Poll: Which diabetes course(s) have you attended?

Administrator said:

This month we're taking a look at structured diabetes education courses in the UK and how well they work.

Have you taken one since you were diagnosed? If so, how helpful did you find it, if at all?

If you haven't taken any courses - is that because you've never been offered a place, or because you just felt like you didn't need it?

Would you recommend the course(s) to any of your friends if they were to get diagnosed with diabetes?

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I was diagnosed three years ago and went on the Daphne course after about 6 months. I can't speak highly enough of it. Before I went I wasn't really sure what I was doing with my insulin. My nurse advised me to attend and since then I haven't really looked back. No-one said good control of diabetes is easy but the Daphne course gave me the confidence to count carbs and since attending my HBA1C as reduced significantly. I would urge anyone to attend a course if you are given the opportunity.

I attended a DAFNE course aimed specifically at pump users in late 2014 ... after, literally, years of requesting to attend one.

Personally, I found it exceptional. It taught me how to do basal rate checking; how to decide when to do it; how to interpret the results obtained; what to do with those results; when and how to make basal rate changes, and by how large a change in insulin dose.

Prior to doing the course, and I've been using a pump since 1998, I used to depend on members of my diabetes support team ... endocrinologist, diabetes specialist nurse, certified diabetes educator ... to tell me when to test, how to test, what changes to make, etc. I now feel that I can make successful changes with certainty that what I'm doing will be correct.

I also found it reassuring that the carb counting I was doing wasn't too far removed from that that I'd learned some 30-odd years ago. I guess it's made easier these days with so many foods being labelled with their constituent parts. (It seems that dementia ... of whichever type ... hasn't caught up with me ... yet!)

I attended a Desmond workshop. Very condescending and I was appalled at the lack of knowledge of recent research on nutrition and particularly around fats. We were informed to avoid all fat and when I pointed out that fat was essential for the absorption of some key vitamins and that some low fat products actually contain more sugar they didn't believe that was true. Don't eat cheese is not helpful - If you make a cheese sauce, use a stronger flavoured cheese and reduce portion size is much more helpful.
I took part in an online course (MOOC) ran by the University of Copenhagen - around diabetes and exercise - quite complex but life changing - now 3 stone lighter, fitter and Diabetes Type 2 fully under control. You can find the course on the Coursera site - just Google it.

Only Desmond offered and I went and yes the group speaking aspects were undesirable to many in that room. I thought it was effective about the serious complications but very INEFFECTIVE at pointing to a helpful low carb diet instead concentrating on telling us to make sure we had a third of a healthy plate filled with carbohydrates! I got the right advice by joining a diabetes online summit from the Sweetlife centre in Los Angeles who had a much more positive attitude that some of us could reverse Type 2 diabetes with LCHF diet completely others may still have to be on medication but the diet would ensure that we were much less likely to get those nasty complications. 12 months later Diabetes.co.uk published a book about it. Yes there is a lot of **** on the internet but you can still keep ahead of the curve if you read widely and carefully.

I was diagnosed Type 1 in 1981 when living and working in Canada. I had to attend a 5-day course (and I do mean 'had' to attend else you were just left to get on with it by yourself - no nice, caring NHS to help) on self-management of the condition. I was taught how to inject myself, starting with practising on an orange first - a nurse gave my injection the first time. I can remember being so scared of injecting myself that I broke down in tears and the nurse shouted and bullied me into doing it. I can also remember being amazed that it didn't hurt, and laughing my head off while the nurse sat and grinned at me.
The rest of the course taught the Canadian equivalent of food exchanges, managing illness, affects of exercise on blood sugars, changing doses for illness and exercise and constructing our own weekly menu for our allocated insulin dose. At the end of the week there was a written test, which you had to pass; if not, you did the course again. Still eating to insulin, not insulin to eating. Carbs were restricted, as was fat, but I did feel very healthy and had a great figure! I think that course set me up for looking after myself. I had a younger sister in England, also Type 1, who had the condition for 32 years. She died from hyperglycaemia in 2005, age 42, and spent most of her short life in and out of hospital.
I suppose it was a 'diabetes boot camp'. On returning to England in1983 and seeing the way new diabetes patients were treated -the doctors and nurses did everything, and made the decisions - I was quite indignant at the 'awful' way I'd been treated in Canada. With hindsight, I think it was good.

I have been type 1 for the last 45 years and have attended and totally enjoyed the D.A.P.H.N.E. Course about 5 years ago. I now live as much as possible the daphne way but when I am admitted to hospital, because most medic doctors haven't heard of daphne they always insist I go on a static dose again and that messes about with my daphne way of life

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micksmixxx said:

I attended a DAFNE course aimed specifically at pump users in late 2014 ... after, literally, years of requesting to attend one.

Personally, I found it exceptional. It taught me how to do basal rate checking; how to decide when to do it; how to interpret the results obtained; what to do with those results; when and how to make basal rate changes, and by how large a change in insulin dose.

Prior to doing the course, and I've been using a pump since 1998, I used to depend on members of my diabetes support team ... endocrinologist, diabetes specialist nurse, certified diabetes educator ... to tell me when to test, how to test, what changes to make, etc. I now feel that I can make successful changes with certainty that what I'm doing will be correct.

I also found it reassuring that the carb counting I was doing wasn't too far removed from that that I'd learned some 30-odd years ago. I guess it's made easier these days with so many foods being labelled with their constituent parts. (It seems that dementia ... of whichever type ... hasn't caught up with me ... yet!)

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Im sorry to disagree with you but daphne is not specifically aimed at pump users there was only one pump user in my course and he was a recently diagnosed diabetic. Sorry once more.

Welshdragon21 said:

I have been type 1 for the last 45 years and have attended and totally enjoyed the D.A.P.H.N.E. Course about 5 years ago. I now live as much as possible the daphne way but when I am admitted to hospital, because most medic doctors haven't heard of daphne they always insist I go on a static dose again and that messes about with my daphne way of life

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I've had this all through my life - there's always some smart-alec 'expert' who doesn't know how a sliding scale, ratio control works and wants to override your capability of looking after yourself.

I've also attended courses associated with the RAPSID study, both as a participant and as a facilitator. I've also used many of the sources on the web that give extremely good information on control of T2D. I learnt quite a while back that carb control was sensible and was staggered to see the large poster on the wall of my GP waiting room with it's recommendation of potatoes and white bread rolls. More needs to be taught about Glycemic Load (GL) and the importance of eating less, period.

Welshdragon21 said:

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Im sorry to disagree with you but daphne is not specifically aimed at pump users there was only one pump user in my course and he was a recently diagnosed diabetic. Sorry once more.

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You can disagree all you like Welshdragon21 but I can assure you that the course I attended WAS specifically aimed at pump users. No-one, but for yourself, has stated anything about DAFNE being just for pump users. I clearly stated that the course I attended was aimed specifically at pump users.

By the way, it's spelled DAFNE (Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating), not DAPHNE, which is a woman's name.

Please read forum rules which include,

• Entering a discussion to belittle or discredit someone
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/ethos-forum-rules.50278/

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micksmixxx said:

You can disagree all you like Welshdragon21 but I can assure you that the course I attended WAS specifically aimed at pump users. No-one, but for yourself, has stated anything about DAFNE being just for pump users. I clearly stated that the course I attended was aimed specifically at pump users.

By the way, it's spelled DAFNE (Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating), not DAPHNE, which is a woman's name.

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was just pointing out that you worded it as if it were only for pump users and as for spelling there is no need to be nasty about the fact i am not the worlds best speller !!

I attended DAFNE in 2008, almost 10 years after being diagnosed. It was life changing and I couldn't believe I had never been taught carb counting before. The static dose I had been given was nowhere near enough to keep my BG right and my HBA1C had hovered around 10% for a decade.

Sadly, Welshdragon21, it appears that you MAY have a difficulty with interpretation, or not understanding what's being written.

What I wrote in my original post "I attended a DAFNE course aimed specifically at pump users in late 2014" MAY have been easy to read in the way that you have clearly designated, but there is absolutely NO WAY that I was being "nasty", as you so kindly put it. There was no intent to malign your spelling abilities, I was simply pointing out that the course is called DAFNE (Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating) as that what the acronym stands for. As you've, no doubt, noticed from reading other posts, you are not the only person that spells it DAPHNE. My own wife does the same. I was trying to indicate why it's spelled DAFNE, rather than DAPHNE.)

I'm T2 diabetic never so far been offered a course how does one go about getting on a course??????????????

Paulabetts said:

I'm T2 diabetic never so far been offered a course how does one go about getting on a course??????????????

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Talk to your consultant / diabetes nurse / whoever looks after your diabetes. In my experience, the level of care you are offered is a complete post code lottery so you might have to push hard for it. Good luck

Administrator said:

This month we're taking a look at structured diabetes education courses in the UK and how well they work.

Have you taken one since you were diagnosed? If so, how helpful did you find it, if at all?

If you haven't taken any courses - is that because you've never been offered a place, or because you just felt like you didn't need it?

Would you recommend the course(s) to any of your friends if they were to get diagnosed with diabetes?

Click to expand...

I hav never been offered any courses in fact all I was told was take these tablets daily and don not eat sweet things, that was 30 years ago and have not been told anything since then. I still struggle every day with my sugar levels, and even when In hospital once my sugar levels stayed around 10 to 15 and I was on a diabetic ward.

I was refered to the diabetic nurse . Alll she saw was a fat middle aged diabetic. Didnt ask or care that I have lost over 9 stone. Just took the attitude that everything I am doing must be wrong. She put me onto the weight management classes here in Glasgow. It wasnt specifically for diabetics but at least she managed to hear that I have an eating disorder. It was good to start with but then the dieticians came along recommending the eatwell plate. A low fat diet actually doesnt help me and makes me start food cravings. I also heard them telling someone who works nights that she had to stick to her meal times and so wasnt allowed to eat while she was working. a 12 hour shift by the way¬ I thought that was dooming this woman to failing and was stupid. So I left.

I attended a BERTIE course in 2007. This consisted of four afternoons spread over one month. It was very informative, explaining both normal and Type 1 physiologies, and the contents of a wide variety of food. Our insulin:CHO ratios were calculated and we were given homework in the form of trying different types of foods and calculating our insulin doses. In my case, the I:C ratios had to be adjusted each week, ending in a realisation that my background insulin was a major problem and that I would need the flexibility of a pump. We were also given advice on dealing with excercise, workplace problems, travel and anything else that we wanted to discuss. It was a small group of only four people and we all became friends. I feel that I was helped far more than my friends who attended DAFNE courses at different hospitals.

I have been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes for 10 years, and I have only just completed the Xpert course. I found the explanations of the food labeling was good, and this has enabled me to make better decisions while shopping. We were advised to lower our carbohydrate intake, as this stored creates glucose. From my experience the NHS suggests "everything in MODERATION" but what is moderation? If you look on the internet there are Diabetic Diet Books available at a price, and containing recipes with ingredients that most of us would not buy and cannot afford.

I fully believe that these courses are delivered with good intent, but I also think that they cover ground that we already know about, and their content could be changed to include other ways of controlling blood glucose levels. In trying to control our blood glucose levels, we are not told that the climate temperatures and conditions will have some description of an affect , or that stress, a virus or any other illness will also be detrimental to us, this includes people diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, and is probably more relevant to those whose medication is insulin.

I also feel that any handouts, booklets, etc that these courses hand out to us are a benefit. We might just shove them away in a drawer, but at some later date we vaguely remember that at least one of them contains information on something we need there and then, se we dig them out and find what we want and a few other things as well.

Don't refuse these courses because of someone elses enthusiasm or lack of it...ask to go on them and experience them for yourself...if everyone only comes away with one positive, it is something they did not have prior to doing the course, and it also means that you are discussing some things that bother you with other people, who will be happy to say what is working for them, which in turn sows a seed for thought.