Just a drop please.

No, I mean literally, just a drop. a few weeks ago, Nathan graduated to real peanut powder! Not a lot of it, but we now have the real deal peanut dust, double bagged and stashed in a designated drawer of the fridge.

I found this image for a reference. The smallest spoon attached to the ring is a drop measurement. The largest is a tablespoon.

A Non-Peanut Related Post

The Frontiersmen

I know that this blog has been recently focused on the peanut desensitization treatment that my son is undergoing, but I would like to interrupt this regularly scheduled blogcast to announce a rather momentous occasion in my life. During one of our outings to Texas this summer, I came across an interesting book by Allan W. Eckert, called The Frontiersmen.

While I have mentioned before that I am generally a slow reader, this book absolutely wrapped my attention and in the period of less than five weeks I have zipped through this amazing 600 page historical narrative about the frontiersmen Simon Kenton and his Shawnee counterpart Tecumseh.

I recommend this book and it's five subsequent volumes (which I have yet to read). They offer an enthralling and personal yet brutal portrait of life on the early American frontier.

On a slightly unrelated note, notice the new fall colors in the background. Boy I wish it would snow.

It's The Real Stuff Maynard.

Well, we are back from the seventh appointment. Each visit has seen a doubling of the amount of peanut protein Nathan has to take each day. We returned from this trip with actual, bone-fide peanut powder. Yikes!

We don't have much of the stuff, maybe one tablespoon full, but it will last us a while because we are using a half of a drop dose this week.

For a little perspective, Nathan's dose is currently one half of a drop of the protein. A drop is about the size of a roley poley bug or a half or a frozen pea. We have a ridiculously tiny little itty bitty scoop and have to cut the amount in half with a knife.

The amazing thing is not how little it is, but how much Nathan is taking without a reaction.

Consider that there are around 20 drops in a CC or a ML. Currently we are at 1/40th of a CC. Each week they have doubled that dose for the last seven weeks. Do the math and last week we were at 1/80 of a CC and 1/160th the week before. The dose gets smaller and smaller and smaller until we are absolutely blown away by the minuscule amount that it took to set off a reaction just seven weeks ago.

We really do appreciate your prayers and will continue to keep you updated.

Half a Cubic Centimeter

Just a quick update on the peanut desensitization front. Nathan has so far handled the increased doses amazingly well. This week, he was bumped up to 0.5 cc of stock solution. I am not really sure what stock means as far as the diluted amount goes, but the liquid looks much more peanut colored and Nathan says that it tastes weird.

Next week is the big break. No more prepared syringes for this family. We will be returning home with a large bag of peanut powder next week. Talk about frightening, for the rest of this year, we will have a huge bag of this stuff in the very house that we live! 

Those of you who are gnawing on a Snickers bar as you read this will just have to take our word for it, It is disconcerting.

Next week Nathan will be taking two daily doses of a half a drop of straight peanut powder.

Things are going amazingly well. We have to rise early in order to have the recommended two hours of rest after the dose, but other than that, life is good.