There can be a darker side to participating in a peanut clinical trial as a mom in our community recently discovered. We had a "sunshine and roses" food challenge experience, i.e., it was all good. Her and her son....not so much. With her permission, I thought it important that you hear her story. And, don't worry, it's not all doom and gloom.
They had a rough go of it right from the start. Her son was one of the original and unlucky participants in the SLIT trial at Duke that was impacted by a lab snafu and had to re-start the trial. This was after having already driven back and forth for months. She lives a couple of towns over from me, and it's a long drive. I can attest to how horrible it would have been if Abigail had to start over. In her son's case he had been on the placebo drops and would have had to begin again anyway. In my opinion, I think that's somewhat a blessing. I think it would have been even harder to bear if a child had been on the peanut protein and still had to start over. Fortunately, these children were guaranteed that they would receive the peanut protein drops when they re-entered the study. Needing a break, they didn't immediately re-enter and ended up starting back after us. So, with Abigail's food challenge success fresh in her mind, they showed up for their 8 a.m. appointment.
He received the placebo during the morning challenge. During the peanut flour challenge that afternoon, all was going well, and he was showing no clinical signs (rash, hives, runny nose, stomach pains, vomiting, etc.) of a reaction. By the next to the last dose though his mom's gut instinct was kicking in, and she was ready to call it quits. It was that final dose that did it, and her son went into full anaphylaxis. From her account, our doctor and nurses handled the situation fabulously. They gave him Benadryl, and were ready to wait to see if that was enough. Seeing her child the reddest of reds, covered with baby hives and having difficulty breathing, she insisted that they give him an epinephrine injection.
Having made it through all the doses, I can just imagine the shock of seeing the worst of reactions with no signs leading up to that point. Our doctor recorded that he was able to tolerate 8 of the 9 doses. Her question though, and a very valid one, is what if it was a delayed reaction? What if given more time between dose increases, he would have had a reaction at a smaller dosage? Without another food challenge, it's probably impossible to say. And, given her experience, she confirmed that that wasn't going to happen again anytime soon.
Now, for the positive. Bottom line, he was able to consume peanuts, and with a starting IgE number of over 200 that's significant. He probably could even consume enough to eliminate considerable worry about the possibility of cross-contamination. And, more importantly, her son is no worse for the wear! He still takes his drops without worry. Can't say the same for mom. She's a little traumatized over the whole experience and says knowing that after consuming an unknown amount of peanuts, he can go from 0 to 100 without any type of warning had her doubling the amount of Epi Pens they kept on hand. She also feels guilt over having put him in that situation to begin with.
They're sticking with the study. Like us, I think they feel blessed that they do have the opportunity to participate. I know so many of you readers pray for that time when either the end results of these clinical trials are available for you or your children or such time when a clinical trial comes to a location nearby. We do this with the full realization that we're providing our children a different path down life's very difficult journey. Having had to experience an anaphylactic reaction really stinks, and it's not something even our doctors want to have happen. But, in her case, it was part of providing that different path...that path to becoming peanut allergy free!
