Little Rock- the medical pix

Our destination:

Testing his breathing before starting the challenge.

Skin test results. Overall, negatives. The only slightly responsive dose was his current 2000mg dose. Weird, huh?

Getting ready for the IV. UGH. Took FOUR nurses to hold him down for this.

IV in and Food Challenge in progress. Austin's very hungry and tired. He's not allowed to eat until an hour after his last dose- so he gets nothing but 2 cups of ice cream until 3pm that day.

Much of the day is sitting and waiting. Here he's just tired and bored and sick of being poked at.

This is is final dose of the day... and this was the last of the 5000mg of active peanut. We're expecting SOMETHING from the kid, but it all amounts to nothing. YAY!

Austin's so happy here. He's uncomfortable with the IV and the board to keep his arm straight. Here he's finally getting it off.

Austin's showing you his IV site.

Our Little Rock trip

We saw Jeff Gordon's car at Charlotte airport!

We got to LR early on Sunday. With a whole day to waste, we went to the Science Center. It sucked, but Austin kinda liked it anyways.



Austin liked the bug exhibit. Ask him about the tarantulas.

Sunday Evening. Austin's showing off the Lego Indy pack he earned by showing up in LR. He bought AJ the exact same set.

Sunday. Swimming at the hotel.


Monday morning. Notice the somber look. Austin knows the shots and skin tests are just minutes away. He got very irritable once we headed out of the hotel that morning.

This is Ozzy, ready to go home. We were at this customer service counter for an hour and a half.. but that's a story for another time.

Before and After

The first picture was taken in September 2006, when Austin started the study. The second picture was taken yesterday.

Austin Passed His Food Challenge

Austin ingested 5000 mg of peanuts today - with no reaction! He didn't take the shots as well as he let on this morning - they had to hold him down to draw blood. More to come...

Food Challenge

Today is the day. Austin's regular dose is 2000mg and he will be attempting a 5000mg food challenge.

I am: anxious, scared, hopeful, doubtful...
Austin is: cool, calm and collected.

Yesterday Ozzy said, "I'm not afraid of shots anymore... well, still a little afraid"

Fingers crossed and update coming probably this afternoon.

Little Rock

Austin and I head out to Little Rock tomorrow (Sunday) bright and early. Austin has his food challenge on Monday and a follow-up visit on Tuesday morning. We'll be back home in Tampa very late on Tuesday night.

Since we'll have a ton of extra time, we're planning on going to the science museum & Toys R Us on Sunday and maybe going to the Clinton Library or the zoo on Tuesday.

Fingers crossed that Ozzy passes the food challenge! I'll try to post from the hotel on Monday evening after the FC.

First Gold Belt Class

Easter Bunny

We went to McDonalds today. AJ asked for his food in the car. After opening his lunch, he starts saying to me, "HEY! We got an Easter Bunny toy!" I'm confused, but I say ok. When I get home, I see this toy:

So I say, "OHHH, you mean and Easter ISLAND toy! hahaha"
and AJ asks, "Are there a lot of hidden eggs on Easter Island?"

Nate gets hold of my camera again

This looks like him laying in the toddler bed?


I would guess he's taking pix of his finger directly on the camera lens again.

Oz and AJ get a haircut

Zoo on Sunday

It was very busy and we didn't get there right at opening time, so we skipped on feeding the beloved lorikeets. Instead we went to the Birds of Prey show and visited the stingrays.


You can actually touch the stingrays. Nathan LOVED this and laughed out loud every time his hand brushed against one.

Gold Belts

Oz and AJ earned their gold belts in Jiu Jitsu on Saturday. We're very proud!

This is before class. They're holding their attendance cards that have around 90 days of attendance logged.


This was right after class. Nathan ran up and gave each of them a big hug.

AJ was so excited when his name got called to the front that he actually jumped up in the air and twirled.

Austin's classroom

This is Austin:

This was up on the 'Spring Break' wall.

I love his pic of SpongeBob. It's remarkably accurate.

This says, "I am good at Jiu Jitsu"

Austin's End of Year party!

Austin's last day of school is June 4th (next Thurs). They had his end of year party today. It was very cute- they made ice cream sundaes, sang songs, made visors, blew bubbles, got awards, and had a water balloon fight. I went and brought AJ and Nate.

It was a Luau theme. Here was Austin's craft- a visor!

This is the ice cream sundae bar. They also had lemonade. AJ and Nate are in the background 'helping' to set up before the class got back from lunch.

Here's the whole class. Austin's in the back row in the WWE shirt.

Nate played here for much of the time. I think he's ready for kinder!

Mrs. Yeloushan and Austin.

Nathan started playing around at the computer center.

AJ and Ben having a water balloon toss. As you can see, Ben missed a perfectly thrown balloon.

Austin and some kid. I forget his name. As you can see, Austin missed a perfectly thrown balloon.

Nathan doing the hop scotch. I was surprised when he appeared to know what to do with this... I don't think he had ever seen it before. He loves jumping!

It was a luau theme and it looked like it was going to rain. AJ's clowning around with the drink umbrella trying to stay dry.