Today I thought I would organise a box of things we need for taking Keir’s weekly blood test . It has been stored in an old shoe box which has started to fall apart.
We used to take blood from Keir once every other day and then when he was around 6 months old we have only needed to do it once a week. He used to have his blood taken from his heel and about 6 months ago we moved to his fingers. His dad does the blood test, I have not been brave enough to do it yet. His daddy will ask which finger he would like him to take blood from and Keir will choose and point one . He does a very cute squint with his eyes but hardly ever cries. Brave brave soldier!
For keeping the blood test things, I used a clear box which we had bought from Ikea and found some animal theme stickers from one of their sticker books and stuck them on. He hasn’t seen it yet but I am sure he will be distracted for few minutes looking at these. I will let him decorate his box with some more stickers later.
Here’s the list of things we keep in here:
- Little plasters for little fingers
- Cotton wool to stop the bleeding
- Lancets for pricking his finger ( we have three different types in the box which we have used in different stages. We currently are using the mushroom type – white with blue tip)
- NHS Guthrie Test Card (same as newborn heel prick card) and protective sleeves
- Brown envelope with lab’s address on
- Finally First Class stamps
We aimed to do his blood tests on Sundays and put them in the post for Monday. We usually get the results from the hospital via text message by Friday of that week. If his results are out of range then the dietitians will call us to discuss.
pkuandmyfamily.com 
Love it! Why did you guys have to take blood once every other day? We have always done heel pricks once a week ever since my son was born, he just turned 1. I’m just curious. I really need to organize our blood taking supplies as well. Looks good!
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How interesting. We were told by the hospital to do it every other day. Which hospital is your son being treated at? We started off at John Radcliffe and later moved to Great Ormond Street Hospital.
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We live in Norman, Ok and we send in his blood work to OU Children’s Hospital. I guess it’s different everywhere you go!
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We are in UK. We were told by the hospital that PKU diet is managed differently in every country but I wasn’t sure what the differences were.
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I love your organization here! I am going to get my fiance a fun box for his blood test supplies now. He’s trying to go back on diet and be better about testing his blood… I feel overwhelmed sometimes by all the different aspects of PKU treatment. (I’m new to caring for someone with PKU).
Anyways, I found your blog to be very informative and quite encouraging actually! I read several of your recipe posts and a few others as well. I look forward to seeing more fun things as you post them:) Thank you for sharing your heart and your story with the blogging community!
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Thank you Christina. It is really nice to read your lovely comments. I met a few people returning to PKU Diet here in UK and they said it was the best decision they made and felt much better once they were on it. It is a rigid diet as you said lots to get your head around but once you’ve done for a while it becomes easier. Best of luck to you and your fiance plus congratulations to you both!
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