For my grandparents

This post is slightly different from my previous ones as I don’t think it will be completely relatable to many people, but it is just something that I wanted to write more for myself. My grandparents were incredibly special to me and as it is my Grandad’s birthday today, I thought this post would be a nice way for me to pay tribute to both his and my Nanna’s memories. As well as my parents, my Nanna and Grandad played a huge part in my life and in my diet and I thought that they deserved to be acknowledged for all that they did for me (especially after my earlier post which I dedicated to my parents - see http://thepkulife.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/shout-out-to-my-parents-for-doing.html).

My Nanna and Grandad were essentially like another set of parents to me. I spent so much time with them as a young child; I was at their house a lot the time and I even went on holiday with them a few times. They were completely involved with my PKU from the beginning. As my Nanna used to look after me quite regularly she developed a very good understanding of my diet. She really enjoyed baking me all sorts of foods with the low- protein flour, particularly jam tarts. She also used to bake me cakes, not only for my own birthdays, but for whenever I attended a friend’s birthday party as a young child, which meant that I never really had to miss out that much.

A low- protein cake my Nanna baked for me

My Grandad really became more involved with my diet after my Nanna passed away. I spent a lot of time with my Grandad after school and I often stayed overnight at weekends, so he was cooking my meals on quite a regular basis but he soon came to terms with my diet. I remember that my mum and I put together a list of foods that I could eat with the weights of them equivalent to one exchange, just to make things a little easier to begin with. Although I was always able to help him out; I had a pretty clear understanding of my diet from quite a young age as I knew what I could and could not eat/ drink. When I think back now, this is probably where I developed a little more independence in dealing with my PKU.

I remember that as I got older and my amount of exchanges sometimes increased and I began to try some new foods, my Grandad would always be one of the first people to hear my good news. He was always so happy to hear how well my diet was progressing and I know that today both my Nanna and Grandad would be so pleased to see how far I have come and how much more freedom I now have with my diet.