So I went to see the NHS Dietician and ........

[Serena51]

all my good intentions to stick to my low carb guns flew out the window. She did not look a happy bunny to start with (and was stick thin too) and when I said I was low carbing she nearly bit my head off asking ' who advised you to stop eating carbohydrates'. I sort of stuttered about the net and ADA but she wasn't having any of it. Then I told her that by testing I found that bread made my bg shoot up in the twenties but she was of the the opinion that slow release carbs were mandatory. When I had the temerity to say that carbohydrate makes glucose I was put in my place by 'I know very well what carbohydrates do thank you very much' At this point I nearly walked out but in the end I was cringingly pathetic and just agreed with everything she said from then on.

So I got the ' 1oz of cheese three times a week, no saturated fat, reduce nuts, try to re-introduce porridge and brown rice' Then she said aim for bg in single figures, 4 - 9 mmol/l. Still at least I got weighed and have to see her again in December. Utter madness!

I had originally asked for the appointment before I found this site or got a meter and had been toying with the idea of cancelling it - wish I had done now. My diabetes nurse is much more supportive of my low carbing than this woman was so maybe I should just stick with her in the future and get weighed at the surgery.

Altogether an unpleasant experience I must say and a great shame as if I had been given a meter 5 years ago together with the marvellous information from this site, maybe I would be in a totally different and better situation now.

Okay rant over, sorry folks

 

[nannybarbara]

Ermm ... I tell lies! Of course I eat bread, pasta etc ... of course I have my five a day ... I absolutely follow the guidelines. :twisted:

Anything for a quiet life. As you say, skip the dietician and stick with the nurse - and ignore their scales. I don't think I've been weighed on the same ones twice. I don't suppose any of them have ever been callibrated.

B

 

[Spiral]

Sorry you had such a bad time of it

Difficult isn't it :? I'd say cancel the next appointment if you can't face it. Your routine monitoring from your health centre (and your improved results as seen in regular blood tests) and the good support you get from the nurse may be all you need - as well as the good people here :mrgreen:

However, some of us are a bit more bloody minded, nannybarbara :twisted: I say, tell them the truth if you can. Although I know this is not always easy I don't want anyone else getting the credit for my hard work, and I don't want them to beleive something that isn't true. I want them to know that low carbing has proably given me a better quality of life.

I do a combination of telling the truth and um-ing :roll: while I humuor my health care people, depending on whether I want another prescription of strips :roll: I'm signed up for the DESMOND course in January, I don't have high expectations of it, but I'm hoping that my presence may tempt someone else to the dark side, aka low carbing :wink: as I have no intention of sitting and swallowing (literally :shock the eat lots of starchy carbohydrate line.

 

[nannybarbara]

Spiral,

Well yes, I do actually agree with you, I really do, but ... I know I'll lose my temper if I walked into to one like that. I am becoming a stroppy old bag! Last time I saw the D (at a specialist diabetic clinic), I very, very carefully and economically skirted round the truth - in fairness she may not have thrown a wobbler, but .. you never know how they are going to react with a challenge to their training!

So, hand on heart, I solemnly promise, from this day forward, that the next time I see the dietician (hopefully not until next year) I will 'come out' on the dark side. (Why haven't we got a smily with a halo?)

Regards,
Barb

 

[fergus]

We'll make a low-carb evangelist out of you yet Barb! :lol:
I'm lucky I was blessed with fighty Scottish genes and look forward to a good tear-up at the clinic every 6 months. Now I swear they go out of their way to avoid me! Looks like we got 'em on the run ladies :!:

All the best,

fergus

 

[sugarless sue]

(Why haven't we got a smily with a halo?) Here you are Barbara.

 

[AliB]

I just tell them what I think! My Diabetic 'Specialist' and I have agreed to part company. I get checked out by my local surgery and couldn't see the point in doing it all over again at the Hospital. Besides, after the rotten hand he dealt me with the Byetta and then trying to ram statins down my throat how can i possibly have any confidence in the man. I was talking to someone else the other day who he had given bad advice to too. I shudder to think of the damage he is doing to people.

They think they are God, and boy don't they like it if you disagree with them!

As far as the Dietician was concerned, her advice was so ridiculous I just nodded in the right places and vowed never to return.

My goodness, no wonder so many people are so sick if they are following their advice!

 

[wallycorker]

Hi Serena,

Just quietly go your own way and do what you believe is best. It is my personal opinion that you ought to do things according to the advice that you get on this forum.

Then when you have an HbA1c in the low 5s and the healthcare professionals give you a congratulatory "Well done!" then that ought to be the time when you should announce to them exactly how you did it.

Certainly, these days I find it difficult to get out of my GP's surgery because he wants to kow exactly how I achieved what I have in such a short time. I'm still not certain that he believes the records.

Best wishes - John

 

[Serena51]

Thankyou all for the support. I really think that I won't go again, it got me quite upset in the end and I really don't want any confrontation. I tried to state my case because I do try to be upfront about things but this really was the limit. I do feel much better after a good night's sleep and shan't let it bother me anymore.

So, back to what I was doing - I now have all my numbers in single figures and just have to work at getting them lower, which I will do eventually and then *@*@ to the so called professionals

 

[Patch]

WE ALL need to start being absolutely honest with these DNS/HCPs. If what we are doing works they need to be told. Stand up for yourself!

They can't POSSIBLY expect you to start eating carbs again after you've learned from experience that NOT eating them CONTROLS YOUR DISEASE.

It's disgusting.

If I was in your position, there is no way I would lie, and no way I would sit here while she told me to do something that I knew was damaging to my health. She essentially told you you (directly) that you should eat the food that you have JUST TOLD her raises to your BG to a damaging level!

If all us lo-carbers stuck to our guns, didn't get intimidated by these withered up old hags giving "advice" at appointements, and actually kicked up a fuss (maybe even in writing) then maybe lo-carbing would gain some credibility.

It's not acceptable that lo-carbing is only seen as a viable alternative for maintaining healthy BG by those of us that have tried it. Newbs should be given the info that we have. Unfortunately, most newbs trust their HC team much more than they trust t'interweb, or books.

It's a shame that most of us have only found lo-carbing after years of mis-treatement on the NHS, during which time who knows what permanent damage has been done to our bodies through following THEIR advice.

Peace, Love and Fillet Steak...

 

[cugila]

I totally agree with Patch here. Great post.

I never pull punches and I tell it like it is. If they don't like it that is their problem. They (HCP's) are not gods ! Reducing the carbs has turned my life around, NOBODY is making me go back to what it was. Not unless they force feed me the stuff.

Don't lie, don't nod sagely and go away. Let them know what you are doing and take no criticism from anybody. It is after all, YOUR life, YOUR body.

:twisted:

 

[hanadr]

I now ask these people how is that with all their wonderful advice, fewer than half the diabetics( in my PCT anyway) hit the targets, and now the targets have been lowered, what are they meant to do?
I also ask them to cite the research papers backing up their viewpoint. ThenI send them to look up Neilson and the 44 month study.
Hana

 

[Patch]

I read a great statement last night in a book by Dr. Robert Young called "The pH Miracle for Diabetes". (Dunno about the word MIRACLE in the title, though...)

It stated that deaths among DOCTORS with diabetes from heart disease is 30% HIGHER than that of diabetic PATIENTS. This is because Doctors are believed to be better patints (ie - follow their OWN advice rigidly).

If following the current advice rigidly results in a 30% increase in death from heart disease - shouldn't the surviving doctors be asking themselves if this advice is correct in the first place?!?

(What they're basically saying, is that by NOT following their advice you are LESS likely to die from heart disease. Crazy, innit!)

Peace, Love and Green Veggies.

 

[diabetesmum]

It's not so easy when the diabetic is a child. Last clinic, my 15yr old's HbA1c had dropped by nearly 1.0. They asked how? She told them she had been reducing her carbs (she had cut down to 75-100gm a day, not radical at all really!), whereupon they got highly agitated and told her unequivocally that she should be having 300 grams a day. :shock: I must add that she is not even sporty or anything.

They downloaded her pump history and could see how her insulin requirements had fallen and told her she was putting herself at risk (from DKA I presume). She had gone in to the consultants office on her own (at their request) and was faced with said consultant, a DSN, a dietitcian and a psychologist! To say she felt intimidated is putting it mildly.

Anyway I was pretty furious and will be going in with her next time. But we will still have to tread carefully - because she is a child we cannot really just defy them or goodness knows what they might do. I will be relieved when she is 17 and moves to the adult clinic, but then we still have her little sister to manage through the next 9 years!
Sue

 

[Patch]

She had gone in to the consultants office on her own (at their request) and was faced with said consultant, a DSN, a dietitcian and a psychologist!

:shock:

That's a disgusting way to treat a young adult - it amounts to nothing more than bullying. I'd love to go into that room with her and stand behind her looking menacing (at 6'2" and 17st I'm pretty good at that...)

 

[Dillinger]

I quite like an argument, haven't had a face to face low carb one for a long time though; the last registrar I saw was very nice, but wouldn't comment at all on my low-carb diet apart from asking whether I had hypos for an HbA1c at 6.2.

I'm quite relishing the next appointment with my diabetic nurse; I find it is the nurses and the dietitians that you get the best arguments with. Although they haven't let me see a dietitian for ages... :twisted:

When I do go for these appointments I like to swat up as if I was having a school test, be as polite and jolly as possible and then have a full and frank exchange... :wink:

Dillinger

 

[nannybarbara]

OK - we'll ALL go - as a female at 5'10" I can loom with the best of them! It's outrageous that a 15 year old had to deal (alone) with that kind of bullying from professional thugs!

Let us know next time and we'll take a day trip! I'll get my bus pass out.

Sue, note that there's no angel smily with a halo now - dripping daggers for that lot.

Barb

 

[AliB]

Aren't children who are interviewed by the Police supposed to have an adult with them????

Kinda puts you off being Diabetic, don't it...........

Serena. Knowledge is power. Just quietly learn as much as you can so that next time you are confronted with this kind of situation you will have more strength to stand up for yourself. They know they can get away with it now because the low-carbing is relatively new to you and you don't really understand the process, but as you learn and understand more about which foods affect you and which you can tolerate it becomes easier both with the Diabetes and with your confidence.

That's why my DS suggested that we part company. He got pretty narked at my attitude towards the Statins 'offer', and his 'advice' and said 'do you think you really need to be coming here any more' and I said 'no'. Simple as that. The local surgery was a bit put out because as I am on insulin I am supposed to be seen at the Hospital, but I am ok with the insulin, and it is ok with me and my HbA1c is low enough for them not to get their knickers in a twist over so I'm quite happy with the way things are. It seems that he never did write the letter terminating our 'arrangement', well certainly the surgery has no record of it, but I haven't seen an appointment and I shan't be sorry if I never have another one.

Sometimes I'm just way too outspoken for my own good, but this time it worked to my advantage.....

 

[Serena51]

Again, thankyou for the support and encouragement.

 

[Sweet enough]

She did not look a happy bunny

had been toying with the idea of cancelling it - wish I had done now. My diabetes nurse is much more supportive of my low carbing than this woman was ........

Altogether an unpleasant experience I must say

I have to say I had a very similar experience today with the same model NHS robot dietician.

I mentioned low carbs and how I believed they had lowered my BGL, Well you'd think I'd asked her to show her bare A*"e to the group.

She spoke over my questions, refused to aknowledge me once she knew I wasnt going to sit compliently and take her word as gospel, All in all she was really quite rude and ignorant.
I suspect she had come across low carbers before and lost the argument.
I was told to fill my plate 2/5th full of starch Potatoes, rice , etc . I told her I had eaten 2 halves of 1 small potato on Sunday and my bloods had shot from 8ish to over 14 ! She blamed my eating habits and told me I had eaten it too quickly ! How long can you make an egg size potatoe last for goodness sake! :mrgreen: and basically hurried along so as not to invite any questions or chance someone in the group listening.
She finally half shouted "Its your body you do what you want! I thought "thank god I can"
Utter madness. No mention of GI GL or the fact that lowering carbs can help lower blood sugar. Just eat starch and fruit.
The more I learn about diabetes the more I realise its a disease I have to deal with myself.

I should say the only thing I did learn in 90 minutes was that the NHS spell it "Dietition" (the U.S.A. spelling, instead of the UK "Dietician" Funny what you can pick up when your being ignored