Tis The Season

As we all know, it is flu season. We are all aware of the extra precautions to take in order to stay away from the tissues, cough medicine and all that yucky stuff. Well, normally, you would just wash your hands a lot more than normal and take extra vitamin C. It's a little more complicated for someone with PKU.

It's much harder to stay feeling healthy when you have PKU. Not only do you have to wash your hands regularly and take vitamin C, but you also have to take zinc. Protein has zinc (of course) and that's what helps your immune system stay healthy. You also have to make sure to eat right and follow the diet as closely as possible to make sure you are feeling healthy to begin with. If you aren't feeling well in the first place due to high protein levels, then the flu will knock you out.

I already had the flu this year and it was not fun. I had a flu shot, so luckily I didn't get it as bad as I could have. Like I have mentioned before, I have not been following the low protein diet closely in just over 4 years. So, I was hit hard with the flu this year. I am so glad I had gotten the flu shot, or I would have been in trouble.

It sounds really easy to stay on top of PKU. But there are a lot of things that you have to do and it takes a lot of money. The medication I mentioned in my last post, Kuvan, on average it costs $57,000 a year and for the maximum dose, $200,000 a year. You also have to take into consideration the traveling costs to see all your doctors. In my case, I have to drive 4 hours or 220 miles.

Not only is it the medications and the formulas expensive, but you have to think of the grocery bill. Someone with PKU eats very often. We can't have much protein, and protein is what makes someone feel full and stay full. Someone with PKU eats more often and more because we never actually feel full. So, it's only reasonable you have to buy more food. Well, that adds up.

Anyways, stay healthy everyone!!

Until next time,
Phe