DAFNE

hi,
Im off on the DAFNE experience in March, what exactly should I expect ? i have heard stories of peoples control getting worse!Also my employer Greater Glasgow Health Board believe it or not are refusing to give me paid leave to attend ! did anyone else have problems ?

Hi Neil, go with an open mind, be prepared to learn more about the condition than you ever have before. Take it on board and try it, you will have good days and also frustrating days. I am over a year on from the course, my control is better but that is because I check more regularly and work harder at it. Would I have been able to do this without DAFNE? Possibly but my knowledge would never have been as good. Don't expect miracles because they wont happen. I now have more hypos than ever, that is a worry, but I avoid that awful running high and all the associated problems that go with it. Enjoy the course.
Vic.

I definitely agree with vic demain about going to it with an open mind. It is very common for people to expect perfect results straight off (I know I did to an extent so it was very frustrating at times!) but you have to remember that you'll be learning what your body needs for all sorts of situations and as an eventual result - much better control overall! The hard work is worth it in the end - I can't imagine living without DAFNE now! All the guesswork I used to do - it's so not worth going back to that!

As it has been said, it takes time to get used to. You will need to get the Background Insulin at the right level, then work out what ratio is needed to calculate the level of Insulin agains the carbohydrates consumed.
I took the course two years ago, and my control has improved and I detect a lot more Hypos before they are a problem.
The only down side is that I have more problems with eating out or eating foods that cannot advise the carbohydrate contents.
As for work not letting you take the time off paid, that is unfortunate. As for me I was out of work at the time so that wasn't a problem for me, though I would have preferred to be in work and use a holiday allowance to attend.

Enjoy it, and try to give it a go. It helped me a lot, and hopefully you will have success with it too.

Paul

It makes everything so clear, and it only really gets frustrating as you now know, in detail, how to control you blood sugars, where as before you probably didn't notice that things weren't bang on.........you have good days and bad days, the only difference with DAFNE is you know when those bad days are.......

As far as work is concerned, I was unemployed at the time so I was fortunate.....in your case you would think the health board would be an ideal candidate for giving you paid leave, they should at least give you something, get the team to write a letter to your employer explaining it all.........

Good luck............look forward to seeing you on the forum as a graduate........

Hi,

I was employed at a university at the time of attending DAFNE and they also made me take the week off as annual leave. This was despite the DAFNE team writing to my manager and to HR to explain the benefits to them of me attending the course (such as me maybe needing less time off for sick days) and urging them to give me paid leave. I guess it might be a public sector thing- they might be worried about not being seen to use tax payers money efficiently as usual! All I can say is that it really was worth it for me and I would recommend that you still attend too. It was worth the annual leave to learn how to manage my blood sugars so well and also to meet the rest of my group who's advice and support is still really important to me. Good luck with it.

I had no holidays left when I went on the course but my employer allowed me to take time off unpaid. Even unpaid I would still say that it was very much worth it.

I guess I was kind of lucky with my employers. I only had two days holiday left so they were happy to cover the rest of the week with special leave because they recognised the long term benefits for all concerned quite quickly. Its a shame not all employers are as understanding. Enjoy the course, you might make a new pal as a bonus!

My control was a lot worse for just over a week before i got the ratios etc correct and now 3 months later my control and understanding is so much better than i can ever remeber and i can eat what i want when i want, even eating out i can keep control far far more than before (i use a iphone app to help me when eating out.)

Do it and dont look back