Today I received the message from the allergist about the little guy's blood work. It seems his IgE level is 22. That is not yet at the goal of 15 that is required to enter the next phase of the study. It seems like going from 29 down to 22 is not a very big drop. On the contrary, he has made a great deal of progress. The allergist said that when people start this type of allergy treatment their IgE can rise 50-100 points as the body reacts to ingesting the allergen. (hence all the fun stomach upset the little guy experienced) So if you take that into consideration, his number could have gotten as high as
80-130 during the initial phase of the study. To be back down now to 22 means that his immune system is showing a good response. That's our M.O. around here, always "moving in the right direction"!
Now our plan is to hold the course for the next 3-4 months or even longer to give his number a chance to come down nicely--preferably well below 15 according to the allergist. The little guy will keep eating his 3-5 peanuts a day and we will plug along. The allergist doesn't want to torture him with too many blood draws and wants to wait long enough that the next one will hopefully be the last. It takes a lot for doctors to impress me and this guy is good.
to be continued...
Hi - I found your blog and just read the whole thing! :) My 4 y/o has a severe peanut allergy and we are planning to start a similar desensitization program when he turns 5. How are things going with your son's treatment?
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