I first met Julie when my husband and I were trying to get our son into a clinical trial study for his life-threatening peanut allergy. From the beginning, Julie was always very patient with us, answering the many questions we had, and taking the time to ensure we were comfortable and understood all that was expected of us, and of our son. The scariest day of my life was when we first found out our son had food allergies at the age of 6 months. The second scariest day was when he was having an anaphylactic reaction to peanuts during a visit to the CVC. Julie was with us the entire day while our son was consuming small, yet increasing amounts of peanuts at the young age of 20 months. Julie's attentiveness to his health and well-being gave us a sense of security we wouldn't have had otherwise. When he had to receive an emergency Epi-pen injection, Julie was calm and collected and gave me the reassurance that I desperately needed that he would be ok after the injection.
Over the last 11 months, we have taken many trips to the University of Michigan for his food allergies. Julie has always spoken directly to our son, engaging him in a playful manner, and easing the anxieties that a young child has with doctors. As a result of her friendly and compassionate ways towards him, he has come to trust her as much as we do. This has made taking him to numerous appointments much less stressful for everyone. Julie has also been there for our family outside of the office visits. There have been numerous occasions where our son has had symptoms and minor reactions over the past year while at home. Julie has been available to us after hours, on weekends, and anytime we had to reach out to her. She takes the time to listen to what is happening and gives advice if available, or she talks with one of the doctors and gets back to us quickly.
Having a young child with life-threatening food allergies has been very stressful. Thankfully, Julie has been there for us time and time again. Any chance I have to tell her how thankful we are for her, she turns it around and says how lucky they are to have our son in the study! Julie doesn't realize how much she goes above and beyond in our son's care, and I can only imagine this compassion is seen by all the other allergy patients as well.