Track Thirteen: Appointment #4

We just returned from our 4th trip to the Food Allergy Institute! Between our last appointment and this one, we’ve been dosing Eli with denatured mare’s milk (horse) and mustard seed. At this next set of appointments (two over the course of two days) Eli challenged his dosing foods and was introduced to his two, new dosing foods which we will start dosing with as soon as we can prepare them. 

Eli and I flew out a day early so we could source quail eggs for his introductions and just in case there were any hiccups in our travel plans. Eli is very fun to travel with, and we have a tradition of eating at Burgerville in the airport before we fly out. Burgerville is one of the few restaurants that is safe for him although he only has one choice as to what he can get (chicken strips and fries). Here is a picture of him with his meal. 

While the food allergy institute does provide us with some of the foods he will challenge and be introduced to, we do have to bring some with us to the appointments (things that are perishable we bring, not perishable, they provide). For this reason, I had the unique experience of bringing three ounces of mare’s milk in a little cooler through TSA. They definitely stopped us and chatted about it, but let us take it through on our flight. We have a doctor’s note about all of the food and medicines we bring, which we haven’t had to show them. I think we had the friendliest TSA guy we’ve ever encountered (he told me not to tell though!). 

We rent a car whenever we are down there, and we were too early to check into our hotel so we went on an adventure to find a pack of quail eggs. First we tried Costco since the one by us has them, but they didn’t (fun fact, the Costco by my house is one of the largest ones!). After that, we went on a fun, google maps enabled trip to two Asian grocery stores. We did finally find them at the second one, what a relief! 

One thing that is kind of strange about our two day appointments is that we have a lot of downtime, but we aren’t really there on vacation. We spent some time on this trip finding some places we could return to each time we are there and get more familiar with the area. 

His first appointment was for the food challenges. Food challenges are for the foods he’s been dosing at home in the best case scenario (eating in small, but increasing, doses and resting for an hour after). For a challenge, they test the food in a worst case scenario. The appointment is full of safety checks and data collection. They begin by weighing and measuring him and then they take his baseline blood pressure and attach him to heart monitoring, blood oxygen measuring, and look in his throat and mouth, assess his skin (in case of a rash developing), and listen to his breathing. They also talk to him about how his stomach is feeling, and whether or not he ate lunch. These checks are done by both a nurse and a doctor (allergist).

He challenged mustard seed first. He ate roughly double the amount of mustard seed than he did at his highest dose at home, then we all briskly walk to a gym in the building where he got his heart rate up for 5 minutes. They have treadmills, stationary bikes, dance dance revolution, or trampolines. Eli always chooses the treadmill. I think, right now, one of my favorite parts of going there is the gym. There are between 2 and 4 kids also doing food challenges in the gym at a time, ranging in age from toddlers to older teens. Each patient has a nurse who monitors them and times their exercise. There is always a parent there too. I think it is the one place, besides our house, that feels like everyone there knows and understands us and he is safe. I get emotional every time. In a world where I am often seen as a helicopter mom and Eli is seen as being too cautious, this is a place where they don’t see us that way. They see us as reasonable people, taking his allergies seriously (they’ve even had me tighten up some of the things I do to keep him safe!). 

After the treadmill, we walk briskly back to the room, where they hook him back up to the heart monitor, take his blood pressure again, and repeat all of the health checks from before. Then his doctor comes in and does the same checks as the nurse. He passed with no symptoms and now mustard seed will be a part of his morning maintenance foods! 

Next, he challenged the mare’s milk. Again, with twice the amount we dosed him with. The health checks before and after this challenge were the same as above. Once again, he passed! Now he will drink mare’s milk each morning with his other maintenance foods. 

I am so proud of Eli and all of his hard work! He has this little passport they gave him that they stamp each time he challenges and passes a food. He is so proud of it, and told me “Don’t lose that mom, I want to keep it forever.” 

The next day we did his second appointment, where they introduced the next cycle’s foods to ensure they are safe for us to dose him with at home. Eli started with almonds (all nuts and seeds are dosed in gummies for accurate dosing). The medical checks are the same as during the challenge, only this time he sits still for 15 minutes and then they do the health checks again. Next, they introduced cooked quail egg yolk, in such a teeny tiny amount! Eli said it tasted good, which was surprising given he doesn’t remember the taste of eggs from when he was a baby, and the texture is pretty unique. He had no symptoms of a reaction and we were deemed safe to dose him at home. I will write a post on the prep work we do (will do!) for this dosing cycle and what Eli is eating for breakfast now!