Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The third time's a charm

You may notice that each post for the next few months will begin with words like "afraid", "scared", "worried", "yikes" and "Oh my sweet potato pie".

Please don't come away with the impression that we are a family of 'fraidy cats. Its just that the process of giving our son daily doses of a deadly poison, tends to make our knees weak.

This last trip saw our son's twice daily dose increase to an undiluted one tenth of of a cc of peanut protein in a liquid suspension. In terms that might be easier to understand, the amount of liquid that he is taking, is less than the size of a quarter inch of the length of a number two pencil. It is smaller that one of those little round lego pieces with one knob on top. In volume, if you were to cut a penny in thirds, this is about the same amount as one of those thirds. Compared to a can of soda, it would take 3550 of these doses to equal one can. In short, there is not a lot of stuff in these doses.

To combat the natural response of his body, he is on a 24 Antihistamine, a twice daily inhaler and is required to rest for at least two hours after each dose.

Nathan is doing great, despite a rash that the doctor is not positive is related and slight swelling around his eyes, he is a trooper and is taking it all in stride.

As a parent, I would take a bullet for my son and I have to tell you that the feelings of helplessness here are tremendous. This semester will be a great lesson in trusting God's grace.

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