[diabetes] DAFNE - anyone done it?

tbh

Hello hello - I was at the specialist this morning, got my bloods back - not great at 8.9 but as I've been travelling a lot, I kind of expected it. Anyway, the doc said he was going to enroll me on a DAFNE (Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating) course - details here: http://www.dafne.uk.com/

Has anyone done one before? Any experiences? I don't know when I'm due to start, but I'm looking forward to it..

robinph

Never done a course on it, but I thought that was aproximately what I have always done anyway. I don't do it very well admitedly but I have always been changing my doseages around depending on what I'm doing, eating or forgotten to do.

I'm already doing most of what they say on the "What is DAFNE" page, apart from testing enough. They have had me doing the 2 injections of Lantus for a few years now, but the reasoning behind that change was that the one dose didn't actually work evenly enough throughout the 24/ 36 hours for me. Or it was that it was working too evenly but because I was alseep for part of the 24 hours that was actually too much, I cannot remember exactly now though.

tbh

yeah, I thought that as well - I'm kind of doing it anyway - but i think this is like applied carb counting - the story the doc gave me was that at the moment, I'm kind of fitting my lifestyle around my diabetes (although I think my HB1AC would argue with that!) but this was like fitting diabetes into my lifestyle. I'll let ye know how it goes anyway, although no idea when I'm going to do it yet...

robinph

I certainly don't think anyone would accuse me of trying to fit my lifestyle around my diabetes, more like my life carries on regardless and the diabetes pops in every now and then to anoy me a bit. But my HbA1C numbers are probably not too far off yours either so maybe they'll be trying to bring in somthing more structured with me on my next service as well.

mike65

Interesting but its what I'm doing already for the most part (only one long dose of acting insulin does though).

My HB1AC is about 5.3 so I'm happy enough and I feel perfectly fine in myself.

Mike.

tullie

mike65 wrote: »

Interesting but its what I'm doing already for the most part (only one long dose of acting insulin does though).

My HB1AC is about 5.3 so I'm happy enough and I feel perfectly fine in myself.

Mike.

First off congrats on the HBA1c mines 8.9 at the mo. I did DAFNE a few weeks ago and well have mixed feelings about it. I did it simply because I want an insulin pump and in Beaumont you have to do DAFNE to get it.

The course is basically an education in dealing with diabetes and carbohydrate counting. It is great for people who have just been diagnosed or people who have had it for years but didn't educate themselves about diabetes for whatever reasons.

For me it was a week of my time wasted as there was nothing new in it for me and I've had diabetes for 19 years. I really believe it is the diabetics responsibility to educate themselves about the diesase and have always tried my best to get the blood sugars right. Not succeeding lately mind you. But if you don't feel confident in managing your diabetes of are wondering about the complications or worried about the genetics etc it is def worth while.

LegacyUser

im only after doing this course with my husband .it is a great course to do .i found my husbands sugers were always up in the 20 and now he has then down under 10 which is great and he can also eat what he want as long as he counts what crabs is in whatever he eats. he can even have aa slice of cake or some chocolate now.i would recomend this course to any with type on diabetes ,

niamh.brady

Hi guys,

Just wondering if anyone has done the DAFNE course - particularly if they are attending UCHG as I am getting referred to UCHG (to Sean Dineen I think) and I wanted to get some feedback on what the clinic is like, how hard or easy it is to get on the course and what happens on it.

Thanks

tbh

Hi Niamh -

waiting (a while) to do it myself.

g'luck, and if you get there first, let us know how you got on.

blackrhythms

I have just completed the DAFNE course and found it to be amazing! It sounds simple in theory, and it is, but it is basically re-education on what you thought you already knew. I thought that I was already matching my insulin to what I was eating, but the fact of the matter is - I wasn't - I was way off!

It's a fantastic course and for anyone offered the chance to do it, I would say jump at the chance. For the first time since my diagnosis in 1990, I feel in full control of my diabetes, rather than letting it control me! Being able to eat what I want, when I want, or even for that matter, choosing to skip a meal without fear of a hypo is just fantastic! I honestly cannot recommend it enough!

mike65

Intrigue, can you outline the method?.

blackrhythms

It's as simple as counting carbs and matching your insulin to suit. First off tho is getting your background insulin down to a level where you can actually skip a meal without going hypo, then you have to work out the ratio of Carbohydrates:Quick Acting Insulin that works for you - i.e. keeping your levels between 5 & 7. (Note those levels vary throughout the day). So you're weighing and measuring your food and checking labels to see how much CHO is in what you're about to eat - both in your food and drink, until you are familiar enough with the portions. You're also factoring in how active you are at that particular time of day, or how active you expect to be. So it doesn't matter what you eat, once you count in the carbs in it. It's also about being aware of High Glycaemic Index carbs and Low Glycaemic Index Carbs and how that energy is used in your body!

Over the week, the topics covered are: What is diabetes, Types of Diabetes, Metabolic Control, Insulin, The DAFNE approach - food and insulin, Hyperglycaemia, Coping when you are ill, Hypoglycaemia, Physical Activity and Exercise, Setting Goals and Action Planning, Annual Review and then covering, Footcare, Travel, Driving and Pregnancy.

It's an intensive week, but such an eye-opener. Things I thought I was fully aware of, it turns out I had been very poorly educated on!

mike65

That reminds me a bit of when I was diagnosed in the late 70s, I learned that a Weetabix was worth "15 carbs" as was a a slice of bread etc.

blackrhythms

That's it, bang on - the way to count carbs hasn't changed - matching your insulin to suit what you eat has! No such thing as you can't eat X because of it's high sugar content anymore, and no such thing, either, as having to eat at certain times of the day!

atmmusa

how can I participate in DAFNE?? Do I need to pay for it?? I'm reading the website but still not sure..

tbh

you need to get a referral from your specialist

LegacyUser

blackrhythms wrote: »

It's an intensive week, but such an eye-opener. Things I thought I was fully aware of, it turns out I had been very poorly educated on!

I totally endorse everything Blackrhythms is saying about DAFNE. I've been insulin dependant for the last 30 years and have gone through every type of new insulin, pump, pens, diet etc. I thought DAFNE would be a refresher course with maybe a few new developments thrown in. I was so wrong. Its been by far the best thing I have done since I became a professional full time diabetic (as opposed to the part timers :-)).
Before DAFNE my HBA1c's were ok - some good, some not so good. I consider myself active and have never let diabetes stop me from doing anything. However it was not until I went through the full week programme that you see how bad the traditional diabetes approach is. For example and this turns out to be very common - I was overdosing my insulin by 20 -30% every day and then having to top up with snacks to counteract lows.

Doing the proper DAFNE programme basically re-engineers your complete insulin regime and gives you a credible but highly practical and pragmatic approach to eating, exercise, sick days, nights out and basically life in general. As I said earlier I have tried and abandoned many approaches over the years but this approach is simple but radically different from anything else. I have been following the DAFNE approach now for nearly two years.
A word of warning though - DONT TRY AND TEACH YOURSELF DAFNE. It really does require the full weeks programme in your diabetic clinic as they radically reengineer your insulin regime and to make it work you need this expertise to help and assist you.

Ireland is actually way ahead of many countries with supplying diabetics with the medication they need, but this is the first time ever that I was given a methodology to use insulin properly. I did some triathalons last year for the first time. I could have done them pre-DAFNE but using the DAFNE programme made it so much easier. And enjoyable. Overall my mystery highs and lows have disappeared and I am now in complete control of my diabetes.
I cant recommend the programme enough - my consistent and reduced HBA1cs prove this but just as important my 24/7 quality of life is on a par if not better than a non-diabetic.

My biggest regret is that I did not have the opportunity to do this 30 years. I know I have gone on a bit and risk sounding like a fundamentalist born again diabetic but every diabetic should/must give DAFNE a go.

tbh

thanks for that Eddied, great post.

atmmusa

hmmmm.I asked about it in Mater and they told me they didn't do DaFNE. They offered me ''BURGER'' (BERGER?) instead <lol> telling me it's the same but im not too sure<?> has anyone heard about it? there doesn seem to be anything on the web.I am a bit disappointed, should I change the Hospital?

stinkybum

Hey there - glad i found this thread.
I started the DAFNE course on Monday and wasnt able to go today cos my daughter got really ill and i had to take her to the doctors. I've had to forgoe my place and i'm gutted about it but i'm hoping to get another place soon as i really want to get a pump.
As far as i've been told by friends, F*&TH (in the mater) doesnt offer the DAFNE. He doesnt advocate the pump very much either.
From what i've learned in one day on the course is so much better than what i was told when iwas diagnosed 10 years ago. The eduction i had was DREADFUL and as much as i did research and read up on carbs etc, to have someone who has put it into practice help me work it out was brilliant !! Its not just how much insulin to carbs but its also seeing patterns in your levels and how to adjust when you have a run of highs or lows.

As regards an a1c of 5.3%, i'd hate that. You'd need to be low most of the time to achieve that !! I had an a1c for 5.5% at one point during pregnancy and i was literally teetering on hypo the whole time. It was horrendous and it would be impossible for me to take the risk of running so low for so long with a toddler to mind. Ugh !! I upped it to 6.2% and although they werent happy, i was safer to be around.

I had an a1c of around 6.5% for years but it all went pete tong when i got ill and i lost my way. God i hope DAFNE helps me get back on track.

philten

Hi stinkybum, how did you get on the DAFNE course? I attend the mater but have neglected to make another appt with the Diabetic clinic as not too happy with it in there and thinking off changing to tallaght maybe. If the mater don't do it might make my decision easier

stinkybum

I dont know for sure that they dont do it, i'd just be very very surprised - they've always poo-poo-ed the idea.
I got on the DAFNE course by asking at my clinic - i went through my consultant initially but they are bloody brilliant in Beaumont. the girls in the clinic are fantastic and i have a whole heap of respect for them.
I'm gasping to do the course now as i've had a bit of a taste of it and i just really want to totally understand it and get cracking.
Good luck.

1967

As someone who was diagnosed type 2 christmas eve 2007 woke up in intensive care 3 days later to be told i was diabetic and that i had died my blood sugars were 96.4.I am on Byetta and was wondering if anyone else uses it as you dont adjust dosages or anything like that its a fixed dose everytime.

stinkybum

1967 wrote: »

As someone who was diagnosed type 2 christmas eve 2007 woke up in intensive care 3 days later to be told i was diabetic and that i had died my blood sugars were 96.4.I am on Byetta and was wondering if anyone else uses it as you dont adjust dosages or anything like that its a fixed dose everytime.

Hey there - you might get more responses if you start a new thread. teh DAFNE course is specific to type 1 diabetes and me, for one, doesnt know much about T2. Sorry and good luck with the Byetta - i hear the s/e can be a bit rough.

graflynn

I cannot believe that I stumbled on this thread!!! I have been searching for an online type 1 diabetes community for about two years now.

Anyway, I was trying to gather information to have DAFNE implemented in the Diabetes Clinic in Limerick and came across the official DAFNE website. It lists all the centres that run it in Ireland.

The reason more centres don't provide it is because it take a bit of money to set up and maintain. I assume in the long run the clinics will save money because after completing the course you only have to attend your clinic once a year unless you run into problems (wouldn't it be fan-flippin-tastic to not have to be trekking to the clinic 4 times a year).

So, I contacted the Diabetes Federation of Ireland to get some info on how to make this happen in Limerick - there are only 2 Dafne centres outside of Dublin, which has 3. I got some of the info and I'm ready to take on the next step. I'm hoping that there are more people like me who see something that's going to improve their life, that they deserve and others deserve and go for it?

tbh

fair play Gra! and welcome to boards

niamh.brady

Hi guys,

I don't know where all the old DAFNE posts have gone, but I've searched and can't find one so I am starting another one.

I moved to the diabetic clinic in UCHG last month and, as hoped, they put me on the waiting list for DAFNE. I was advised that the wait list worked out as an 11 year wait!!!! 2 weeks later I got a call with a cancellation appointment so I am doing the course at the end of the month (July 27th).

I know that it is full time over 5 days (and have checked all the websites), but can anyone offer more insight into what happens, what is discussed, expected etc? Has anyone whose done it found a huge improvement in their management?

Thanks

graflynn

Hi Niamh,
Congrats on getting on one so soon. I know a guy who did his in February and he just raves about it. The first thing they do is sort out your long acting insulin (this may involve a basal rate test - nothing too worrisome). Then they start at the beginning with the basics. They go through carb counting, finding your insulin to carb ratio for each meal, how to handle excercise, alcohol, etc.

This may sound very basic but they do tailor it to each individual plus you get to meet other type 1's face to face. And the bonus for me would be that you only have to attend the clinic once a year afterwards - unless you want to.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Grainne.

niamh.brady

graflynn wrote: »

Hi Niamh,
Congrats on getting on one so soon. I know a guy who did his in February and he just raves about it. The first thing they do is sort out your long acting insulin (this may involve a basal rate test - nothing too worrisome). Then they start at the beginning with the basics. They go through carb counting, finding your insulin to carb ratio for each meal, how to handle excercise, alcohol, etc.

This may sound very basic but they do tailor it to each individual plus you get to meet other type 1's face to face. And the bonus for me would be that you only have to attend the clinic once a year afterwards - unless you want to.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Grainne.

Thanks Grainne, I'm very excited. I think that I got on so soon as it is Galway Races week and noone wanted to be driving into and out of Galway city that week, but I don't care about how long it takes once I'm on it.

5 full days of learning so it must be very intensive. It would be great to know once and for all how much insulin I need - on my first appoint. with the clinic they couldn't believe that I'd been put on so much long-acting and so little short-acting before and advised that changing this should give me better control over my sugars and my weight - so yipee alround!

graflynn

I'm excited for you too! I'd give a lot to be going on a DAFNE - aaahh it's the simple things in life that us diabetics want

I'm trying to campaign for DAFNE to be adapted in Limerick but with cutbacks in the HSE, it's difficult. I think there should be a similar programme in every clinic in the country not just the chosen few.

A huge step in this campaign would be if more people with diabetes knew about these programmes and started asking for them - power to the people and all that. If you could, I know this might be impossible but, if you could post a day by day account of what you learned on the course, it might encourage more people to get in on the action.

BTW are you from the Clare side of Galway or the other? I live in Clare!

niamh.brady

graflynn wrote: »

I'm excited for you too! I'd give a lot to be going on a DAFNE - aaahh it's the simple things in life that us diabetics want

I'm trying to campaign for DAFNE to be adapted in Limerick but with cutbacks in the HSE, it's difficult. I think there should be a similar programme in every clinic in the country not just the chosen few.

A huge step in this campaign would be if more people with diabetes knew about these programmes and started asking for them - power to the people and all that. If you could, I know this might be impossible but, if you could post a day by day account of what you learned on the course, it might encourage more people to get in on the action.

BTW are you from the Clare side of Galway or the other? I live in Clare!

I'm living in Ennis. Had attended Ennis and Limerick clinics but was advised by so many people (within the hospitals) to move to the clinic in Galway that I got myself referred. Before moving to Clare I attended St James' and all 4 hospitals have been so different. Some really showed very little worry about potential side effects and high hba1c's. Galway is brilliant.

I do agree though that the course should be everywhere but I think there is a lot of staff training involved and of course the people need to want to teach the course. With so many short-staffed clinics these days its no wonder they haven't gotten any further in adding any more DAFNE centres.

I won't have my laptop with me the week of the course - I'm staying with family in Galway as the commute on race week would be crazy, but I will post the weekend after to give summaries on what we did each day.

tbh

that'd be great if you could Niamh, thanks. Don't worry if you can't tho. I've been waiting about 18 months for this, dying to hear what's involved.

graflynn

niamh.brady wrote: »

I'm living in Ennis.

NO WAY!!!! I live on the Tulla Road, next to the Roslevan Shopping Centre. Small World!

LegacyUser

hi niamh.
i am not diabetic but my boyfriend is. i am not used to all of this diabetes and he suffers alot of hypoglycaemic attacks. getting worse every time. it really scares me. he does not control it enough and is always going low alot of the time it is during the night and he does not wake in the mornings. i find it very hard to deal with. do u think he will beneift from that dafne course. who do i contact in order to get him onto a cancellation list. please help. thank you

tbh

is your boyfriend newly diagnosed?

niamh.brady

unregistered wrote: »

hi niamh.
i am not diabetic but my boyfriend is. i am not used to all of this diabetes and he suffers alot of hypoglycaemic attacks. getting worse every time. it really scares me. he does not control it enough and is always going low alot of the time it is during the night and he does not wake in the mornings. i find it very hard to deal with. do u think he will beneift from that dafne course. who do i contact in order to get him onto a cancellation list. please help. thank you

Hi there - if the course is on in the hospital that your boyfriend attends, he should just need to ask his consultant - otherwise he would need to get referred to a hospital that does the course by his GP.

I know the DAFNE course is especially good at reducinig blood sugars but the principles should work to stabilise sugars whether teh person ahs constantly low or high sugar levels.

I really think that your boyfriend should contact his doctor or diabetic clinic asap. Every diabetic is on a completely different insulin regime and it sounds like his needs to be altered. Hypos are caused most often by too much insulin for what the person is eating, or taking vigorous exercise without adjusting your insulin.

If he is newly diagnosed he could be in a "honeymoon stage" where he will require less insulin for a while.

It must be very frightening for you when its hard to wake him. I hope that he listens to your concerns and gets himself checked out asap.

niamh.brady

Hi guys - I'm back from DAFNE.

As excited as I was before the course, I am so much more excited now.

The course is intensive but so impressive - but you need to trust the method. It will take me a few days to let everything sink in before I can post all details, but I've a wee overview below.

The most important thing that you will learn in DAFNE is what your long-acting inslulin should really be. Mine was constantly being increased at appointments - most recently up to 50 units Levemir per day (20:30 ratio). I am now on 24 units of Lantus once a day. And you'd think that by dropping my long-acting by over half that I'd need to increase my novorapid at meals but it has been at most the same. What I realised (as did nearly everyone on the course) is that I was eating to keep my Levemir from constantly reducing my sugar levels. Now I can really eat as much or as little as I want - no foods banned, no eating at certain times - I can not eat if I want. Once your background (long acting) insulin is sorted you can do anything.

Second most important was carb counting. As previous posters have said, 10g carb is usally 1 unit insulin. In DAFNE every 10g carb (total carb not total sugars on labels) is one CP (carbohydrate portion). Everyone starts on a 1 CP:1 unit Novorapid or other quick acting insulin). I'm pretty much good on 1:1 - others are on 1.5 or 2 or even 0.5 to 1 - its very individual and all about looking for patterns (yes - diaries really are essential) and noticing what time fo day you need more insulin. Carb free meals (steak and salad/veg etc) mean no insuline needed - woohoo!!!!

All week you keep looking at your own and the group's sugar levels and suggesting changes on that. A couple of 3am blood sugar tests too (if you check your sugars at 3am and then again at 8am and they are pretty much the same - plus or minus 1.5, then your background insulin is spot on as it is not "dragging you down" overnight - if it drops too much you need less - if it goes up, you need more and so on.

Dealing with and preventing hypos and hypers are discussed as is the subject of alcohol as most people hospitalised with hypos are as a result of alcohol. Healthy eating is discussed but only briefly as it is more a course on showing you how to live a "normal" life and so you make your own decisions on what types you eat.

That's it for now. It's an amazing course so I advise you all to harass your GPs or specialists to get you referred.

P.S. Young and older on course - length of time with diabetes varied from 3 to 36 years and everyone learnt a huge amount so no excuses for anyone!!

graflynn

For anyone who wants more information on DAFNE there is an official UK website (www.dafne.co.uk) and it lists the 5 centres in Ireland that provide it.

St. Colmciles, St. Vincents, & Beaumont in Dublin
St. Luke's, Kilkenny
and University College Hospital in Galway

In my opinion anyone diagnosed with type 1 should have it available to them but hey, this is Ireland!

FluffyCat

My dad did that course and he it was the biggest waste of time ever!! He was told nothing he already knew. And the promised follow up never happened. Word of warning. As he did the course he was knocked off his consultants list and didnt see him for bout 2 yrs. It took a lot of phone calls and complaints to get back on his list.
Its up to you if ya wanna do the course but everyone who did it with my dad only had problems eg all were taken off the consultants lists

lucernarian

It does strike me as a carb counting course, along with making sure the basal dose of insulin is right. Nothing more than that. I think if a consultant refers someone to it, they'll get something out of it, but this stuff does sound pretty similar to the advice I already get! If you have a dietician who'll help you to properly judge and find out carb content, that's half the battle.

niamh.brady

Hi guys,

Just a few more details for you. I have a follow up in a week with the DAFNE team and then my next consultant appointment in October - every appointment will be with a DAFNE educated consultant so that they don't "undo" all the hard work.

I used to think that it could be a waste of time - nothing that I couldn't learn myself but I've been carb counting for 6 months prior to this and you get nowhere near the same effect. Not 1 single person in my whole group was on anything near the correct basal dose to start with, despite us all having it regularly adjusted (upwards) in all cases. The carb counting is really only secondary to getting everything else right and it is extremely rare that any consultant has enough time on a clinic visit or even a private appointment to get the doses bang on - plus you have to wait until your next appointment to see if it works and then adjust accordingly.

I had more adjustments in 3 days than ever before. There were people who have had diabetes for 26 and 36 years there and they found huge improvements almost immediately.

Think about it this way, if you just do the carb counting and presume that you have the basal dose right (because that's what you were put on) it will work well, but, you could be just like I was - eating to prevent hypos and constantly correcting with QA insulin.

It has taken any remotely small amounts of stress that I had as a diabetic. Eating out, going out for drinks, not eating doesn't effect me now. Even on a day where I am not being very watchful of my eating, the top of my range is still only single figures. I now know a lot more of the science behind the insulins and have stopped over-checking my bloods between meals when I know that insulin is still working in my system.

Don't get me wrong guys, it was hard work - and that's excluding the commuting up and down to Galway from Ennis on race-week. You have to put a lot of energy in, open your mind to some dramatic changes and trust in the system. If you don't, you'll get nothing out of it. You really do need the medical supervision to make such changes so quickly, otherwise you are back to one change every time you visit your doctor and it takes years to get the results.

We were such a mixed group, age-wise and personality-wise, so I think we'd quite a representative group of the population. But anyway guys, the course isn't forced on anyone so the fewer people who want to do it, the shorter the wait list. Pluses all around!!

lucernarian

Out of curiousity, what basal insulin were ye on? Did you all have the same insulin for that, or were some people on Lantus or Levemir etc?

There are values given for what the basal insulin dose should be, based on weight etc. But any endocrinologist should have dealt with that.

Are there any issues with going on a DAFNE course, if your regular consultant isn't DAFNE trained?? Like the user "FluffyCat"'s dad.

niamh.brady

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Out of curiousity, what basal insulin were ye on? Did you all have the same insulin for that, or were some people on Lantus or Levemir etc?

There are values given for what the basal insulin dose should be, based on weight etc. But any endocrinologist should have dealt with that.

Are there any issues with going on a DAFNE course, if your regular consultant isn't DAFNE trained?? Like the user "FluffyCat"'s dad.

Hi to be confirmed,

I was on 20 units Levemir in am and 30 at night. I'm now on 24 units Lantus (first tried 10 and 15u levemir but now one injection works for me - i love Lantus) and i think, based on my current figures that I may need to drop it by another 2 units. I've seen 3 endos prior to this and they just kept upping my doses (it was 70 at one stage) - you can imagine my hypos and hypers when i now know that 24 is more than enough. I've also finally managed to drop a bit of weight and was advised that this would happen when lowering the basal doses.

Everyone on our course bar one attends UCHG where there are a couple of DAFNE trained docs (as well as nurses etc). The girl who wasn't is thinking of moving her clinic there or to a different hospital nearer her college that does it. I don't think anyone who can't access a DAFNE team (at least once per year) should do it as it's a completely different system and even adjustments are done differently. It teaches you a lot more about doing it yourself though, so I'm sure given a bit of practice and a few appointments with a DAFNE team you'd be grand. We questioned this ourselves and were told that, say you go to another doc and he wants to up your basal or change your QA ratio, you should listen but also advise them on what you've been shown in DAFNE and give your own opinions based on any trends in your diary. I know personally that I would be very nervous about questioning a consultant though so I think I will just keep up with UCHG. The team are wonderful and it takes about 2.5 hours round-trip per visit drive-time plus a couple of hours for the clinics.

I have felt so much more relaxed and confident since moving to UCHG and the DAFNE course just reinforced that.

I'm with graflynn though that everyone should have easy access to the programme AND follow-up appointments. Then everyone could make the decision on whether it'll work for them or not. To me, it was the best use of a week's holiday since learning to ski.

LegacyUser

I completed the DAFNE course in UCHG 3 years ago.

Since then, my lifestuyle has changed, my eating habits have changed, I lost 15 kg and my Hba1c went from 9ish to 6.7 last week.

I'd recommend it without hesitation to all type 1 diabetics

kowloon

There's a waiting list of a year for it where I am in the UK, I'm not sure it would be any use for me anyway seeing as I can't even manage to keep my insulin and eating at regular hours, let alone count it all up in an ordered manner.

LegacyUser

I rang St Vincent's today to find out how to get on a DAFNE course and the nurse at the Diabetic Clinic explained that I would need to switch to a public consultant there (approximately 8 month wait for an appointment) and then apply for DAFNE (up to 18 months) It seems like a long time but a friend of mine who's studying medicine at RCSI says that the results are worth it. Apparently they also offer it Beaumont.

graflynn

There is lots more info on DAFNE on http://www.dafne.uk.com/scripts/typeonediabetes/dafnetoday.html including the list of centres who provide it in Ireland.

You do have to be a public patient and it's free to attend. You may have to take 5 days holidays for it though but on the up-side, you should only need to attend your clinic on an annual basis once you've completed it.

tbh

MrGSynergy wrote: »

I completed the DAFNE course in UCHG 3 years ago.

Since then, my lifestuyle has changed, my eating habits have changed, I lost 15 kg and my Hba1c went from 9ish to 6.7 last week.

I'd recommend it without hesitation to all type 1 diabetics

Hi Folks -

Firstly, I've merged two threads on DAFNE, so apologies if things are a little confusing if you're reading through for the first time.

Anyway, to echo what Mr G says above - I did the DAFNE course in St. Vincents last week, and it has changed my life as much as my initial diagnosis did.
Even in the last week my bloods are perfect, I've gone from about 70 units of insulin a day (40 lantus + ~30 NovaRapid) to about 30 (20 Lantus and 15 NovaRapid) I'm eating WAY better and I feel far more positive about having diabeties and my prospects.
The course covers carb counting and insulin adjustment, there's a doctor session where you can ask all those questions you always wanted to, they talk about dealing with alchohol, exercise, social aspects, setting goals etc.

The staff in vincents were superb and I couldn't recommend this course enough. Just checked my bloods - 5.8

tbh

for the interested, here's an idea of the DAFNE course I did. Now, I have to say that one of the things they ask you on the course is not to try and teach it yourself to other diabetics. It's nothing you don't know anyway, and it's certainly not a secret, but the rule is their call and that's good enough for me. So for that reason I don't intend to paste large passages of text or anything, or give advice about what to do -but again, I really suggest that you get on the waiting list for this.

Day 1:
introduction / what is diabetes / identify carbohydrates / dafne diary / diabetes target and control / nutrition / blood glucose checking and discussion

day 2:
Bloods results discussion / how insulin works / insulin adjustment / nutrition / food labelling / bloods results discussion

day 3:
bloods results discussion / managing exercise / snacking / bloods results discussion / hypo session (with partners)

day 4:
bloods results discussion / alcohol / sick day rules / Dr. session (IAMA Diabetes doctor in st vincents, AMA) / goal setting / bloods results discussion

day 5:
bloods results discussion / dining out / healthy eating / social aspects / quiz / action planning / evaluation

the bloods results discussion was just that - you show your blood results on an overhead projector and the group discusses them. It's brilliant, really.

My favourite part was the doctor AMA (ask me anything for the non-redditors) - one of the doctors explained what they are checking for in the yearly exams, talked about the complications, honestly, answered any questions that people had asked (you could also ask anonymously through post-it notes, great idea)

Every day at lunch we discussed what we were eating with the nutritionalist, and she helped us figure out how many CPs were there.

I had one wobble since I came out for a couple of days where I suddenly needed more BI, but I'd say for the last 10 days straight, I haven't had a reading over 10. That's actually a big deal for me, and it really didn't take an awful lot of work to get it - literally 10 mins of each day total.

I really do urge people to try and get a place on one of these courses - you'd imaging they are going to become increasingly rare, unfortunately.

CathyMoran

I would prefer an online course as I really do not have the time. Anyone know of an online DAFNE?

tbh

CathyMoran wrote: »

I would prefer an online course as I really do not have the time. Anyone know of an online DAFNE?

there's a DAFNE online site, but you need to have a graduate code to get in. It's not suited to online delivery tbh, lots of practical sessions.