Insulin pump/dafne/carbs

Kinda.

I sneered at the course but did it anyway. its a tick in the box and gets me more contact with the specialists. its the only way to get a pump and you might learn a few things. I did, not a weeks worth of learning for sure but it was useful.

The dr told you to stop counting carbs?????? Did they explain why.

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kleef74 said:

at first but she then informed me there told diabetics to stop counting carbs i was proper shocked and still am to be fair but she started harping on about insulin pumps and the dafne course

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I think you must have misunderstood what the Dr had told you Kleef, they wouldn't say to stop counting carbs and then suggest DAFNE and insulin pumps in the same breath, DAFNE is all about carb counting and is a prerequisite in most cases before people are moved onto pumps.

I am very suprised that a doctor would advise you to stop counting carbs and to be honest if a doctor had givem me the same advice I would ignore it because I want to live.

How on earth are you meant to match your insulin doses with the food you are eating without counting carbs? Counting carbs and mastering ratios is a very important skill for a person with diabetes to help them stay healthy and happy in life and avoid side effects which are toooooo scary to think about so I will not list them.

I had bad control before the dafne course but since my HbA1c has dropped from 14.0 to 7.4 and my sugars are averaging at 6.2 at the moment and I could not achieve that without counting carbs. I have had much better control since I stopped guessing my portion sizes and strated weighing my food using the carb portions in the DAFNE book and I think the best thing you can do is to stick to careful carb counting because you achieve less blood sugar spikes and better HbA1c results in the long term.

I had to go on a DAFNE type course before getting a pump because you need to be able to calculate your carbs to find our how much insulin to take.

Pumps don't do all the work for you so I will explain how they work just incase anyone is unsure.
Firstly you still need to test your blood sugars regularly - the pump doesn't do that for you.
Secondly when eating you need to weigh out all your food to work out the amount of carbs in it. Then you can input how many carbs you are eating and my pump will work out how much insulin to give me depending on my carb ratio for that time of day (obviously you will need to work out your carb to insulin ratio and put this into the pump when you get it and the DN and doctors can help you to work this out).

As pumps work on short acting insulin this means that you need to work out your basal rates which on my pump can vary from hour to hour. The only way to get these tight is to test every two hours for approximately a 6 hour period. Eg I tested at night at 12, 2am, 4am, 6am to get my night time basal correct. During this time (and a few hours prior to testing) you cannot eat / take insulin so you can see if your basal rate if correct as your sugar levels should not change much. This can be a frustrating process!

Also pumps need to be changed every 2-3 days and this means filling them with insulin, priming them and then attaching them.

Don't get me wrong - I wouldn't give my pump back as I love it,. However I don't want anyone to be under the impression that you just attach it and it does it all for you. Setting up a pump takes commitment but in the end it is worth it.


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kleef74 said:

Ive been type 1 for 35 years ive always carb counted been told not to would go against the grain, im not sure why there adviced this but i am going to find out and as for me going on a course to learn about carb counting i wont be not just because i already count but its a trust thing 1 of the main reasons i stopped going to my diabetes apointments.


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Again I'm sure you misheard what they said to you, there isn't a insulin regime where carb counting is not required.