Back from my Diabetes4ward session. Run by a nurse and a dietitian.
Let’s get the bad bits out of the way first:
- First the nurse went round the participants asking names how long we’d had Diabetes and our treatment, as each person was asked, name and treatment was written on the white board. When they got to me I said Metformin and low carb eating, she just wrote my name and Metformin on the board, I asked for low carb diet to be written by my name as I considered that more of a treatment than the tablets. She reluctantly wrote low carb diet, but put it in brackets
- Diabetes is a progressive disease, you will just have to take more and more meds and eventually end up on insulin was a recurring theme I piped up that my GP was going to discuss reducing my meds next review!
- They explained why testing wasn’t necessary unless you were a professional driver, because you really needed to understand how to interpret the results! I spoke up saying I had learned what foods I can and can’t eat by seeing what spikes me, no real response was forthcoming from the nurse or Dietitian!
- They still pushed low fat
- Sugar and biscuits were provided with the coffee
The good bits:
- False hypos were covered, when the only guy who said he was diet controlled said he got hypos and took something sweet when he felt a hypo. He did say his blood sugars were usually in double figures! The nurse explained that these were false hypos as he wasn’t on medication and if he tested when he felt rotten he would see that.
- The dietian talked a lot about carbohydrates and how they all change to sugar. We had to analyse some plates of food and suggest what needed removing to lower the carbs, sweet corn and peas were a bit of a sticking point but generally rice, pasta, potatos and grains were put in a bad light along with obvious sugars. Even lactose in milk and fructose in fruit weren’t completely given the green light
- Very Low Calorie diets were covered following on from the recent TV attention in connection with weight loss as well as blood sugar control/reversal. This was my chance to tout low carb eating to achieve the same, encouraged by the man next to me who I’d talked to at coffee and mentioned my weight loss and showed him fat photos of me I explained that I limit my carbs to under 60g per day and had lost weight easily and got my HbAcs to mid 30s since Sept. I hope some people took in what I said, I feel I did my best without treading on the nurse and dietitian’s toes too much
After the session I went to speak to the staff further as I disagreed with one of their slides which said “an HbA1c of 48-58mmol/l is associated with your lowest risk of complications for the future”. I said I thought that could encourage complacency as there was no indication from that that a non-diabetic HbA1c was achievable and would reduce risks even further. I suggested that the slide should read simply “under 58, if they deemed 58 a suitable upper level, though that was questionable!
I also spoke to them further about low carbing, the nurse was particularly interested, the Dietitian a little less so. I told them about Diabetes.co.uk as I had done with a couple of people at the coffee break too. I asked if they’d heard that the Low Carb Plan here had been approved by Qismet to be prescribed, I linked it in with the fact that today’s course was approved by Qismet too!
In conclusion I’m not totally disheartened by the session, it certainly seems to have moved on alot since last year and I hope I said enough to set at least some people thinking.
, did you get a choice of caramel latte or full fat coke too?
