Recent Posts in General Discussion

Aug 12, 2009

Sheila_Kay 11 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Have played with the BG diary and found the graphs and like the result. Didn't get the housework done though.

Aug 13, 2009

marke 686 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

To Shelia and others, it is probably better if you start a new topic to ask questions. This topic now goes on for 6 pages and chances are people will not see your question buried in all the other posts.
You are welcome to ask questions here if you want, its just likely to get a better response as a seperate topic.

Thanks

Aug 14, 2009

Jess 13 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Hello,

I'm Jess, I was diagnosed in 1993 at the wonderful Stoke Mandeville Diabetes Centre. I did DAFNE a loooong time ago at the QMC (Nottingham). So long ago I can't tell you the year, but I know there were only about 4 DAFNE centres. I left Nottingham 4-5 years ago, sadly.

I have just been referred to the pre-conception clinic, and its the first time I've been back under the care of a hospital for years, its good to be back. Frimley don't do DAFNE but say they do somethign similar so I hope they can help me back on track and low enough to conceive.

Sep 21, 2009

belindad 2 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Hi,
I 'm Belinda and was diagnosed in the days when we had to boil our syringes and metal needles to sterilize them: when we had to use pee from a pipette with a tablet in a test tube to see if our sugar levels were high several hours ago!! I have seen many changes to management of Type 1 diabetes.
I have been fortunate to have had long and exceptional help from my diabetes specialist team who have passed on a deal of knowledge and kept me very well indeed. I have a lovely husband, a 25 and a 28 year old all are healthy and happy.
More changes. Thank goodness I have been DAFNE'd as now my marvellous consultants are recently retired.
Can I rely on all you out there to keep me well informed please as I intend to live a long and healthy life?!

Sep 30, 2009

john day 54 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Hello All ...

I was diagnosed T1 in August 1988 at QMC in Nottingham .. and still remember their offer for me to try out injecting an orange first to get the idea!

Did DAFNE August 2009 .. only 21 years later but well worth waiting for as gave a clear formal structure to the way I have always tried to control levels but historically with considerable guesswork and only moderate success.

Also, DAFNE advised so many other basic points in the 'why wasn't I told this before?' category. Many thanks to Debbie and Fumi our educators!

My QA is currently Novorapid, appx 30 per day, and BI Levemir 25 at breakfast and 5 at bedtime each day and it was really interesting to see how each dafne attendee had a quite different regime.

Have just used the Dafne glucose diary graph results for the first time since the course and 30day/7day comparison shows average declines of 13% lunch, 23% dinner and 33% bed but no change at breakfast. Shows a) the system works b) my bed readings were bad pre-dafne, deliberately so as I â€˜ran highâ€™ overnight to avoid the need for my partner to call out the paramedics as she had to 4 times in 2008! Now, of course, the dafne inspired Glucopen is to hand!

Future % reductions will no doubt be less but Dafne has certainly given confidence to tackle the problem areas.

My diabetic oddity is perhaps that still prefer using a syringe as a) smaller than pen b) unlikely to fail mechanically c) single mixed injections are possible.

Also, I feel most people eat a limited range of meals regularily and so have designed a simple A5 form which can be clipped in the front of the Dafne Dairy and hand filled at meal times to calculate the total CP of a meal from the ingredient CPs & portion sizes. From this form a simple personalized A5 reference list of regular meal total CPs can be drawn up and also kept in the diary. Saves me lots of hassle & time while still learning to estimate CPs accurately.

If anybody wants to try the form themselves I am happy to email the underlying excel spreadsheet for printing out. Contact me on [email protected] to request this.

I also am slowly building an A5 sized CP portion list for my individual ingredients, using portion units in the way I see them, and which is also fixed in the diary. This is much easier to use than the full CP list booklet. I would recommend all T1â€™s draw up their own personal list, both as an aid to learning the CPs and also speeding the mealside CP calculation.

Thatâ€™s it for now .. hope the above is moderately interesting and perhaps useful to others also. Cheers, John.

Oct 1, 2009

marke 686 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

John, and others, the A5 list sounds interesting but just to point out you can do this with the online carb counting pages. Its possible to add your own entries and display just your own entries on the pages. This coupled with the fact its available on mobile phones (if you have a phone that can do it) means you could save a tree ;-) Well you could have a back up for your
A5 paper copy anyway.

Its also always interesting to read other peoples experiences, one of the great things about the DAFNE course is a week of sharing experiences with other Diabetics, hopefully this site helps extend that sharing experience :-)

Oct 1, 2009

john day 54 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Hello Marke..

Thanks for the update re Carb Counter. I have indeed previously added a few items myself but only one immediate query : how the heck do you list your own entries only; I tried a search and just canâ€™t see a button!

Assuming you can solve that one for me, the problems I see in using the Counter as you suggest are:

-Clutter & confusion for users with many â€˜duplicateâ€™ added entries merely to enable use of personal preferred usual portion size.

-The personalized A5 ingredient list I use has selected official entries together with my own entries, all alphabetically sequenced .. could this be arranged online for all users? My total list is about 80 items at present and will probably top out at 100.

If you can provide the tech solution in a practical manner then I agree this approach would be good and the CP info benefit all members. Might even cause me to ask for a smart phone for xmas!

Cheers, John

Oct 1, 2009

john day 54 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Hello Marke..

Have finally figured how the Views of the Carb Counter works!

The category tab at the top currently gives the description of the category which will be displayed next, WHEN the tab is clicked with sequence Verified > All> My>Verified etc

Just a touch confusing as for example the Tab is showing All when the Verified items are displayed etc .

Not a high priority, but perhaps a slightly clearer control mechanism could be implemented?

Following my earlier comments, a method of selecting list items (of any category) and downloading in excel format (.xls) would enable personalised excel ists to be maintained by all at the mealside.

Over to the IT experts!

Cheers, John

Oct 1, 2009

marke 686 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

John, the text at the bottom right of the table shows what type of view is being displayed i.e verified> All > my. The button at the top shows you what will be displayed if the click on it. I can look at highlighting the text at the bottom right more and also add a better description on the introduction page.

With regard to your request for selection and excel download, this should be possible and I have noted your request. However at the moment I am focused on getting the Australian DAFNE documents in the correct format for the site and changing the site to work with them. I then have the user group pages to do. Simon is working on new features that will be released soon as well. Unfortunately with just two of us, we can only do what we can in the time we have. We will try to implement your request in future, I just can't give a timescale at the moment.

Oct 2, 2009

john day 54 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Hello Marke .. ok and thanks for that. I am hoping to encourage Nottingham QMC user group activity when time permits and pending other educator & graduate registrations. Have not yet thought through how best it can work in relation to the overall DO facilities.

Also, by coincidence, I have just had a request from a dietician in Australia for a copy of the estimator form!

Cheers, John

Oct 26, 2009

Sue R 3 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Hi
I'm Sue, Diagnosed with Type 1 in April 1979. So have had diabetes for over 30 years with control problems.
Graduated DAFNE course at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in October 2008.
Bi is Lantus - 30 units at 11pm
QA is NovoRapid - on a 2:1 ratio at mealtimes with correction for dawn phenomenon at breakfast.
Last HbA1c was 8.2, down from 9.8 before course (and striving for better!!).
Much happier in myself nowadays because DAFNE highlighted some issues (dawn phenomenon), but now i understand them i can deal with them better.
Looking forward to sharing experiences.
Cheers
Sue

Aug 26, 2010

addie 13 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Hi all

I am Adrian, diagnosed Sept 2004, graduated North Tyne Hostipal DAFNE course June 2006. DAFNE changed my life beyond all recognition. I was really struggling with the whole pre daphne diabetes regime. Suffered from depression and all of crap. Anyways DAFNE revitalised my life.

I changed jobs - was an area sales manager for Cadbury Trebor Basset pre DAFNE, flooding the north east with as much chocolate and sugar confectionery as possible had somehow lost its appeal!. I now work as a public health nutrition researcher at Newcastle University developing portion size assessment tools and computer systems for dietary assessment in the public health arena at national surveilence and local intervention levels.

I have had good months and bad months with diabetes. HbA1c is always around 8.2 to 8.7 but never broken the less than 8 barrier. Seem to have intermitent dawn phnomeon vistis every wee while. Would dearly love to get further understanding of fitness and physical activty.

I have just found this site in the last couple of weeks, I dont think it existed when I graduated. It is excellent. Big thanks for all the good work Simon and Marke appear to have done ( especially the iphone app ) that I think is amazing.

All the best

Ad

Aug 26, 2010

caroline15 45 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Just realised from Addie's post that I should have introduced myself before.

I'm Caroline, diagnosed T1 in December 2003. I did the Dafne course in July 2010. It was great to meet other people with Type 1 who had been diagnosed for a long time (some over 30 years) and see that they had no complications. I don't work as I also have multiple sclerosis which causes great fatigue.

Before dafne my hba1c was 8.7 , and I am hoping that this will improve. I have dawn phenomenon which I think has been helped recently by having alcohol before bed!

My daughter was also diagnosed T1 (no other diabetes in my family history) in October 2007 when she was 11, her last hba1c was 10.4. She was 14 this month and has never really accepted her diabetes, I am hoping that with maturity will come acceptance.

Oh, and I recently bought an Ipod Touch with my birthday money so I could download the dafne online app which I think is great!!

Best wishes.

Caroline

Aug 27, 2010

novorapidboi26 1,819 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Welcome caroline.............

I hope your daughter may get the chance to go on a course..............

My worst time with diabetes was between the ages of 15-21............everyone is different though......

Aug 27, 2010

caroline15 45 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Thanks for the welcome novo.

I asked if she could come on my dafne course with me as it was on in the first week of the summer holidays but apparently you have to be at least 18. She would have hated it anyway but that's her age, she wants to be with her friends not fellow diabetics. I personally loved it!

Aug 27, 2010

novorapidboi26 1,819 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

The good thing is that you now have the tools and knowledge to help her as much as she lets you...........

She wont hear it from anyone else so she is quite lucky infact.......

Does she test alot? and I assume she is on Multiple Daily Injections?

Aug 27, 2010

LauraH 6 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Hi, didn't realise there was an introduction post on here, what a good idea.

My name is Laura, I am 22. I was diagnosed when I was 20. I was getting very poorly in the lead up to my wedding in 2008 and of course we all just put it down to wedding stress. But 6 weeks after the wedding came the diagnosis...huge shock. I was very lucky to be put on a Dafne course in January 2010, so I really only went 18 months without it. It was such a relief feeling everything fall into place, and my HbA1c dropped right down to 8.2 which I was so pleased about, although still working on. Plus I really loved meeting everyone else on the course, and having the chance to talk to them about day to day things. Probably why I like this forum so much, it's like being back in our Dafne classes, just with a lot more people!

Aug 28, 2010

AlanC 1 post

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Hi everyone - just graduated yesterday (27 Aug) from DAFNE at Monklands Hospital - I wish I had been given the opportunity to do this many years ago. I was diagnosed in early 1986, aged 17, early years I didnt look after myself as closely as I should have, but my good lady wife (who I married 16 years ago) has made sure that this has changed for good! Prior to DAFNE was using far too much Insulin (to ensure my BG's didn't run too high). Despite good HBA1c results, have had too many hypos and as a result of the high Insulin doses have been eating too much (at the expense of my waistline!. Currently on Levemir (now split!) and Actrapid. Following DAFNE I am using around 15-20 less units of Insulin per day!!!!. Hopefully I can maintain this in teh long run. I'd also like to thank the DAFNE educators at Monklands, Pat and Lynn, who were absolutely brilliant last week. Hope to visit this site every day and maybe speak to some of you soon

Alan

Aug 28, 2010

novorapidboi26 1,819 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Welcome Alan from a fellow monklands graduate, the team there are brilliant................................

See u around........................

Aug 31, 2010

Byron 2 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Greetings everyone, I'm Jack and I've just last week completed the DAFNE course - which I thought was excellent and extremely insightful. I was lucky to find myself in a very good group, filled with different levels of experience and histories, which helped a lot.

I've been diagnosed for two years - pretty much to the day. I had started noticing I was drinking much more and generally feeling fatigued a lot (I was writing a dissertation at the time, and finding days when I wasn't visiting the gym really hard going and unproductive - I even joked to my supervisor that the dissertation was killing me). I suspected diabetes because of my cat, who when he was 17 had started drinking a lot of water (including puddles), so I took him to the vet who found he had developed diabetes. He lasted a further year, but three years later I saw the same happening to me. I had to wait a few weeks for a blood test since it was summer and my GP's staff were mostly away or working through a backlog from having been away. By the time the test came I thought I was feeling much better, and considered cancelling the test, but decided to proceed and rule out silly things like diabetes. I even said to my GP I only took the test to rule out diabetes while he told me I had diabetes...

Luckily my health is holding up fine, with good glucose readings - to the point that I repeatedly get told I'm still in the honeymoon phase. I hope reading this forum will extend that good control and build on the DAFNE course for the future.

Sep 1, 2010

novorapidboi26 1,819 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Welcome to the forum Jack, the more the merrier.........

Sep 1, 2010

Karl 83 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Hi Jack

Welcome.

'but three years later I saw the same happening to me' - What you started drinking from puddles!

Glad to see another graduate from Hull actually posting :-)

Karl

Sep 1, 2010

Byron 2 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

'but three years later I saw the same happening to me' - What you started drinking from puddles!

Lol I probably wasn't far from that, the thirst was unquenchable at times. Happily sorted now though.

Sep 1, 2010

HelenP 218 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Hi, I'm Helen (from the other side of the planet!). Have had diabetes since 1979 and completed Dafne two years ago. Dafne was like switching on a light as I had previously believed that I really did not have that much control. Still adjusting doses etc as I seem to have periods where for no reason the BGs will run universally high for a week or so and then drop back. I am on high doses Lantus morning 45, evening 25 and a 3 to 4 novorapid for each carb (10g) portion. Total daily dose is about 100. I have been told that this could be insulin sensitivity but...
I have been thinking of joining this forum for a while so here goes. Helen

Sep 2, 2010

novorapidboi26 1,819 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Introductions

Hey Helen, welcome to the forum, if you need help at the click of a button your sure to find it here, from plain old graduates like myself to healthcare professionals....

You are on quite alot of insuluin, much as I am.

I am on 17 Humulin I AM and 28 Humulin I PM and then 1.5-3 units per 10g for my meals....

I am sure it is sensitivity as well which can only be improved by firstly excercise to stimulate the muscles and so on to produce more 'doors' for the insulin to unlock and secondly drugs......

Where in the planet are you from?

Aug 12, 2009 Sheila_Kay 11 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Have played with the BG diary and found the graphs and like the result. Didn't get the housework done though.

Aug 13, 2009 marke 686 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions To Shelia and others, it is probably better if you start a new topic to ask questions. This topic now goes on for 6 pages and chances are people will not see your question buried in all the other posts. You are welcome to ask questions here if you want, its just likely to get a better response as a seperate topic. Thanks

Aug 14, 2009 Jess 13 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Hello, I'm Jess, I was diagnosed in 1993 at the wonderful Stoke Mandeville Diabetes Centre. I did DAFNE a loooong time ago at the QMC (Nottingham). So long ago I can't tell you the year, but I know there were only about 4 DAFNE centres. I left Nottingham 4-5 years ago, sadly. I have just been referred to the pre-conception clinic, and its the first time I've been back under the care of a hospital for years, its good to be back. Frimley don't do DAFNE but say they do somethign similar so I hope they can help me back on track and low enough to conceive.

Sep 21, 2009 belindad 2 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Hi, I 'm Belinda and was diagnosed in the days when we had to boil our syringes and metal needles to sterilize them: when we had to use pee from a pipette with a tablet in a test tube to see if our sugar levels were high several hours ago!! I have seen many changes to management of Type 1 diabetes. I have been fortunate to have had long and exceptional help from my diabetes specialist team who have passed on a deal of knowledge and kept me very well indeed. I have a lovely husband, a 25 and a 28 year old all are healthy and happy. More changes. Thank goodness I have been DAFNE'd as now my marvellous consultants are recently retired. Can I rely on all you out there to keep me well informed please as I intend to live a long and healthy life?!

Sep 30, 2009 john day 54 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Hello All ... I was diagnosed T1 in August 1988 at QMC in Nottingham .. and still remember their offer for me to try out injecting an orange first to get the idea! Did DAFNE August 2009 .. only 21 years later but well worth waiting for as gave a clear formal structure to the way I have always tried to control levels but historically with considerable guesswork and only moderate success. Also, DAFNE advised so many other basic points in the 'why wasn't I told this before?' category. Many thanks to Debbie and Fumi our educators! My QA is currently Novorapid, appx 30 per day, and BI Levemir 25 at breakfast and 5 at bedtime each day and it was really interesting to see how each dafne attendee had a quite different regime. Have just used the Dafne glucose diary graph results for the first time since the course and 30day/7day comparison shows average declines of 13% lunch, 23% dinner and 33% bed but no change at breakfast. Shows a) the system works b) my bed readings were bad pre-dafne, deliberately so as I â€˜ran highâ€™ overnight to avoid the need for my partner to call out the paramedics as she had to 4 times in 2008! Now, of course, the dafne inspired Glucopen is to hand! Future % reductions will no doubt be less but Dafne has certainly given confidence to tackle the problem areas. My diabetic oddity is perhaps that still prefer using a syringe as a) smaller than pen b) unlikely to fail mechanically c) single mixed injections are possible. Also, I feel most people eat a limited range of meals regularily and so have designed a simple A5 form which can be clipped in the front of the Dafne Dairy and hand filled at meal times to calculate the total CP of a meal from the ingredient CPs & portion sizes. From this form a simple personalized A5 reference list of regular meal total CPs can be drawn up and also kept in the diary. Saves me lots of hassle & time while still learning to estimate CPs accurately. If anybody wants to try the form themselves I am happy to email the underlying excel spreadsheet for printing out. Contact me on [email protected] to request this. I also am slowly building an A5 sized CP portion list for my individual ingredients, using portion units in the way I see them, and which is also fixed in the diary. This is much easier to use than the full CP list booklet. I would recommend all T1â€™s draw up their own personal list, both as an aid to learning the CPs and also speeding the mealside CP calculation. Thatâ€™s it for now .. hope the above is moderately interesting and perhaps useful to others also. Cheers, John.

Oct 1, 2009 marke 686 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions John, and others, the A5 list sounds interesting but just to point out you can do this with the online carb counting pages. Its possible to add your own entries and display just your own entries on the pages. This coupled with the fact its available on mobile phones (if you have a phone that can do it) means you could save a tree ;-) Well you could have a back up for your A5 paper copy anyway. Its also always interesting to read other peoples experiences, one of the great things about the DAFNE course is a week of sharing experiences with other Diabetics, hopefully this site helps extend that sharing experience :-)

Oct 1, 2009 john day 54 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Hello Marke.. Thanks for the update re Carb Counter. I have indeed previously added a few items myself but only one immediate query : how the heck do you list your own entries only; I tried a search and just canâ€™t see a button! Assuming you can solve that one for me, the problems I see in using the Counter as you suggest are: -Clutter & confusion for users with many â€˜duplicateâ€™ added entries merely to enable use of personal preferred usual portion size. -The personalized A5 ingredient list I use has selected official entries together with my own entries, all alphabetically sequenced .. could this be arranged online for all users? My total list is about 80 items at present and will probably top out at 100. If you can provide the tech solution in a practical manner then I agree this approach would be good and the CP info benefit all members. Might even cause me to ask for a smart phone for xmas! Cheers, John

Oct 1, 2009 john day 54 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Hello Marke.. Have finally figured how the Views of the Carb Counter works! The category tab at the top currently gives the description of the category which will be displayed next, WHEN the tab is clicked with sequence Verified > All> My>Verified etc Just a touch confusing as for example the Tab is showing All when the Verified items are displayed etc . Not a high priority, but perhaps a slightly clearer control mechanism could be implemented? Following my earlier comments, a method of selecting list items (of any category) and downloading in excel format (.xls) would enable personalised excel ists to be maintained by all at the mealside. Over to the IT experts! Cheers, John

Oct 1, 2009 marke 686 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions John, the text at the bottom right of the table shows what type of view is being displayed i.e verified> All > my. The button at the top shows you what will be displayed if the click on it. I can look at highlighting the text at the bottom right more and also add a better description on the introduction page. With regard to your request for selection and excel download, this should be possible and I have noted your request. However at the moment I am focused on getting the Australian DAFNE documents in the correct format for the site and changing the site to work with them. I then have the user group pages to do. Simon is working on new features that will be released soon as well. Unfortunately with just two of us, we can only do what we can in the time we have. We will try to implement your request in future, I just can't give a timescale at the moment.

Oct 2, 2009 john day 54 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Hello Marke .. ok and thanks for that. I am hoping to encourage Nottingham QMC user group activity when time permits and pending other educator & graduate registrations. Have not yet thought through how best it can work in relation to the overall DO facilities. Also, by coincidence, I have just had a request from a dietician in Australia for a copy of the estimator form! Cheers, John

Oct 26, 2009 Sue R 3 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Hi I'm Sue, Diagnosed with Type 1 in April 1979. So have had diabetes for over 30 years with control problems. Graduated DAFNE course at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in October 2008. Bi is Lantus - 30 units at 11pm QA is NovoRapid - on a 2:1 ratio at mealtimes with correction for dawn phenomenon at breakfast. Last HbA1c was 8.2, down from 9.8 before course (and striving for better!!). Much happier in myself nowadays because DAFNE highlighted some issues (dawn phenomenon), but now i understand them i can deal with them better. Looking forward to sharing experiences. Cheers Sue

Aug 26, 2010 addie 13 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Hi all I am Adrian, diagnosed Sept 2004, graduated North Tyne Hostipal DAFNE course June 2006. DAFNE changed my life beyond all recognition. I was really struggling with the whole pre daphne diabetes regime. Suffered from depression and all of crap. Anyways DAFNE revitalised my life. I changed jobs - was an area sales manager for Cadbury Trebor Basset pre DAFNE, flooding the north east with as much chocolate and sugar confectionery as possible had somehow lost its appeal!. I now work as a public health nutrition researcher at Newcastle University developing portion size assessment tools and computer systems for dietary assessment in the public health arena at national surveilence and local intervention levels. I have had good months and bad months with diabetes. HbA1c is always around 8.2 to 8.7 but never broken the less than 8 barrier. Seem to have intermitent dawn phnomeon vistis every wee while. Would dearly love to get further understanding of fitness and physical activty. I have just found this site in the last couple of weeks, I dont think it existed when I graduated. It is excellent. Big thanks for all the good work Simon and Marke appear to have done ( especially the iphone app ) that I think is amazing. All the best Ad

Aug 26, 2010 caroline15 45 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Just realised from Addie's post that I should have introduced myself before. I'm Caroline, diagnosed T1 in December 2003. I did the Dafne course in July 2010. It was great to meet other people with Type 1 who had been diagnosed for a long time (some over 30 years) and see that they had no complications. I don't work as I also have multiple sclerosis which causes great fatigue. Before dafne my hba1c was 8.7 , and I am hoping that this will improve. I have dawn phenomenon which I think has been helped recently by having alcohol before bed! My daughter was also diagnosed T1 (no other diabetes in my family history) in October 2007 when she was 11, her last hba1c was 10.4. She was 14 this month and has never really accepted her diabetes, I am hoping that with maturity will come acceptance. Oh, and I recently bought an Ipod Touch with my birthday money so I could download the dafne online app which I think is great!! Best wishes. Caroline

Aug 27, 2010 novorapidboi26 1,819 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Welcome caroline............. I hope your daughter may get the chance to go on a course.............. My worst time with diabetes was between the ages of 15-21............everyone is different though......

Aug 27, 2010 caroline15 45 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Thanks for the welcome novo. I asked if she could come on my dafne course with me as it was on in the first week of the summer holidays but apparently you have to be at least 18. She would have hated it anyway but that's her age, she wants to be with her friends not fellow diabetics. I personally loved it!

Aug 27, 2010 novorapidboi26 1,819 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions The good thing is that you now have the tools and knowledge to help her as much as she lets you........... She wont hear it from anyone else so she is quite lucky infact....... Does she test alot? and I assume she is on Multiple Daily Injections?

Aug 27, 2010 LauraH 6 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Hi, didn't realise there was an introduction post on here, what a good idea. My name is Laura, I am 22. I was diagnosed when I was 20. I was getting very poorly in the lead up to my wedding in 2008 and of course we all just put it down to wedding stress. But 6 weeks after the wedding came the diagnosis...huge shock. I was very lucky to be put on a Dafne course in January 2010, so I really only went 18 months without it. It was such a relief feeling everything fall into place, and my HbA1c dropped right down to 8.2 which I was so pleased about, although still working on. Plus I really loved meeting everyone else on the course, and having the chance to talk to them about day to day things. Probably why I like this forum so much, it's like being back in our Dafne classes, just with a lot more people!

Aug 28, 2010 AlanC 1 post	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Hi everyone - just graduated yesterday (27 Aug) from DAFNE at Monklands Hospital - I wish I had been given the opportunity to do this many years ago. I was diagnosed in early 1986, aged 17, early years I didnt look after myself as closely as I should have, but my good lady wife (who I married 16 years ago) has made sure that this has changed for good! Prior to DAFNE was using far too much Insulin (to ensure my BG's didn't run too high). Despite good HBA1c results, have had too many hypos and as a result of the high Insulin doses have been eating too much (at the expense of my waistline!. Currently on Levemir (now split!) and Actrapid. Following DAFNE I am using around 15-20 less units of Insulin per day!!!!. Hopefully I can maintain this in teh long run. I'd also like to thank the DAFNE educators at Monklands, Pat and Lynn, who were absolutely brilliant last week. Hope to visit this site every day and maybe speak to some of you soon Alan

Aug 28, 2010 novorapidboi26 1,819 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Welcome Alan from a fellow monklands graduate, the team there are brilliant................................ See u around........................

Aug 31, 2010 Byron 2 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Greetings everyone, I'm Jack and I've just last week completed the DAFNE course - which I thought was excellent and extremely insightful. I was lucky to find myself in a very good group, filled with different levels of experience and histories, which helped a lot. I've been diagnosed for two years - pretty much to the day. I had started noticing I was drinking much more and generally feeling fatigued a lot (I was writing a dissertation at the time, and finding days when I wasn't visiting the gym really hard going and unproductive - I even joked to my supervisor that the dissertation was killing me). I suspected diabetes because of my cat, who when he was 17 had started drinking a lot of water (including puddles), so I took him to the vet who found he had developed diabetes. He lasted a further year, but three years later I saw the same happening to me. I had to wait a few weeks for a blood test since it was summer and my GP's staff were mostly away or working through a backlog from having been away. By the time the test came I thought I was feeling much better, and considered cancelling the test, but decided to proceed and rule out silly things like diabetes. I even said to my GP I only took the test to rule out diabetes while he told me I had diabetes... Luckily my health is holding up fine, with good glucose readings - to the point that I repeatedly get told I'm still in the honeymoon phase. I hope reading this forum will extend that good control and build on the DAFNE course for the future.

Sep 1, 2010 novorapidboi26 1,819 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Welcome to the forum Jack, the more the merrier.........

Sep 1, 2010 Karl 83 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Hi Jack Welcome. 'but three years later I saw the same happening to me' - What you started drinking from puddles! Glad to see another graduate from Hull actually posting :-) Karl

Sep 1, 2010 Byron 2 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions 'but three years later I saw the same happening to me' - What you started drinking from puddles! Lol I probably wasn't far from that, the thirst was unquenchable at times. Happily sorted now though.

Sep 1, 2010 HelenP 218 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Hi, I'm Helen (from the other side of the planet!). Have had diabetes since 1979 and completed Dafne two years ago. Dafne was like switching on a light as I had previously believed that I really did not have that much control. Still adjusting doses etc as I seem to have periods where for no reason the BGs will run universally high for a week or so and then drop back. I am on high doses Lantus morning 45, evening 25 and a 3 to 4 novorapid for each carb (10g) portion. Total daily dose is about 100. I have been told that this could be insulin sensitivity but... I have been thinking of joining this forum for a while so here goes. Helen

Sep 2, 2010 novorapidboi26 1,819 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Introductions Hey Helen, welcome to the forum, if you need help at the click of a button your sure to find it here, from plain old graduates like myself to healthcare professionals.... You are on quite alot of insuluin, much as I am. I am on 17 Humulin I AM and 28 Humulin I PM and then 1.5-3 units per 10g for my meals.... I am sure it is sensitivity as well which can only be improved by firstly excercise to stimulate the muscles and so on to produce more 'doors' for the insulin to unlock and secondly drugs...... Where in the planet are you from?