Desmond Course

I spoke up a bit at my Desmond equivalent annual refresher course last month. I was pleasantly surprised that there was more emphasis on less carbs, but they didn’t quote specific levels. Their opening shot was to go around the room asking everyone to introduce themselves, say how long they’d had Type 2 and what treatment they were on. This was then written on the white board for all to see. When they got to me, I said my treatment was Metformin and low carb eating. The nurse wrote my name on the board with Metformin along side. I butted in as she tried to move to the next person, saying please write low carb diet next to my name as I consider that more important than the tablets in controlling my blood sugars! She wrote in reluctantly albeit in brackets!
At the end of the session I approached the nurse and Dietitian and explained my insistence in having it written on the board. Told them my weight loss and my control of HBA1c which had resulted from it. The nurse was interested, the Dietitian less so.
Bit by bit we need to make inroads into the cracks that are appearing in the eatwell philosophy.
All the best for tomorrow @Peadair O Brionn

Peadair O Brionn said:

Well that was 7 hrs I’ll never get back .. So many contradictions and bad advice as far as I’m concerned

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Did you get a chance to disagree or were you hushed up?

Peadair O Brionn said:

Well that was 7 hrs I’ll never get back .. So many contradictions and bad advice as far as I’m concerned

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7 hours?! At least I only wasted 3!

Peadair O Brionn said:

I did . But it was smiled at and dismissed . I suppose they’ve got a script and they must follow it . Maybe when the NHS catches up with the rest of the world , they’ll have a better script

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Well you tried.. can't really do more than that..

I'm glad I didn't go. At my second appt with the DN she asked if I had had the invitation to attend and I said "Yes, I filed the letter... into the bin". I don't think she likes me.

I went on Desmond yesterday, it was a total waste of time.
I felt really sorry for the people who had no idea about low-carb eating.
I wont be taking their advice.

I went on my Desmonds course 1 year ago this week, and I think i've just gotten over it.
As Rachox says, we introduced ourselves, there was another chap on it from the same surgery as myself. All went swimmingly, some bits interesting, others not, obviously the nurses were working to a script and could not or would not enter into any debate about low carb.
The mechanics of how the body uses glucose and insulin to function was fascinating and quite easily the most interesting part of the day, every diabetic should be taught that.
I was amazed how ignorant the other attendees were, with respect to carbs turning to glucose, with the sugar cube game. It got so frustrating I had my go ( which turned out reasonably close) and then "the majority" over ruled me and got it completely wrong.
Then we moved on to self testing which takes up a fair portion of the book and the afternoon discussion, at which point myself and the other gentleman from our surgery said were going for a coffee because we don't get test strips. This was met with gasps of astonishment, the nurses were amazed, but it all came down to money saving in different practices.
In the end we had a bit of an open forum but getting answers was hard work, the nurses would offer values for calories per day salt per day but not carbohydrates.
I asked why they persist with the notion that all t2 diabetics are fat, when they have clearly stated earlier, that when the body stops using the insulin correctly it starts to store the unused glucose as fat, until we reach a point where a "fat person" is diagnosed as diabetic. Surely they are fat because they are diabetic, and it is a temporary state, which given a low carb diet could help.
The one thing that was a common theme from all of the whiteboards was the need to exercise.
Having been a keen reader of this website since I was diagnosed I felt I went in to the course knowing something, having done the course I came away feeling like an expert, compared to the other attendees.
Ramble over,

Your experience almost mirrored mine.
I forgot to mention the grief I got for self-testing.
I felt that I was at a Weight Watchers meeting!!