Recent Posts - DAFNE Online

Mar 18, 2011

ot3867 5 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Not impressed x 2

1. It looks to me like you are using a lot of Insulin... I remember them saying on DAFNE that if you use too much the insulin is less effective because it does not absorb so well.... probably something worth discussing with the DAFNE specilist.

2. I agree on the points on where you jab. I understand that the side of the leg is good for absorbing your long acting basel insulin but the stomach is better for short acting. I have found this gives me enough rotation not to get too much brusing.

3. The pattern to me seems to be that lunch time was the high one. If you skipped breakfast one day and tested at lunch you would see whether you are having enough levemir at breakfast. My hunch is you need to lift your breakfast BI to 30 and keep the evening one at 28 and make all ratios the same so you can spot the patterns better.. 3:1 for the evening looks right too.

best,

Oliver

Mar 18, 2011

Robby N. 7 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / glucogel

just goes to show everybody is different

Mar 18, 2011

DFH_17 22 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / glucogel

I tend to have a mini can of Coke and that works perfect for me. I did try the 3 jelly babies and nothing happened after the recommended 10 mins waiting time - in fact my bg went lower - was a bit disappointed they didnt work but there you go :-)

Mar 18, 2011

DFH_17 22 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Conflicting Adivce

3.5 is definitely the floor with hypos and you want to do the hypo tretment wait 10 mins then re-test to make sure your BG has gone up. You've done well with decreasing your HBA1C in 2 months.

Regarding weight loss - its all about portion control. Making sure the cp count is correct so that your injecting the correct amount for what you eat. Have found that now I'm carb counting I automatically am more careful about what I eat as I know the more carbs I eat the more I have to inject. You didnt say what ratios your on for each meal?

Mar 18, 2011

marke 643 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Loss of Hypo warning signs

not wishing to be rude Kathryn but two things suprise me. Firstly why you were suprised by your HBa1c going up when you ran your BG high for 4 months ! A month would have been more than enough, I think the general recommendation is a few weeks should restore hypo warnings. Secondly if you only test when you think its 'needed' you have no way of knowing what your BG's are doing and being low or high should come as no suprise. The idea of DAFNE is to look for patterns in your BG's to decide if your BI is correct or your carb estimating is correct for your QA. Its not OCD to do this its normal diabetes management and to be honest its the only way if you are going to know if you have hypo signs or not. I don't disagree it can be a pain to have to keep doing it but there is no alternative.

Mar 18, 2011

vic demain 87 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View

Much of what you say holds memories for me Alan, although I was diagnosed a mere 30 years ago. Remember we referred to "exchanges" and you were allowed so many per meal, as you say. I used to live from meal to meal and hated being starved. The early blood glucose monitors were awful, well not the monitor but the finger pricker, which was at best lethal.
Dafne, for me was great, I learnt so much more in that week than the previous 28 years, however, control is slightly better but I now have far more hypos than ever before.

Mar 18, 2011

Alan 49 280 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View

I was diagnosed 47 years ago and spent a week as in In-Patient at King's College Hospital - being 'stabilised'. We were taught the basics of carb-counting - an egg-sized potato was 10g of carbohydrate, as was an apple and an orange and various other foods were also covered. Does this ring a bell? 10g of carbohydrate was called a 'portion' and we were given a diet sheet - say 4 portions for breakfast, 5 for lunch and 6 for dinner. Our meals were prepared in the Diabetic Wing's own kitchen and were really nice. We were taught how to inject and told how much (twice a day - before breakfast and dinner). Of course there were no blood sugar meters in those days - testing consisted of dipping testing strips in urine and you hoped that it showed 'no sugar'. There was nothing you could do if it showed the presence of sugar.

I was quite amused when I went on the DAFNE course and found that the 10g portion had made a come-back. So in my opinion, carb-counting is not new at all.

Mar 18, 2011

novorapidboi26 1,816 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio

Good luck, keep us informed.............. Smile

Mar 18, 2011

Aneirin 15 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio

Thanks, I feel a lot better about doing it now. Trying it today to see what happens. Will ask about a half pen.

Mar 18, 2011

novorapidboi26 1,816 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View

Its amazing how it took so long to organize a simple and effective way of educating us.............you gotta love the Germans...........lol

Mar 18, 2011

novorapidboi26 1,816 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Loss of Hypo warning signs

If hypo awareness is gone and is proving difficult to get back then those targets are realistic..........It might prove ineffective in the end but then other causes need to be explored..........

Mar 18, 2011

DFH_17 22 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View

I think the DAFNE course is the best thing that's ever happened to my Diabetes. Have been reading through all the posts on here and agree - a lot of what you know is through experience and trial and error but I just think the old regime did not work. It didnt seem to matter what I ate before - even a healthy meal and my BG's would be bad and then I'd eat something 'bad' and my BG would be fine - v confusing.
Before going on the DAFNE course I thought I understood about nutrition but found I didnt really know anything - especially with regards to portion control - was regularly having 200g of pasta or rice with meals thinking that was a normal size portion - but wasnt - now always stick to 100g.
I havent had a negative response about DAFNE just a confused response 'whats that about then?' - family/friends and work colleagues are all interested and am now recommending DAFNE to non-DAFNE diabetics.
Think the carb counting is genius - had not heard of that before - has helped hugely with portion control plus am losing weight which was a important thing for me. And the best bit - am definitely injecting less than before - am lucky to be on a 1:1 ratio at breakfast and lunch and a 1:5:1 ratio at dinner.
Just wish DAFNE had been around sooner - have been Type 1 for 33 years.

Mar 18, 2011

DFH_17 22 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Loss of Hypo warning signs

I always do 4 tests a day now as standard and if I'm feeling a bit weak I'll test plus before exercise/housework etc. I also do random tests. I think the blood test kit I now have helps as well as it doesnt feel like its a chore - I've got the Accu-Chek Compact Plus. This has the test strips on a barrel and the blood pricker attached to the body of the kit. I'm allergic to faffing about - if something isnt quick to use I lose interest.

Am a bit shocked your consultant wants you to run your blood sugars between 8 and 13! I dont want to sound rude but is your consultant DAFNE-trained? Just doesnt sound right to me.

Will be interesting to see how you get on in your next HBAc1 test.

Mar 18, 2011

novorapidboi26 1,816 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / glucogel

I am a jelly baby man myself, I think that DAFNE has turned alot of folk towards using jelly babies.................their tasty, and do the job......

Mar 18, 2011

novorapidboi26 1,816 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio

See, lots of people do it.......

Robby, I take it your very sensitive to insulin, or maybe naturally skinny........lol.............whats your background dose like, if you dont mind me asking.........

Mar 17, 2011

Robby N. 7 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio

I am on 0.5:1 ratio for my 3 doses of QA insulin, I have a half unit pen and find it most useful. Ask your HCP if you can have one.

Mar 17, 2011

Robby N. 7 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / glucogel

I have just graduated from my Dafne course, I find 3 jelly babies (1.5 CP) is better and much better tasting than Glucgel, also you can't spill jelly babies.

Mar 17, 2011

grandma carol 61 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio

I have had to change my dinner time ratio from 1-1 down to 0.5-1 and it dose seem to be helping me. But in the mornings I am on 3-1.
I got a 0.5 unit pen and that has helped as going from 2-1 down to 1-1 things were just back and forth I was high and then low and still could not get it right and even with the 1-1 I was still going low and hypo before bed but things are better with the 0.5. I also changed my night time Lantus from having it at 20.45 to having it at 18.00.
Speek to your team and see if you can get a 0.5 pen
I was the same and did not have hypo awarenness but I have it back now so good look Aneirin.

Mar 17, 2011

novorapidboi26 1,816 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio

You have the right ideas definitely, however some find that dropping their background to stop lows may send them high at some other point in the day, hence the need for a split............

But I would try going for the 0.5 ratio, if your comfortable, speak to your dsn if you need too.............. Smile

Mar 17, 2011

Aneirin 15 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio

Thanks a lot. I did consider the bit about background insulin (that I may have to split it), however I take the background after dinner, and it wouldn't make sense if the background insluin was running out for the blood sugars to decrease. If it was rising before I take my background insulin I would, but as my blood sugars are going down before I take it I can only assume it is still working (well, may have to do a few more no carb lunches to check that out)

We have a review in 3 weeks so I can discuss it then. Will try fiddling around for the moment with the half ratio. Thanks a lot.

Mar 17, 2011

novorapidboi26 1,816 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio

Hey there........

I wouldn't discount the background being off slightly, the dose may be right, but the distribution of the insulin may be out........a way to deal with that is to split your background dose, so a possible scenario for you may be 9 at 7:00am and 13 at 7:00pm, this strategy can compensate for the livers ever changing amounts of glucose secretion......

As you fear your weekends may differ from the week down to activity levels being less at the weekends, I would say that you should try a 0.5:1 ratio, I am aware of a good few people, one who was in my class on DAFNE who are on this ratio...........its undesirable purely because half units are a pain and could complicate things but ultimately you can do whatever is necessary........

Speak with your team, they can give you more professional advice on what to do, especially with your attempt to regain hypo awareness....................

Mar 17, 2011

Aneirin 15 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio

By way of additional information, this did not occur during DAFNE traniing and only occurred when I went back to work. (curiously dinner hypo's don't appear to happen at weekends). My first thought was that my work counted as excercize (in which case a half ratio may be appropriateaccording to DAFNE rules) however, my work isn't exactly intensive, being office based, interviewing people, and it does not explain why I raise from morning to lunch, then decrease from lunch to dinner (as I do not do more work in the morning than I do in the afternoon)

Mar 18, 2011 ot3867 5 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Not impressed x 2 1. It looks to me like you are using a lot of Insulin... I remember them saying on DAFNE that if you use too much the insulin is less effective because it does not absorb so well.... probably something worth discussing with the DAFNE specilist. 2. I agree on the points on where you jab. I understand that the side of the leg is good for absorbing your long acting basel insulin but the stomach is better for short acting. I have found this gives me enough rotation not to get too much brusing. 3. The pattern to me seems to be that lunch time was the high one. If you skipped breakfast one day and tested at lunch you would see whether you are having enough levemir at breakfast. My hunch is you need to lift your breakfast BI to 30 and keep the evening one at 28 and make all ratios the same so you can spot the patterns better.. 3:1 for the evening looks right too. best, Oliver

Mar 18, 2011 Robby N. 7 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / glucogel just goes to show everybody is different

Mar 18, 2011 DFH_17 22 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / glucogel I tend to have a mini can of Coke and that works perfect for me. I did try the 3 jelly babies and nothing happened after the recommended 10 mins waiting time - in fact my bg went lower - was a bit disappointed they didnt work but there you go :-)

Mar 18, 2011 DFH_17 22 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Conflicting Adivce 3.5 is definitely the floor with hypos and you want to do the hypo tretment wait 10 mins then re-test to make sure your BG has gone up. You've done well with decreasing your HBA1C in 2 months. Regarding weight loss - its all about portion control. Making sure the cp count is correct so that your injecting the correct amount for what you eat. Have found that now I'm carb counting I automatically am more careful about what I eat as I know the more carbs I eat the more I have to inject. You didnt say what ratios your on for each meal?

Mar 18, 2011 marke 643 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Loss of Hypo warning signs not wishing to be rude Kathryn but two things suprise me. Firstly why you were suprised by your HBa1c going up when you ran your BG high for 4 months ! A month would have been more than enough, I think the general recommendation is a few weeks should restore hypo warnings. Secondly if you only test when you think its 'needed' you have no way of knowing what your BG's are doing and being low or high should come as no suprise. The idea of DAFNE is to look for patterns in your BG's to decide if your BI is correct or your carb estimating is correct for your QA. Its not OCD to do this its normal diabetes management and to be honest its the only way if you are going to know if you have hypo signs or not. I don't disagree it can be a pain to have to keep doing it but there is no alternative.

Mar 18, 2011 vic demain 87 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View Much of what you say holds memories for me Alan, although I was diagnosed a mere 30 years ago. Remember we referred to "exchanges" and you were allowed so many per meal, as you say. I used to live from meal to meal and hated being starved. The early blood glucose monitors were awful, well not the monitor but the finger pricker, which was at best lethal. Dafne, for me was great, I learnt so much more in that week than the previous 28 years, however, control is slightly better but I now have far more hypos than ever before.

Mar 18, 2011 Alan 49 280 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View I was diagnosed 47 years ago and spent a week as in In-Patient at King's College Hospital - being 'stabilised'. We were taught the basics of carb-counting - an egg-sized potato was 10g of carbohydrate, as was an apple and an orange and various other foods were also covered. Does this ring a bell? 10g of carbohydrate was called a 'portion' and we were given a diet sheet - say 4 portions for breakfast, 5 for lunch and 6 for dinner. Our meals were prepared in the Diabetic Wing's own kitchen and were really nice. We were taught how to inject and told how much (twice a day - before breakfast and dinner). Of course there were no blood sugar meters in those days - testing consisted of dipping testing strips in urine and you hoped that it showed 'no sugar'. There was nothing you could do if it showed the presence of sugar. I was quite amused when I went on the DAFNE course and found that the 10g portion had made a come-back. So in my opinion, carb-counting is not new at all.

Mar 18, 2011 novorapidboi26 1,816 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio Good luck, keep us informed..............

Mar 18, 2011 Aneirin 15 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio Thanks, I feel a lot better about doing it now. Trying it today to see what happens. Will ask about a half pen.

Mar 18, 2011 novorapidboi26 1,816 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View Its amazing how it took so long to organize a simple and effective way of educating us.............you gotta love the Germans...........lol

Mar 18, 2011 novorapidboi26 1,816 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Loss of Hypo warning signs If hypo awareness is gone and is proving difficult to get back then those targets are realistic..........It might prove ineffective in the end but then other causes need to be explored..........

Mar 18, 2011 DFH_17 22 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View I think the DAFNE course is the best thing that's ever happened to my Diabetes. Have been reading through all the posts on here and agree - a lot of what you know is through experience and trial and error but I just think the old regime did not work. It didnt seem to matter what I ate before - even a healthy meal and my BG's would be bad and then I'd eat something 'bad' and my BG would be fine - v confusing. Before going on the DAFNE course I thought I understood about nutrition but found I didnt really know anything - especially with regards to portion control - was regularly having 200g of pasta or rice with meals thinking that was a normal size portion - but wasnt - now always stick to 100g. I havent had a negative response about DAFNE just a confused response 'whats that about then?' - family/friends and work colleagues are all interested and am now recommending DAFNE to non-DAFNE diabetics. Think the carb counting is genius - had not heard of that before - has helped hugely with portion control plus am losing weight which was a important thing for me. And the best bit - am definitely injecting less than before - am lucky to be on a 1:1 ratio at breakfast and lunch and a 1:5:1 ratio at dinner. Just wish DAFNE had been around sooner - have been Type 1 for 33 years.

Mar 18, 2011 DFH_17 22 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Loss of Hypo warning signs I always do 4 tests a day now as standard and if I'm feeling a bit weak I'll test plus before exercise/housework etc. I also do random tests. I think the blood test kit I now have helps as well as it doesnt feel like its a chore - I've got the Accu-Chek Compact Plus. This has the test strips on a barrel and the blood pricker attached to the body of the kit. I'm allergic to faffing about - if something isnt quick to use I lose interest. Am a bit shocked your consultant wants you to run your blood sugars between 8 and 13! I dont want to sound rude but is your consultant DAFNE-trained? Just doesnt sound right to me. Will be interesting to see how you get on in your next HBAc1 test.

Mar 18, 2011 novorapidboi26 1,816 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / glucogel I am a jelly baby man myself, I think that DAFNE has turned alot of folk towards using jelly babies.................their tasty, and do the job......

Mar 18, 2011 novorapidboi26 1,816 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio See, lots of people do it....... Robby, I take it your very sensitive to insulin, or maybe naturally skinny........lol.............whats your background dose like, if you dont mind me asking.........

Mar 17, 2011 Robby N. 7 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio I am on 0.5:1 ratio for my 3 doses of QA insulin, I have a half unit pen and find it most useful. Ask your HCP if you can have one.

Mar 17, 2011 Robby N. 7 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / glucogel I have just graduated from my Dafne course, I find 3 jelly babies (1.5 CP) is better and much better tasting than Glucgel, also you can't spill jelly babies.

Mar 17, 2011 grandma carol 61 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio I have had to change my dinner time ratio from 1-1 down to 0.5-1 and it dose seem to be helping me. But in the mornings I am on 3-1. I got a 0.5 unit pen and that has helped as going from 2-1 down to 1-1 things were just back and forth I was high and then low and still could not get it right and even with the 1-1 I was still going low and hypo before bed but things are better with the 0.5. I also changed my night time Lantus from having it at 20.45 to having it at 18.00. Speek to your team and see if you can get a 0.5 pen I was the same and did not have hypo awarenness but I have it back now so good look Aneirin.

Mar 17, 2011 novorapidboi26 1,816 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio You have the right ideas definitely, however some find that dropping their background to stop lows may send them high at some other point in the day, hence the need for a split............ But I would try going for the 0.5 ratio, if your comfortable, speak to your dsn if you need too..............

Mar 17, 2011 Aneirin 15 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio Thanks a lot. I did consider the bit about background insulin (that I may have to split it), however I take the background after dinner, and it wouldn't make sense if the background insluin was running out for the blood sugars to decrease. If it was rising before I take my background insulin I would, but as my blood sugars are going down before I take it I can only assume it is still working (well, may have to do a few more no carb lunches to check that out) We have a review in 3 weeks so I can discuss it then. Will try fiddling around for the moment with the half ratio. Thanks a lot.

Mar 17, 2011 novorapidboi26 1,816 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio Hey there........ I wouldn't discount the background being off slightly, the dose may be right, but the distribution of the insulin may be out........a way to deal with that is to split your background dose, so a possible scenario for you may be 9 at 7:00am and 13 at 7:00pm, this strategy can compensate for the livers ever changing amounts of glucose secretion...... As you fear your weekends may differ from the week down to activity levels being less at the weekends, I would say that you should try a 0.5:1 ratio, I am aware of a good few people, one who was in my class on DAFNE who are on this ratio...........its undesirable purely because half units are a pain and could complicate things but ultimately you can do whatever is necessary........ Speak with your team, they can give you more professional advice on what to do, especially with your attempt to regain hypo awareness....................

Mar 17, 2011 Aneirin 15 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Going below a 1:1 ratio By way of additional information, this did not occur during DAFNE traniing and only occurred when I went back to work. (curiously dinner hypo's don't appear to happen at weekends). My first thought was that my work counted as excercize (in which case a half ratio may be appropriateaccording to DAFNE rules) however, my work isn't exactly intensive, being office based, interviewing people, and it does not explain why I raise from morning to lunch, then decrease from lunch to dinner (as I do not do more work in the morning than I do in the afternoon)