Finally, some good news

Well, it's been a little crazy the last few days / weeks. With coronavirus ramping up, life is ramping waaaay down. Molly's school will be closed for the next 4 weeks and the kids will be e-learning from home instead. I just found out tennis classes are cancelled and the gym will be closed. I cancelled my girls' trip to Mexico. We cancelled our Spring Break trip to London and Switzerland. We're all disappointed, but what can you do? People need to just wait this thing out. For now, my office is open, but there's a chance we may be working from home for a few weeks. It's pretty nuts.

But wait, I titled this blog post, "Finally, some good news." What's the good news? Well, Molly is officially scheduled to start OIT - oral immunotherapy - in May! We've been on the wait list for a little while. She had the opportunity to start last summer, but we passed it up because of summer camp. But now, it's time!

So what is OIT? Basically, Molly will start taking mini doses of the nuts she's allergic to every morning until she is desensitized and no longer allergic. It is a loooong process. She'll have to do this every morning for 6 months to a year, with appointments every 1 to 2 weeks to increase her dose until she's able to eat handfuls of these nuts. She'll have to get up early, and make sure she doesn't do any physical activity for a couple of hours after taking her dose. And then after she is through the official Dr's office part of the process, she's still going to have to eat these nuts every day for a couple of years to make sure she keeps her tolerance up.

It's a pretty big commitment, but people who have done it say it is absolutely life changing. For the most part, Molly's allergies are pretty under control. She is so good about checking labels and asking if things contain nuts. It's not holding her back from doing things, but it's a pain.

For example, when we still thought we were going to Switzerland, the Dr said we'd need extra epi pens, and benadryl, and a prescription for steroids in case of an allergic reaction while trapped on a plane over the Atlantic. We'd have to have all of the nuts she's allergic to translated on cards in different languages in case we ended up at a restaurant where the wait staff didn't speak English. We had to tell her in advance she probably wasn't going to be able to have Swiss chocolate or pastries on the trip since hazelnuts are everywhere in Switzerland. Not the end of the world, but allergic reactions are scary and I know Molly lives with a certain amount of fear. 

There's no guarantee that this will work, but it does work for most people who are able to follow the protocol and keep it up. Molly is pretty determined and I think she'll do well. And she's at a good age too - we'll hopefully have it done before the teenage years when everything becomes a battle.

Two months until we start. I'm happy to have something to look forward to!