The Bryans Brief 2003

Well it is hard to believe that another year is almost gone. So lets see how our year panned out.

Well Mathew started High school and everything went well. But about two weeks in he was diagnosed with diabetes. As you can image this was quite a shock for all of us. Thank god for the knowledge we had learnt from Chris as this opened our eyes to the signs.

It all started when we went down the coast to my Mums on the weekend of the 7th and 8th of February. Both Chris, I and my Mum noticed that Mathew was drinking a fair amount, but weren’t overly concerned, as the weather was quite warm.

So we checked his Blood Glucose Levels (BGL) on Chris’s meter on the Sunday morning before breakfast and the reading was 13, this is a bit high he should be under 8. So we thought may be he is out of whack due to a new school year and the stress involved in that. Anyway about two days later he came down with a stomach bug so we thought that could be reason for the high reading. Your BGL is affected by lots of things such as stress and illness. Anyway a week after we where at Mums’, we tested him again and his reading was even higher 15. So off to the doctors Chris and Mathew went. Any way, to cut a long story short the doctor tested for ketones in Mathew’s urine and somewhere present so he sent them straight to the hospital and the rest as they say is history.

Mathew spent the next 2 1/2 days in hospital learning how to take care of himself, what to eat, when to eat, how to inject himself and how to check his BGL, etc. As you can image he was devastated on the Sunday but amazingly he was OK with it by Monday afternoon. He gave himself his first injection on Tuesday morning and hasn’t looked back. Both Chris and I had to learn how to mix his dose and even give him the injection. This was quite difficult for me as I hate needles. He had to start out using syringes rather than a pen because the syringes are the hardest, and if his pen broke he would need to go back to the syringes.

He was coping very well with all of this, then we were told he might have Coeliac Disease, which is an intolerance to Gluten, which is found in just about everything. Finally in October this diagnosis’s was confirmed. This puts a whole new twist on what he can have with his diabetes but I am sure that he will handle this as well as us.

Any way the other boy in the family, Daniel, finishes Year 10 this year and goes on to do Year 11 and 12 at College. He hopes to either be a Network Administrator or an IT Teacher at High School. We will wait and see. He was able to work experience with the help desk support for the ATO and loved it. He didn’t like the early starts or the long days so he was quite tried by the end of the week, poor baby. He hopes to go back over the holidays.

We have been arranging suits for his graduation, and the car to get him and his mates their. He has chosen a black suit with a coat that sits somewhere between his knees and ankles. I must admit he will look great. He and his mates are going to the function at Parliament House in a black Stretch Limo, sipping sparkling apple juice.

One of the most amazing things that Daniel has done this year is get his ‘L’s’. This is very hard to deal with. He has had a few lessons and seems to being doing OK. Chris and he went out for quite awhile before he wanted me, and I wanted to go in the car with him. The first time I did I was sitting in the back with Mathew, and having to be calmed down by Mathew. We made the trip home safety and now he drives to school most days with me and we have come to an understanding that when he goes driving with his dad he does certain things but when you are with Mum you do other things. This mainly takes in the speed around roundabouts and corners.

When they teach them to drive these days they teach the push pull method so that their arms are not in the way of air bags, I don’t think he can turn the wheel fast enough doing this but I am sure he and I will come to an arrangement.

He know has a girlfriend and they seem to be getting on well her name is Ashleigh. She goes to other high school in the area but they see each other most weekends and talk on the phone every night. Unfortunately she is unable to go to his graduation because of strict rules the school has placed on the function that it is only for students from the school.

Now the other boy has changed jobs and is back working at Defence in their computer help desk area. He was told he had the job earlier in the year but due to security clearances it took until September before he could start. He loves it, he has found his niche in the world. I think he also enjoys not having to salute or say yes sir no sir to anyone, and being able to grow his hair long in a Defence environment.

We have not done much around the house this year due mainly to money restrictions. But for my birthday my Mum had a colour consultant come in and help us with colour selection. It is amazing even now how hard it is to get use to being able to put anything we want on the walls. We have painted some of the house in these new colours and what we have done looks great. So when money permits we will hopefully finish it.

As for me I have been keeping everything together for everyone else. I am still working 20 hours a week and I am still enjoying that, but other than work my year has been pretty uneventfully.

Any way hope to hear from you soon and hope that you and your family have a great Christmas and lets hope 2004 is a good year. We are hoping ours is better that 2003.

Lots love
Sue, Chris, Daniel and Mathew.