SWAN meet up: New friends to be made?….I hope so!

Today is the big day for us. This is the day that the members of SWAN UK that live in the North East are getting together for the first time ever. There have been a number of SWAN families getting together around the country and it has been a great success so far. Unfortunately for a few families in the North East it was a little too far/expensive to travel to the big one so we decided to have our own little outing instead!

Swan Meet Up: Hesitation and Excitement

I am feeling a little apprehensive about the meeting though as much as I am excited at the same time. I guess it is a side effect of being so socially isolated for such a long time that you don’t really know what to expect when you finally do put yourself out there for everyone to see. It is a daunting experience but at the same time I know that the people I am meeting up with are also in the same situation and will be feeling the same nerves as well.

I guess there are some nerves there about Pretzel as well though because she has been getting a lot more violent recently and it is always a worry that she may lash out and hurt one of the other children or that one of her meltdowns may just spark off everyone else’s child as well. I am also a bit nervous as well because I am still battling my binge eating demons and they have been resurfacing recently causing me to feel a lot more insecure than normal and to be a lot more body conscious at the same time. Don’t get me wrong, I am doing fantastically well in losing 50lbs since January this year and also finding my blood sugar levels have returned to ‘normal’ because of my weight loss. That was a big surprise at my check up the other day but a very pleasant one!

SWAN Meet Up: New friends and a new social life?

I am hoping that this meeting of all of us in the North East is going to be one of many more in the future. While I know that we all have different pressures and different issues to deal with in our lives, I do hope that we will find some time to just get together for a cup of coffee and a chat every now and then. Actual human contact with people who understand what we are saying about Pretzel is so rare but when it does happen it can set us up for months just knowing that there are people who DO understand and who ARE interested in what we are saying. I am not trying to take anything away from the rest of the wonderful SWAN family on the Facebook group but I am sure they would agree that actual conversation in person is far better than some text on a screen.

SWAN UK: Lauren Roberts

Finally I want to acknowledge the co-ordinator for SWAN UK, Lauren Roberts. She does an enormous amount of work behind the scenes for SWAN UK and she is always on the go. She has done a huge amount of work for SWAN UK and sometimes it is easy to forget just how much she does do. The community that has grown around the Facebook page is one that is so strong because of her and the fact that she always stays involved with everybody and is always excited to see what is going on in the SWAN world. I had the fortune to meet with Lauren at the Centre for Life in Newcastle (although it nearly didn’t happen because of the floods!) when we were speaking at the GenRes conference there. She is a sweet and lovely person and so were the other SWAN mums that we met that day as well. Lauren is currently touring around speaking to different groups all over the country to promote SWAN UK and the work that it does. She not only liaises with families but she also acts as the go-between from the genetic testing clinics and the families from SWAN that use them. So, here is to you Lauren, you do a fantastic job and I hope you finally have some of the recognition you deserve for it. Thank you, even though I know you will hate me for bringing attention to you!

So at 1pm today I will be meeting up with all the folks I have been chatting to for may months now and hopefully, our kids will all be having a wonderful time together. If the families don’t mind I will share some of the photos on my blog in the upcoming week so you can all see the fun times we will have!

Until then, Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!