Peanut Allergy Treatment plus Milk, Egg, Wheat, Cashew Allergies: All Successfully Treated

Peanut allergy, milk allergy and other food allergies can now be successfully treated!
Dr. Richard Wasserman at Dallas Allergy Immunology (DAI) has been providing Food Oral Immunotherapy (OIT) since 2008 for people allergic to peanuts, milk and eggs.
Over time the OIT program has expanded to treat wheat, tree nut and soy allergies.

My son Alexander has been successfully desensitized to peanuts. This blog documents every phase of his treatment.
Alexander "graduated" in 2011 and eats a maintenance dose of 8 peanuts per day.

According to the DAI Quarterly Newsletter published July 2012:
"DAI has a number of children who have graduated from our Food OIT program and are now eating eggs, peanuts, cashews, pecans and wheat or drinking milk without reactions"

"This program is designed for a child of school age or older who will be old enough to understand the reasons for participating and be actively engaged in the process."

Below are the current Oral Immunotherapy treatment statistics from DAI's June newsletter.
Patients who have graduated or "completed" the program are considered desensitized to their particular food allergy.

"From 2008 to present:
Egg
27 complete, 3 active

Milk
39 complete, 16 active

Peanut
81 complete, 26 active

Cashew
1 complete, 1 active

Wheat 
3 complete 0 active

Pecan
0 complete, 1 active"

This program has provided Alexander both physical and mental relief. Allergies to peanuts, tree nuts and a few other foods can be deadly. Food allergies in general can be very debilitating.

For more information see:
Peanut Allergic Teenager Eats a Peanut

Milk Allergy Treatment 

Peanut and Food Allergy Testing Results for Alexander Over the Years

Precise Dose for Peanut Oral Immunotherapy Treatment

Peanut Allergic Teen Officially Desensitized to Peanuts

Roadblocks

Roadblocks. Dictionary.com defines "roadblocks" as "an action, condition, etc., that obstructs progress toward an objective:"

Objective-Desensitize our son to peanuts. Not a simple task.
Having only found out in mid-August this was possible I have been on a fast track mission.
I immediately scheduled Alexander to start in September.

Roadblock #1-
We were all set and arrived for our initial medical visit with Dr. Wasserman at Dallas Allergy Immunology.
A few days later we were scheduled to begin Peanut Oral Immunotherapy Day 1
- yet this was not to be.

During our med checkup the nurse administered a PFT or Pulmonary Function Test
to measure how well Alexander's lungs are working.
Pulmonary Function testing measures the function of lung capacity and lung and chest wall mechanics to determine whether or not the patient has a lung problem.
The patient blows air into a measuring device blowing out as much as they can, then inhales as deeply as possible. This is repeated 3 or more times. The goal is to get a reproducible result that is consistent

The nurse kept asking our son to try harder. "Hmmm, try again Alexander".
I was blissfully unaware that there might be a problem.
At one point she thought perhaps her machine was malfunctioning.
To our horror (and the doctors surprise) Alexander's PFT revealed his lungs were functioning at 60%.  An "abnormal result" per the doctor. 
I felt like a bad Mom. Why didn't I detect this health issue? How could our son perform well in sports and school with such a low level of lung function?  
I just think Alexander got used to the way he "was".  He had adjusted.  This was "his normal". Thank goodness we found out.

So the peanut program was off.

Alexander embarked on a protocol to increase his lung function. He does have mild asthma or so we thought.
Obviously his asthma was hiding in a more silent way than wheezing etc.

In the end we were thankful for this "roadblock" as it revealed a serious health issue of which we were unaware.

Leave it to a teenager to be able to play sports, attend school and live life with,
to quote Dr. Wasserman "an unacceptable level of disability"
Who knew.

(We are so thankful for the advances and breakthroughs in medical science that allow such a program to now be offered by a few doctors.)

So now what?