Monthly Archives: March 2017

My Peanut Free Project

Gosh, what a week!

As you may know, this blog was created because of one of my cumulative high school projects that I have been doing over the past year and a half.

Well, Friday was the project presentation day! I presented this blog to my entire school along with everyone else who presented their projects. Over 500 people showed up, including students, parents, staff members, and important community figures. It was a really big deal.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not the end of Peanut Free Gary. Even though the project is over, I feel that creating this blog has been a truly enriching experience.  This is only the beginning.  I have so much planned for the months ahead!

Before I created this blog, I was afraid to do anything on the Internet. I was always scared that people wouldn’t like the opinions I wrote about, but this blog has helped me immensely.

Thanks to the enormously positive response I have gotten from this blog, I am a much more confident person who isn’t afraid to share his ideas. I wanted to give other kids like me with serious allergies a voice, and I feel like in doing that I have also given myself one.

I am very thankful to each and every one of my readers for supporting me for the past year, and I look forward to earning that support over the next years as I continue to update this blog.

As for the presentation itself, it went incredibly well! Thanks to incredibly generous donations from two of my favorite companies, I gave out samples of Sunbutter and WOWBUTTER, and I even gave tutorials on how to administer an EpiPen with some of my trainers. It was really fun!

My parents were there too, and of course they took a bunch of pictures.

This is what my board looked like. I’m really proud of it.

And here I am with my samples. I gave away a lot of them.  The kids loved them and the parents loved how easy it was to find a substitute.  I have a few samples left over and I am planning to offer samples at lunch.  My school still offers peanut butter sandwiches in the cafeteria at lunch and I would love to see that change to on of these safe alternatives.

Here I am presenting to a bunch of people. I ended up presenting my blog to about 20 different larger groups of people, so it was quite the day for me.

I hope you guys enjoyed the pictures!

Thanks again for your continued support, and know that I have big plans for the future of this blog, even after my project is over.

Until next time!

Gary

Pnotbox Time!

It’s that time of the month again! Pnotbox time!

I recently got my Pnotbox in the mail for the month of February, and I gotta say, this might be the best month yet! I know, I know, I say that every month—-but this time REALLY!

If you haven’t read my previous Pnotbox reviews, Pnotbox is an excellent company that sells subscriptions for boxes full of nut free goodies that arrive in the mail every month!

This month, our box was so full that the top of it was bent because it was just so overflowing with stuff.

There were six delicious Quaker Oats chocolate granola bars, which mysteriously vanished within the first couple hours. What can I say? I love those things.

Speaking of granola bars, remember those MadeGood bars that I talked about in a previous post? There were some in there too. It was like granola bar heaven.

Then there were these “Crunchy Croquant”  Bear Paw cookies. I didn’t really know what a croquant was, and frankly I still don’t, but whatever they are, they were good. It was like a cookie coated in a frosting glaze, and they were my favorite things behind the granola bars.

There were also Mini Choco chocolate biscuits, which my sister and I ate everyday for breakfast. Those were very good as well.

In addition, there was also a huge box of Viva Puffs, which are similar to Whippets in that they are chocolate covered marshmallow treats, but these were fudge flavored, and I’m eating some right now as I type this.

In addition to all of that, there were apple fruit crisps, REALFRUIT biscuits (my sister’s favorite), Kit-Kat bars, and a Mars bar. Honestly, I’m amazed that all of that stuff could fit in that box. It’s like a bottomless pit, or something out of Dr. Who.

If you are interested in purchasing a Pnotbox subscription so you can get a box for April, just follow this link.

http://pnotbox.com/

As always, this is not a sponsored post. I purchased my own subscription and I  don’t receive anything if you click on the link.  I genuinely recommend this product to anyone with or without allergies.

Until next time!

Gary

Horrible Hazing

Food allergy incidents, like any issue where people could end up hospitalized are a big deal. However, while each incident is sad, stories like this are much more real and hard-hitting when they happen close to you.

As a Michigander and a high school student beginning to look at potential colleges, this story really hit me.

Recently, a mother by the name of Teresa Seely posted on social media that she had learned that her son with deadly allergies was exposed to peanut butter in October in Central Michigan University.

He had been passed out when a member of the fraternity of Alpha Chi Rho smeared peanut butter on his face as an act of hazing, knowing about his deadly allergy.

The fraternity had been banned in the past for hazing incidents, so this isn’t a lone incident.

This is a picture of him after his reaction

He had later transferred out of CMU after the semester was over.

Paramedics say he was “lucky to be alive” after the incident because of his deadly allergy.

OK, I gotta say that this grinds my gears a little. People just don’t seem to get that this is a dangerous thing. It isn’t something to fool around about as a college prank. This stuff kills people. Period.

As a person who really isn’t that far off from college, this scares me as well. I want to feel safe at the place where I will be going to school and potentially even living at for four or more years.  These were not complete strangers.  This was a group of his peers that he chose to spend time with.  A group of people he admired enough that he hoped to become one of them.

It’s just scary because I CAN TOTALLY SEE THAT BEING ME! Like, I’m genuinely scared to close my eyes for extended periods of time in public places now because of the off chance that someone might “pull a prank” on me or something. It is just so real it’s scary.

As I begin to look at colleges.  I have been focusing on classes and programs offered.  I have been starting to also look into the possibility of living in a dorm or eating daily in a cafeteria.  Something like this never even crossed my mind.

I would love to hear your opinion on this, whether you are a student or a parent.  I have thought a lot about this since it hit the news.  Feel free to comment below or on my Facebook.

Until next time!

Gary

The future is now!

So many medical advancements have been made in the past years regarding fixes to allergies, but I am always cautious about new technology, and I always wait until things are tested before I begin to get excited.

Well, when it comes to the Viaskin Patch, I am officially excited.

Over the past years, DBV Technologies has been leading the way for allergy immunotherapy research through the development of their Viaskin Patch.

The Viaskin Patch works by administering trace amounts of peanut protein into your immune system through the patch. Since it doesn’t go through your bloodstream, early trials are showing it may be a safe way to increase your tolerance to peanut products.

DBV technologies recently released reports that children who have been tested with this product can digest 1000 milligrams of peanut protein, which is 10 times more peanut protein than they had been able to without the patch.

I gotta say, this is promising stuff. I of course will wait until more research is published, but at the rate things are going, in a matter of just a few years, this might be going public.

I guess that means I’ll have to go from being Peanut Free Gary to Various Allergens Free Gary! That’s got a nice ring to it.

If you are interested in learning more about the peanut patch, be sure to check out this link to a Business Insider article about the patch. It’s really fascinating stuff!

http://www.businessinsider.com/dbv-technologies-peanut-allergy-patch-phase-2b-data-2017-3

Until next time!

Gary