Hospital visit: First PKU Group session

On Tuesday I travelled to Sheffield’s Northern General hospital to attend my annual check- up. I can’t say that I usually look forward to these appointments very much, although it is always nice to catch up with my dietitian and doctor to talk about how things are going, I mostly dread this time of year because it also means I have to have my bloods done (I have a huge phobia of needles and blood, so it’s never much fun!).

However, this Tuesday was slightly different because my clinic have just started up ‘PKU Group sessions’. I’m not sure whether this is the usual practise in other clinics around the UK but at the moment my clinic are just trialling this to see how things go. For those who don’t already know, on top of having a one- to- one talk with your doctor and dietitian, a PKU Group session offers you the chance to meet other PKU patients in your area. You can also get updates on research, meet representatives from companies such as Cambrooke, Vitaflo and Mevalia, trial samples of their new products and pick up some freebies too (kind of like a mini conference). As I was so excited about all of this, the fact that I was having my bloods taken as well was pushed to the back of my mind for a little while which was nice.

I love everything about these group sessions, but I think the most important part for me is having the chance to meet other PKU patients. I think I have said it before, but as PKU is such a rare condition it is not very often at all that I get to meet people like myself and it can feel quite lonely at times. So even just being able to sit in the same room as other PKU patients and have conversations about relatable experiences going on around me, is both a surreal yet wonderful thing.

At this session I also spoke to Vitaflo (the company who produce the Cooler, my old supplement) and I had the opportunity to try out their new supplement, 'Sphere', for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised so I have arranged for some samples to be sent out to me. Watch this space for a review of 'Sphere' soon!

I hope that PKU Group sessions do continue to happen in the future because I certainly found this first one to be enjoyable and extremely useful. If this is something which isn’t yet happening in your clinic then maybe it could be something to suggest to your dietitian?

Read a similar post here and find out how the PKU conference helped me:
https://thepkulife.blogspot.com/2017/11/heres-how-pku-conference-helped-me.html