The OIT Tango (Or Two Step if you're a country fan!)

We've had a jam-packed summer.  We flew into California and took an amazing road trip from there that included Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and Disneyland!

You should go to Yosemite if you've never been!  It's SO gorgeous!

Obligatory family picture at the Grand Canyon.
We got lots of attention with our Howdy shirts that day!

DISNEYLAND!!!
We met some friends for this leg of the trip and had a blast!

We all survived preteen church camp together (even the daddy, who was one of the camp nurses!), and we enjoyed some time in the Hill Country while Andrew attended a conference.

Canoeing at Preteen Camp!

A little hike in the Hill Country.

In the midst of all that, Brendan managed to get sick twice this summer, and to get carsick a couple of times on mountain roads in California.  In OIT land, that means that we either 1) can't updose or 2) have to down dose some, and THAT is what causes the OIT Tango!

Here's how our Tango went:  June 21st, Brendan updosed to 2 peanuts.  June 27th, he contracted a virus-- ran a low grade temp, vomited once, had a headache and slept all day.  If you get sick during OIT, you have to down dose, so back to one peanut we went until the virus cleared.  Since the "rules" are that you need to be on a dose for 7 days without symptoms before updosing, and we were leaving on vacation on July 5th, that meant we would stay at 2 peanuts for the entire vacation.  With our hopes of updosing to 3 peanuts before vacation dashed, we soldiered on.

And then we got to California.

This moment at In-N-Out burger complete with the "special sauce"
is brought to you by egg OIT.

We have a saying in this family, "It's not vacation until someone throws up," and our saying didn't let us down.  After just a few days on the twisty mountain roads in Yosemite, Brendan lost his cookies.

If you want to get to views like these, the roads are NO JOKE!!!

We spoke with Dr. Silvers and decided it was just carsickness, so we stayed at 2 peanuts.  A couple of days later, he threw up again-- this time after a train ride.

It was a fun train until he barfed!!

Since both cases of the vomiting occurred within 2 hours of Brendan having his dose, the PA and I decide to down dose him.  Back to 1 peanut we went!!  While we were on 1 peanut, little brother got sick and needed antibiotics-- this is an AWESOME trip, right?!!

The littlest one in this picture was running a fever.  
In the middle of Death Valley.  He has timing, right?!

We really did have fun, I promise.  After a week on 1 peanut, the PA gave us permission to go back to 2 on our own, so we upped the dose to 2 peanuts.  About 24 hours later, guess who came down with his little brother's sickness?!  Yep :(.  101 fever, vomiting, and a sore throat-- all on the day before his birthday at Legoland!!

This picture was taken just a few hours before we realized Brendan was sick.

So, we talked to Dr. Silvers again and went back to 1 peanut!!  Are you getting the vibe of our tango?!  After starting antibiotics, Brendan was feeling much better, so back to 2 peanuts we went, just a couple of days after getting home.  Unfortunately, all this back and forth caused us to cancel 2 updoses, so we've been trying to cram in an extra updose before school starts to offset the updoses we missed this summer.  Luckily, things have gone smoothly since getting back from California.

We moved to using peanut M&M's for dosing when we got to 2 peanuts, just before vacation .
3 peanut M&m's is equal to 2 "peanuts."  The peanuts in the M&M's are smaller than the average peanut.
Brendan likes to stick his hazelnuts into a Rolo :).

Brendan updosed right before preteen camp and did great with his doses at camp (in 100+ degree heat).  Then, he updosed right after camp, just before we headed to the Hill Country, and we've had two more updoses after that as the summer wound down.  Brendan is now at 6 peanuts and hazelnuts, twice a day!  We're skipping updosing this week because school is starting.  He only has 6 more appointments until he is DONE, 100% SET FREE from his food allergies!!  So, we're hoping we're done with the OIT Tango for now.  We'd much rather do the "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" dance!!