Unforeseen changes, at home and down the pub.

Only a month ago I was joking with friends, at a monthly pub session, that this particular group of nine men would never again be together in that room. And earlier this week I was proved to be correct. None of us have died, but when some of us turned up for our January get together, we found that the pub had closed. So this time we drank at The Castle instead of The Foresters.

Over the last month our three year old has been through some changes too. We are in a lottery that is a growing toddler, food fads and fancies, multiple exercise options and opportunities, with the whole lot spiced up with type 1 diabetes. And it has thrown up some surprises. For some reason his total daily dosage of insulin has had to be halved in the last month. More alarmingly, his daytime bloodsugar readings have been rocketing, which, if unchecked will lead to serious problems later on. Today we had our quarterly meeting at the hospital with his specialist doctor and nurse, and we start a new insulin and testing regime tomorrow. There was nothing wrong with how we were managing him, but stuff changes.

We must make the changes, but it will be more invasive than his old regime. He will now be needing at least three insulin injections a day, and at least three blood tests too. And we have had the first signs of distress from his thyroid, a common problem for people with diabetes, so that's another layer of complication for his body and us to deal with. It is very distressing, but there's absolutely no point wasting our energy and capacity railing against it. We have practical tasks to see to, from injection schedules, food plans, and keeping him moving, to planning his home education. Until he's old enough to look after himself he needs 24 hour monitoring, care and management, and we will of course be doing that for him.

And on Planet Frank, life's going well, as he enjoys his life at home and on holiday, with his parents, friends and family. No punchline to today's blog as we're in a sober but determined mood, gearing up for the next stage of Frank's life. He's a grand lad, and we'll do our best.