It’s hard to believe that our first visit to the SoCal Food Allergy Institute is behind us, and all of the anxiety that came with it! It was a short trip. Luckily we were able to go during our spring break so that Syed was able to come with us.
We flew Southwest direct from Chicago to Long Beach on Wednesday 4/6/21. It was a little nerve-racking, seeing it was our first time flying since before the pandemic. Staying 6 feet apart from others was nearly impossible. The flight to Long Beach had a few empty seats but the return flight was completely full. Overall though, the atmosphere felt pretty relaxed and most people we saw were compliant with wearing their masks correctly. Syed and I are both fully vaccinated which helped ease some of the anxiety but we still worry about Jacob with his asthma!
Getting through the Long Beach airport was a breeze and grabbing our rental car was so convenient as the rentals are right onsite at the airport. It was not even a 5 minute walk from the gate to the rental station. We then drove to Irvine, CA and hit up Chipotle for lunch, grabbed a Target drive up order, picked up a few things at Whole Foods, and headed to the hotel.
We stayed at the Staybridge Suites Irvine-John Wayne Hotel. They have a really great discounted rate for SoCal families which was very much appreciated. It’s a new hotel and felt very Covid safe and quiet. The rooms were comfy and we were able to reserve time at the pool all by ourselves on the 2 days that we were there, which was the highlight of the trip for Jacob! Each room had a kitchen which is a must for allergy families! It was in a nice neighborhood and we loved that pretty much everything we needed in terms of groceries and restaurants were just down the street.
Jacob discovered the joy that is In and Out Burger for dinner. He said it was better than McDonalds (it is) which was a huge claim! In and Out is extremely allergy friendly, they have great protocols in place and made us feel very comfortable in ordering food for him.
Our appointment was on Thursday morning. We drove the 30 minutes to the clinic in Long Beach. I was nervous but having poured through posts in the SoCal Facebook groups and following many families in Instagram who are currently in treatment helped us have realistic expectations. We knew that this was not a visit for us to get answers. The purpose was for them to gather data from us.
We were greeted by an intake coordinator/nurse who explained what would be occurring during the visit. They took Jacob’s vitals and we went over what foods would be included in his skin prick test. They set him up for the test, once the skin pricks were placed he had to lay still for 15 minutes. Which probably feels like an hour when your skin is itchy and reacting! But he was a champ. He was uncomfortable and Syed helped distract him by telling him that we’d gotten him a snorkel set for the pool!
While that was happening, Dr. Ripp came in. She will be part of our care team and she went over his history of reactions with us and all of the foods that he is currently eating vs those he is avoiding. She took the time to answer our more general questions and once we had the results from the skin test, we were sent over to the lab across the street for bloodwork. We have to say, all of the staff was wonderful!
Jacob has had both yearly bloodwork drawn and frequent skin prick tests over the last 6 years. Each time he lets his anxiety take over and he works himself up into a meltdown before anything has even happened! This time, he was so mature and calm! When we checked in for the blood test, he took the time to ask the tech how long it would take. The tech reassured him it would only take about a minute. He then sat in Syed’s lap and with a few tears rolling down his cheeks he sat still and let the tech do his thing. Once the needle was in and we said, “that’s it, that’s the worst part”, he looked shocked and repeated, “that’s it? It actually just tickles a little bit.” He even watched the whole time and asked questions. We were so proud!!!
Afterwards he took a long nap in the car while we took the scenic route back to the hotel along the oceanfront. We rewarded him with In and Out again and his request and hit the pool!
The icing on the cake was that on Friday morning Southwest called us to offer us a direct flight home instead of the layover we were supposed to have. We jumped at the chance, we were already packed and ready to go. We were home 4 hours earlier than originally planned!
Now we wait. I hate waiting! It will take 10-12 weeks for Jacob’s data to be analyzed. At that point they will let us know that they’re ready for us to come back. We anticipate returning in July for 3-5 days worth of appointments, at which time we’ll get Jacob’s individualized plan and he will start challenging foods!
We can’t wait to really get started!
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