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Professional advice given since diagnosis on 16th November. UK vs France treatment

chinta

Well-Known Member
Messages
101
Location
Normandy, France
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I live in France and a couple of months ago we were offered a free health check as my husband is coming up for 60. It was in 2 parts, part one, blood and urine tests, part 2 1 hour medical examination with a doctor and a nurse. At part 1 it was discovered that my BG reading was 21.9 and I was told to see my GP straight away. I went to him on 16th November and he confirmed I have type 2 diabetes. He told me to stop eating sugar and prescribed metformin 750mg twice daily. He told me to come back in 3 months for another blood test, Hb1AC I presume.

Well, having been a nurse (a long, long time ago!) and knowing what my sister-in-law in the UK has been doing I felt that he had not taken it as seriously as a 21.9 reading should be taken. I spoke to my sister-in-law and then found this forum and have since disregarded a lot of what she told me!!!

Today I went for part 2 of the health check-up. The doctor tested my eyes, examined my feet and told me to go straight to my GP should I have any problems with them. He also measured my waist, weighed me and then asked if I would like to go on a course. He said I would be too late for the January course but he would get a diabetic nurse to contact me.

Whilst I was waiting for my husband to finish his medical the diabetic nurse came and found me. She also said the January course was full but when she saw what my BG level had been she said she would squeeze me in. I think it sounds a bit like the DESMOND course. It's 3 hours every Tuedsay afternoon for 5 weeks. Week 1 is telling us about diabetes, it's effects etc, week 2 is about physical exercise and how it helps, week 3 is about sugar and carbs, week 4 about fats and week 5 is an hour long meeting with the nurse and a doctor to discuss my ongoing treatment and medication. To precede all of this I have an hour's meeting with the nurse next Tuesday to tell me things like footcare and things to look out for. She asked if I would be OK attending this with a group of 8 other patients and I said that as long as they didn't all speak at once and she didn't speak too fast I would be OK. She reassured me that the language would be very basic as she had to be sure that all levels of ability could understand what diabetes is all about, so I may already have learned more here than the course will be able to tell me!!!

It will be interesting to see how all this differs from the British system, for better or worse. I will keep the forum posted but in the meantime I would be interested to know if this sounds like DESMOND?
 
Sounds like an excellent treatment plan to me! The only thing you have not mentioned is whether or not you will be testing your BG. I think that is more valuable than all the courses you could go on! Testing two hours after food very quickly tells you whether or not you are eating right.

Here in the UK I was diagnosed with a reading of 29, that was three/four months ago, no news of the DESMOND course yet. But as you say this site is a great source of info. My elder sister has been T2 for 10 years or so, I seem to be doing things very differently from her, I think things are changing quite quickly at the moment. LCHF is rapidly gaining recognition. Good luck with your treatment in France, I am sure you will soon have things under control.
 
Hi chinta yes it does sound like Desmond and if you can get on it, go for it. In the meantime i will as @daisy1 to give you the ifo given to new posters, clive
 
Thanks Clive, I think I had that on another thread. And yes, FloraDora I have been testing. So far my BG level has come down from 21.9 to around 10 in 3 weeks. I just don't understand how you can possibly manage your diabetes without knowing which foods have a bad effect on you. My sister-in-law who has been on the Desmond course told me that I would be OK eating pears. I had one for breakfast two days ago and my BG level went from 10.8 to 16.7!!!!
 
chinta said:
I will keep the forum posted but in the meantime I would be interested to know if this sounds like DESMOND?
Click to expand...
The DESMOND course I went on was only one day, about 6 hours in total. It did cover most of the topics you mention, but it seems you get more time so it must be in more depth, and we didn't get an hour long meeting with doctor and nurse.
 
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I went on a course (called something like 'self-management of diabetes') in NZ, and found the greatest gain to be getting a blood glucose meter on the state, and basics in how to use it. (I learnt the hard way about heating up my hands under warm water to get the blood flowing - lots of wasted test strips and error signs until my practice nurse told me. Note, I was not forum-ing then. If only!)

The other great gain was meeting other diabetics going through the same things face to face.

And, also, witnessing the complete disregard for carbohydrate intolerance in diabetics my country has (sadly!) - in person, from otherwise well-meaning nurses and nutritionists.

I also really liked the video demo of how the insulin and glucose was working, and not working - so I have been a diabetes-videos-on youtube-junkie ever since.

Didn't make any friends, alas, because I think I annoyed them with bringing up carbs. They all loved my paleo 'truffles' at morning tea though. (Seed butter, coconut oil and some other yummy filling things rolled into little coconut covered balls.) And one chap really appreciated my carb-count of alcohol sheet I photocopied for him. (He asked about whether we can drink alcoholic beverages - a common query!)

In Sweden, I also did their course, and the best gain from that was....being able to get a full blood count on the state. (There is a theme to this.) And, witnessing the health professionals complete disregard for carbohydrate intolerance in diabetics. (Yeah there really is a theme!) The big difference in Sweden is the nutritionist was skinny. (The only skinny nutritionist here I have seen is a LCHF one!) And the panel of doctors talk that I had been REALLY looking forward to was focussed on my cholesterol level - I was so disappointed and upset by this I cannot tell you. I really thought I was going to have endocrinologists (three of them!) focus on how best I could get better from diabetes, you know, with an in depth look at my hormones, and it turned out they were most concerned that I take statins. Go figure.

But, your course looks like you won't have the disregard for carb intolerance - yay France! (This truly is wonderful. As even though Sweden is famously an approving-LCHF country it did not spill over to my desmond-like course.)

My feeling is - you will get some great medical support that you might not otherwise, which will make it worth while. But have low expectations, and then you might be pleasantly surprised? And, be sure to write about it in here, as I for one am way-interested in how different countries do this! . (As many others are, I am sure.)

Vive la France!
 
I'm glad you have positive views about the French view. I am not quite so positive as 3 forum members who live in France have all told me that they got little or bad support from the system and thus did their own thing, through this forum, one of whom also lives in Normandy where I am. However, I hope I'm wrong. One positive note, the nurse was asking me how many of each food type I eat in a week and when she got to carbs and specified rice, pasta, potatoes I said none for the last 3 weeks (since diagnosis) she did say good. She also asked how much alcohol I drink during the week and at weekend, I said probably a glass of wine 3 times a week and 3 glasses on each day of the weekend and she just said fine and didn't indicate any kind of disapproval. There again, we are in France!
 
Hiya, I went on an X-PERT course 2 hours over 6 weeks, sounds exactly the same as you are describing. I did find it extremely useful but I had been diagnosed for about 9 months when I went on the course and had already found this forum. I was a little sceptical because of reports of NHS being bad at promoting low carb, but it was excellent. Another lady on the course had only just been diagnosed and found it a bit confusing because she hadn't had time to get her head around it all. She didn't have a meter and didn't know about testing or what made her BG rise. Hopefully by the time you go on the course you will have had a couple of months to get used to it all. I can highly recommend you get a meter if you haven't already.

I did find it useful as it helped describe the condition and what happens to your body. You meet other T2s of varying ages and length of time from diagnoses (some were brand new and others had it for several years) and can discuss problems and recommendations.

I would say give it a go, nothing to lose!
 
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