After 11 months, ~3,450 miles driven, 92+ hours in the car, and 29 hours in the doctor's office we have an official OIT graduate! Today the child who would react if you had peanut on you and touched her ate the nutter butter equivalent of 24 peanuts! Every single minute of time and every mile driven has been 100% worth it!
I think Paul and I both had some happy tears when the doctor came in to do his final check and said she was good to go. This process has been absolutely amazing. We were so glad that she didn't really have any bumps in the road so she was able to finish before kindergarten started.
Ruthie's shirt today said "Be Fearless" and this kid has been an absolute trooper throughout the whole process. She was definitely nervous at the beginning of OIT because she knew that she was eating peanut and that contradicted everything we had always told her! There were days, especially toward the end when she was eating a LOT of peanuts every morning, that she would get upset about having to eat the peanuts but she powered through. We now have things (like peanut butter and nutter butters) that we can substitute for actual peanuts which makes her much happier!
After her appointment we stopped and celebrated with some Cold Stone (her doctor had given her a gift card at our last appointment and she still had some to use). The best moment was when Ruthie was deciding what topping she wanted and she asked if she could have Reese's cups. I paused for a moment and realized YES! She ended up choosing Oreos but I think for me that was the moment when everything really sunk in. Not only do we not have to fear peanuts but now we can say YES to peanuts.
So what does life look like now? Ruthie will eat 8 peanuts (or the equivalent of 8 peanuts) every day, most likely for forever although that could change with future research. After she eats her peanuts she has a 2 hour rest period. We've learned that she can do lots of things during this rest period and it's really not a big deal at all. We don't have to worry about cross contamination. Ruthie can "freely" eat peanuts outside of her daily dose. She does have to observe the 2 hour rest period after eating them so we will have to be selective about when she eats peanut but it can be done! We will now see her OIT doctor once a year just for a little check up.
We can't say enough good things about Ruthie's allergist. He has been amazing throughout the whole process. I knew when we went for Ruthie's consult 2 years ago that he was the doctor we wanted taking care of our daughter. He has a true passion for his patients and loves helping people. He has been available anytime we have questions or problems...even on Christmas Day when she was sick! He has contacted us to check on her after she had some small reactions at the beginning. He helped settle our anxiety when the whole process started and he has celebrated each new milestone with us. I will be forever thankful that we found him!
PS. Dr. Williams gave Ruthie this fabulous picture today! She loves it and has already found a special spot for it in her room.
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