Well here we are in a new year and visit #8 of Jacob’s food allergy treatment at the SoCal Food Allergy Institute (https://socalfoodallergy.org) is coming up in less than 3 weeks! Everything is going smoothly thank goodness and I realized I never recapped the last 2 trips. We are about to hit our 2 year anniversary with the Tolerance Induction Program (TIP) (See Visit 1: https://myallergicfoodie.com/visit-1/)!
We actually have Covid right now, AGAIN, so I’m trying to keep busy and catch up on the little things. This time around Jacob has actually fared really well, just a little congestion for him and it hasn’t affected his treatment at all. My husband and I were definitely hit the hardest. So thankful that we caught it now and not right before our next trip. Illness right before appointments has seemed to become a theme and it’s so stressful!
Visit 6:
This visit happened 9/21/22-9/23/22. We flew to Long Beach via Southwest Airlines on 9/21 and stayed at The Cove Hotel in Long Beach.
Appointment 1 was on 9/22 where Jacob challenged pistachio and hen egg yolk with no issues. Both moved into his morning maintenance. He also did repeat labs at this visit which he handled like a champ! The labs will show us how his body is tolerating treatment and will inform the providers on which morning foods can move to weekly or 3 times per week instead of daily. He currently eats 13 foods daily and 2 weekly which is a lot for him!
Afterwards we took our usual trip over to Sensitive Sweets for some yummy treats. Then we headed to the California Science Center where we watched a 3D movie and saw the actual Endeavor! Jacob was just over the moon and said it was the best moment of his life!
Appointment 2 was on 9/23 where he introduced sunflower, hazelnut, and quail egg white. Everything went well! Afterwards we took a quick detour at the mall so that I could buy myself a little birthday present. My birthday was the next day and Apple had just released their new AirPods Pro. My AirPods stopped working on the flight in so I decided to treat myself for the flight back. Then we rushed back to the hotel to grab our bags and were off to LAX to fly home
Visit 7:
Visit 7 happened 12/13/22-12/15/22. We’d been scheduled the week prior but Jacob came down with the flu and we had to reschedule our appointments. Thankfully they were able to get us in the following week so that we didn’t fall too far behind. We had to pay more for flights but we made it work.
As usual we flew Southwest to Long Beach and stayed at The Cove again. It’s near the clinic and affordable with the discount that they provide for SoCal patients. We’d never been to CA during Christmas season so we had to make the most of it. That night we took a Holiday Lights Trolley Tour through Naples and it was so magical and fun!
On 12/14 Jacob successfully challenged sunflower, hazelnut, and quail egg white. Sunflower and quail egg white moved to morning maintenance. Hazelnut was an escalation which means it will stay as a dosing food for him.
The provider also went over the lab results from the previous visit. Jacob’s body is showing the ideal response to treatment! His tolerance to peanut has increased 634% and we haven’t even started that food yet. Tolerance to hen egg white increased 507%! We are so pleased that this is WORKING. As a result, almost all of his morning maintenance foods moved to 1x per week. 2 moved to 3x per week and 3 remain as daily. We are so happy with this change!
We then checked out Sensitive Sweets as usual and this time we visited the Discovery Cube in Orange County. This was a fun science museum and Jacob especially loved the virtual reality games.
On 12/15 he introduced brazil nut, another anaphylactic food for him, and escalated pistachio at a larger amount. This will be the final cycle for pistachio and he will clear it at the next visit.
We headed back home via LAX that evening to get started on the new cycle! I can’t forget, Jacob turned 9 on our flight home! It was a late, delayed flight and we were close to landing when the clock struck midnight on 12/16! Happy birthday to him!
Overall, we are in a good routine and the weeks are just flying by. This entire process can be stressful and I’m just thanking God that his body is handling all of this well. This year he will introduce peanut and hen egg white among other foods which is just mind-blowing to us! Here’s to another year of progress!