30 will be DAY ONE for us.  Day ONE of OIT.  Day ONE of our journey to freedom from food allergies.  So sit back, grab some safe popcorn, and read along as we journey through Oral Immunotherapy.