That’s right! And many of our OIT’ers are headed back to school with a greater tolerance to the foods that once had them sitting at the allergy table. Some of our members have graduated high school and moved on to college life with a level of protection their parents only dreamed about until now. Other parents are just finding us and learning about the possibility of OIT before their children go to school. Wherever you are in the process, with over 40,000 facebook members in our combined groups, you can bet someone has already been where you are and happy to share stories and lend support.
While weeks race by, we are working on infrastructure for our facebook groups, websites, the nonprofit, various social media forums, and a few things we’re keeping secret until they actually work. It’s so fun behind the scenes sometimes, but other times we are grumpy and in need of a good ole’ basement moment. (Oprah)
I thought hiring a business and life coach would speed up the process of presenting the massive amounts of content we have and help add doctors to our List faster. What I found is that all this new information can be overwhelming and actually slow things down. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Even perceived “bad things” aren’t so bad when you consider that without the issue, you may never find the solution that could end up being the most valuable, life-changing resource that puts your entire purpose into focus.
Speaking with several new doctors to our groups, this is not rare. They pretty much had their practices carved out exactly how they wanted and then this news of OIT “swept in one day.” Once they started learning from our groups, website, and attending sidebar meetings at the allergy conferences, they had all sorts of new considerations. What services they want to offer, what sort of training they need, did they have adequate staff, do they need a larger facility?
It’s a lovely growing pain for all of us. How thankful we are for these “problems.”
And now it’s time for school to start again. Which, for me, means at least 5-7 hours of my day will be invested in my children since we homeschool. Our Amazing Admins have their own careers and children as well. We are trying to streamline systems to welcome in new members and doctors. Even some of our doctors are helping by working on areas of the website and helping us solidify what we have created. Others offer profound insight and guidance that help us manage everything.
My Vision of bringing doctors and patients/members together for the development of OIT is really happening! 
With everyone’s help, we are creating a collaborative process of uniting physicians, nurses, families, members, patients, and communities on various platforms to deliver the highest quality of education and care. Out of necessity, we learn what we are truly capable of.
“We’ve seen a lot of growth in your OIT groups lately. How do you do it?”
The thing is, I barely do it. I don’t have time. Our members do it. It’s called “WORD OF MOUTH.” We have been operating on a tiny budget barely covering website hosting expenses. With our GoFundMe campaign, I invested about $100 in facebook ads but quickly realized our money is better spent on website tech help than recruiting new members. Members are coming on their own. And we have the best marketing team any company or nonprofit could ever want– real life people in treatment sharing their experiences with our new members.
It’s all a balancing act. At first, we wanted people to know about OIT and who to call for treatment. Now, we have so many interested patients that we need to shift our focus to training and adding more allergists.
Your donations are helping to hire website technicians, purchase equipment and hosting plans to provide a space for people, patients, and physicians to learn about OIT, and legal fees to set up our nonprofit so we can bring in more help and fund our training and expansion opportunities. All the people on our team are volunteers, including me. Gail and our Admins built our website as a GIFT! And what a GIFT it is for all.
Our Admin team is astonishing. You should see the monstrous amount of data they are processing and how many people they are navigating through our groups–DAILY. And doctors get paid at work, but they do not get paid for contributing to our content or providing necessary guidance to me, our team, each other, and our members.
Each day it becomes more clear that we are leading the people to the true “thought leaders and doers” of the OIT Movement.
Thanks! to everyone who has offered to help with updating our files, organizing links, and sharing our links with the world. You are the reason we are here.
And Thanks! to all of you who are reaching out and answering questions for our members on facebook. You are “OIT Scholars!”
And THANKS YOU for all your donations!!! They help so much! xoxox
You can donate by clicking on our link to the right or by sending a check to:
OIT Works, Inc.
P.O. Box 394
Milford, OH 45150
Websites:
OIT101 – What is OIT? Hundreds of publications, success stories, and our List of Private Practice OIT Providers
Facebook groups:
Peanut Anaphylaxis Cure
Private Practice OIT – For those in treatment
OIT101 – To ask questions and see if OIT is a good fit for your family
OIT Trials – For those interested or in OIT clinical studies
OIT Canada, OIT UK, and OIT Australia have also been created to serve you.
Other social media venues:
Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Tumbler, Reddit, and Pinterest