My name is Julie and I have PKU. I wanted to take a few moments to share my experiences with you. I am 22 and I have 3 brothers, but I am the only one with this condition.As a child I can remember feeling a little different particularly at meal times. My parents were great though: there were always making stories up about my special diet. My brothers, who are all older than me were also involved my education.
There were times when they would use it as a hold over me, particularly when we were fighting. They would chant “we can eat chocolate but Julie can’t…”. I can still picture them doing it. I would get angry, although I don’t think it was because I couldn’t eat chocolate, it was more because they were picking on me. I have to admit I did try chocolate at an early age but I never liked the taste. They were good to me overall and they always looked out for me, some times too much.
Eating out was fun, we would get some funny looks from people as we brought out the scales to weigh the fries and other stuff. Overall this was rare: we did have a game to come up with the best reason for doing it. Once we convinced this old couple that I was a space cadet from NASA getting ready for my first flight!!
As time went on I did start to rebel, this was mainly in my late teen years. I got a real liking for McDonalds! I think I did suffer though… my grades went down and I put on weight.
Now that I am older I am back on my special diet: I would like to start a family in the near future and its real important for the pregnancy phase.
Well that ends my little blog, I hope it was of some interest to you. Just remember, even though you have PKU you can still live your life.