Changes at Duke

I must admit, I'm anxious. Dr. Burks has accepted the position of Chair of UNC Department of Pediatrics, Physician-in-Chief of N.C. Children's Hospital and is leaving Duke University Hospital.

We received an e-mail from our doctor in charge of the Peanut Sublingual Clinical Trial assuring us that, for the time being, it was business as usual. We can expect to see changes. The trials are to move to UNC sometime next spring. So, yes, I'm anxious.

Abigail's next appointment is in January for blood work. I assume we'll drive to Durham. Her big food challenge to see if she can tolerate up to 15 peanuts is scheduled for June. That should take place in Chapel Hill. I don't mind the change in location, I just want re-assurance that there are no changes planned for the studies.

Here is the article announcing his new position.

Interview with Dr. Wesley Burks

In all of our trips to the Duke Clinical Research Unit, we've never actually met or even seen Dr. Wesley Burks (Chief of the Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC). This picture is as close as we've come. I've joked before that I feel like if we do, we should ask for his autograph given the amount of publicity he and his department get regarding their research of food allergies.  All joking aside, we are very grateful to Dr Burks and his staff at Duke for allowing Abigail the opportunity to participate in the peanut sublingual immunotherapy trial, and for giving her the chance to become peanut allergy free!

A fellow mom/blogger of food allergic children recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Burks.  She has an informative website, www.allergymoms.com and a blog at http://www.allergymoms.com/modules/wordpress/index.php.  Here is the link to her interview with Dr. Burks.  It gives a great overview of the immunotherapy clinical trials, some results they've seen, next steps, etc.  There's more information on the oral immunotherapy trials (peanut flour) than the sublingual (drops that Abigail takes) because that was the original trial, and they have 5 plus years of data.  Our doctor for the sublinugal trial has submitted a paper and hopes that it will be published soon.  We're looking forward to reading about the current successes of the sublingual study.  It's neat to know that Abigail's data is a part of those results.