Recent Posts - DAFNE Online

Oct 2, 2009

hankypanky 18 posts

Topic: General Discussion / How many Test Strips ?

hi David

i myself think that it's up to the person with diabetes to do as many as she/he requires but most of us know by now the signs whether hypo/hyper but hey glad you got more strips to check them bg's Smile

Steve

Oct 2, 2009

hankypanky 18 posts

Topic: General Discussion / New member

hi Sam

me too have not long completed DAFNE cool course Smile

i too have read through loads on here and have found the site useful, been type 1 since feb 95 and have learned loads on the course, had a good laugh people easy to talk to, found loads out that i never even knew before that sounds dumb seeing im type 1 for many years but still learning, im having loads of probs at the moment with bg's etc and am working too hard and currently on 7 -10 injections daily as always correcting myself but my averages are cool bout 8.5 to 10 each month but god i had to work hard to get this like it is now, but am currently waiting an appointment as i may be accepted for the pump phew.... no more 9 jabs daily can't wait but hey hope you enjoy the site.
see ya around
Steve Smile

Oct 1, 2009

Sam 64 posts

Topic: General Discussion / New member

Hi!
I'm Sam from Glasgow, just finished the DAFNE course a couple of weeks ago and following the rules like mad however doesn't seem to be doing anything anytime soon. I know it doesn't happen overnight but I just want to have better control. New to this, new to forums so I hope there are plenty people that will be able to help and guide me through this. I'm 25 been diagnosed since Jan 2008 and a female....Samantha is too formal! I've had a quick gander through the site and already there have been a lot of questions answered for me so thanks all. I can see this is going to be addictive so I'm going to retire to bed. Will be posting a lot more over the weekend!!

Sam x

Oct 1, 2009

marke 681 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 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

Simon 578 posts

Topic: Site Development / Online BG Diaries

Hi Stew,

I did a quick search of our database against your user ID and bg readings of 7.6 and the only one that came up was of type 'Before Breakfast' (although it was saved at 2300) - are you sure the offending entry is saved as type 'Before Bed'?

Note you can change the type by clicking on the entry time in your diary - you'll get an update form.

Thanks,

Simon

Oct 1, 2009

Stew B 125 posts

Topic: Site Development / Online BG Diaries

Hi Simon
I use "standard" DAFNE targets, and I've just noticed that a BG entry of 7.6 at bedtime has shown up red (i.e. above target) in my on-line diary. My hard-copy DAFNE Diary shows bedtime target as 6.5 - 8.0. Is this a glitch or have I missed something (entirely possible!!).

Stew

Oct 1, 2009

John Roscoe 14 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / CP value of Stoneless Dates

Hi, Can anyone tell me what the CP value of stoneless dates is (my wife is using the ones from Julian Graves to add to her home made museli)I think it may be 75g/100g but I'm not certain so any info would be really helpful.
Thanks.
John

Oct 1, 2009

Sarah 1 post

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / CP value of maize flour

My Carb counting book says 78g CHO per 100g of maize flour!

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

marke 681 posts

Topic: General Discussion / How many Test Strips ?

David, thanks for sharing this experience with everyone, hopefully it shows others that it IS possible to make sure your get the tools you need to manage your diabetes properly. If anyone has been unable to get test strips please post and let us know. With the growing membership here AND the User Group now running we should be looking to resolve any issues with PCT's and Doctor practices that are not 'enlightened'. If they refuse to be 'enlightened' then we will send the boys round !!

Oct 1, 2009

marke 681 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 :-)

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.

Sep 30, 2009

Karen Westwood 38 posts

Topic: General Discussion / How many Test Strips ?

Excellent news David. At least you will be able to do all the tests needed now!

Good luck

Karen x

Sep 30, 2009

DavidJ 23 posts

Topic: General Discussion / How many Test Strips ?

Good News. I saw the Practise Nurse and she was as helpful as I could have wished. The test strips are now on my repeat. I only wish I'd seen someone sooner instead of 3 months of frustration trying to eke out my test strips until the next repeat. She issued me with a new Autopen as well. Whoopee!!!

Sep 28, 2009

marke 681 posts

Topic: DAFNE Graduate Group (DGG) / DAFNE user group first meeting

John, I don't want to name any names or even get territorial/personal but I think I can guess which forum you found, we had a brief flurry with some of their members on this site. Their views do not correspond with ours, I think is the best way of putting it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions so I won't comment further.

With regard to other names for DAFNE, they are NOT DAFNE courses, they are usually cut down versions to save money. Unfortunately we do not recognise them as DAFNE Courses. Why ? Because one of the things about DAFNE is it is based on a lot of research both here and in the germany and is rigorously controlled to ensure that it is based on the research carried out. There is no evidence to support the cut-down courses and it is not clear if they are as effective as the official DAFNE course.

While I am keen for everyone to get Diabetes Education regardless of the course, I would still prefer it to be the official DAFNE course which I personally know works. This is the standpoint of the people who run the DAFNE Programme as well. Unfortunately some people don't like this approach, but it is what we believe to be the correct approach.

The User Group will be trying in the near future to encourage PCT's to run DAFNE Courses by demonstrating the benefits, one of which is you can have a support website that is both national and international. This is NOT possible if every PCT runs its own 'version' of the course with different course contents.

Thank you very much for trying to promote DAFNE and don't be discouraged. We all know it IS a great course and can make a huge differnence to all Diabetics. If we all keep working at promoting it, eventually we will reach critical mass and more and more PCT's will provide the course. Which is a result that will benefit everyone.

Sep 28, 2009

John Roscoe 14 posts

Topic: DAFNE Graduate Group (DGG) / DAFNE user group first meeting

Thanks for the info things are becoming clearer now. Last week Claire Swift sent me copies of the minutes of the first two DUAG meetings.
I like the approach that the Awareness Group are taking especially the messages outlined in point 6.2. I think this is a particularly important issue and in my view the group has got this exactly right.
As a point of interest, earlier this year I linked into a Diabetes forum I found on the internet and I tried to encourage folk to attend the DAFNE course if given the opportunity, sadly the feedback I was given was rather discouraging and some people seemed to be rather cynical about DAFNE. Additionally it seemed that in some areas of the country it is called something other than DAFNE which certainly won't help the cause of the DUAG Awareness Group.
Finally on the Involvement Group there is some good stuff going on in the Darlington/Darlington area which may interest you. At least once a year they do a training course for HCP's and one of the things they do is ask about 4 patients to attend and talk to the HCP's. For the last two years they have asked those of us that are DAFNE Graduates to take every possible opportunity to mention DAFNE and its benefits. This has worked really well and there is a great deal of interest from the Doctors and Nurses.
I think I have said enough now. It's all good stuff well done to the group.
John.

Sep 28, 2009

DavidJ 23 posts

Topic: General Discussion / How many Test Strips ?

I'm going on Wednesday so I should have news by Thursday. I've printed out the posts on this forum plus I'll take my Dafne course notes. They might respond positively when I explain my position and the reasons that I need more.

Sep 28, 2009

digth 19 posts

Topic: DAFNE Graduate Group (DGG) / DAFNE user group first meeting

Hi John

I can confirm that your application to join the DAFNE User Group was received and that you are duly a member of the DAFNE User Group.

As we state in the information about DAFNE User Group, Central DAFNE will only contact you if there is a reason; so far this year we have contacted members to:
1. Volunteer to stand for election of DUAG (21 people responded)
2. Send out voting packs for DUAG
3. Announce the outcome of the DUAG elections
4. Send out the minutes from the 2 DUAG meetings
5. To give information about dafneonline
6. To contact Graduates from 2 DAFNE centres that have decided to withdraw their DAFNE services

Contacts 1-3 above would have occurred before you registered with the User Group, but I do hope you received the minutes.

We currently have 527 DAFNE Graduates on the DAFNE User Group database; date around one quarter of the DAFNE User Group have requested that we only contact them by post.

We hope that over the coming weeks as DUAG start to develop that they will provide updates to Central DAFNE to send to the members of the DAFNE User Group; and indeed start to invite the DAFNE User group to become more actively involved in their work streams. It's important to bear in mind that not all members of the DAFNE User Group will be registered with dafneonline, and vice versa, so Central DAFNE and the DUAG will be working together to maximise exposure to the workings of the DUAG using both dafneonline and the DAFNE User Group.

Sep 27, 2009

John Roscoe 14 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Watch out - Corn on the cob!

Hi Folks,
I was interested to read your notes on corn on the cob. Like Karen I used to count it but since DAFNE I haven't and I don't get high blood sugars as a result. Strange how different people react in different ways. Cheers John

Sep 27, 2009

john day 54 posts

Topic: Questions for HCPs / BG Diary at Clinic

Hello all..

One additional thought re getting a paperless diary to others to view.

a- set up & open an empty Word document

b- call up the dafne printable diary format to screen

c- Use CNTRL_A to highlight all the diary then Cntr_C to Copy it

d- go to the open Word document and Cntrl_V to paste the diary to this document.

e- Save the document

f- Create mail to the intended recipient and attach the diary document and send.

A bit convoluted perhaps but can be emailed to anyone, whether or not they are registered on Dafne online, just as long as you have their email!

Hope this helps, John.

Sep 26, 2009

Simon 578 posts

Topic: Questions for HCPs / BG Diary at Clinic

Hi Sue,

This functionality is now available, see my posts on this forum thread for more information on how to do it.

Thanks,

Simon

Sep 26, 2009

suebriggs 2 posts

Topic: Questions for HCPs / BG Diary at Clinic

On teh DAFNE course it was particularly helpful having the discussions about readings one by one, as you got to hear other people's ideas wbout what you should do. Simon you say that the option of sharing your diary with nominated users is not yet available. To have this facility would be very helpful if it were posible to set up.

Sep 26, 2009

suebriggs 2 posts

Topic: Questions for HCPs / post menopause

This was a problem for me, as I was post menopause when I was diagnosed in Feb 2008.
I was very scared of the hypos at first having ended up straight back in hospital just days after diagnosis, adn gettign hot was my first sign, but I already had my own 'central heating' activated without warning before dignosis. Very confusing
I found no way round it. I just tested. Very sore fingers in the early days but now I am more confident about deciding the times that I am very unlikely to be hypo (just after meals/snack). That usually works and if I was wrong I soon know from the other signs.

Sep 25, 2009

marke 681 posts

Topic: General Discussion / How many Test Strips ?

David, Please keep us posted on what happens. I am fortunate enough to not have had any problems myself, I just write to my GP make my demands and she does as she is told ;-) But seriously in my guise as a DAFNE User Action Group member this is an issue we would be interested to hear about. If DAFNE Graduates cannot get the test strips they need to function then something needs to be done about it. Sadly some people in the medical profession believe short term savings are good. However if you cannot test properly have a hypo and need hospital treatment all those savings go flying out the window. Sometimes they need this explaining to them :-)

Oct 2, 2009 hankypanky 18 posts	Topic: General Discussion / How many Test Strips ? hi David i myself think that it's up to the person with diabetes to do as many as she/he requires but most of us know by now the signs whether hypo/hyper but hey glad you got more strips to check them bg's Steve

Oct 2, 2009 hankypanky 18 posts	Topic: General Discussion / New member hi Sam me too have not long completed DAFNE cool course i too have read through loads on here and have found the site useful, been type 1 since feb 95 and have learned loads on the course, had a good laugh people easy to talk to, found loads out that i never even knew before that sounds dumb seeing im type 1 for many years but still learning, im having loads of probs at the moment with bg's etc and am working too hard and currently on 7 -10 injections daily as always correcting myself but my averages are cool bout 8.5 to 10 each month but god i had to work hard to get this like it is now, but am currently waiting an appointment as i may be accepted for the pump phew.... no more 9 jabs daily can't wait but hey hope you enjoy the site. see ya around Steve

Oct 1, 2009 Sam 64 posts	Topic: General Discussion / New member Hi! I'm Sam from Glasgow, just finished the DAFNE course a couple of weeks ago and following the rules like mad however doesn't seem to be doing anything anytime soon. I know it doesn't happen overnight but I just want to have better control. New to this, new to forums so I hope there are plenty people that will be able to help and guide me through this. I'm 25 been diagnosed since Jan 2008 and a female....Samantha is too formal! I've had a quick gander through the site and already there have been a lot of questions answered for me so thanks all. I can see this is going to be addictive so I'm going to retire to bed. Will be posting a lot more over the weekend!! Sam x

Oct 1, 2009 marke 681 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 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 Simon 578 posts	Topic: Site Development / Online BG Diaries Hi Stew, I did a quick search of our database against your user ID and bg readings of 7.6 and the only one that came up was of type 'Before Breakfast' (although it was saved at 2300) - are you sure the offending entry is saved as type 'Before Bed'? Note you can change the type by clicking on the entry time in your diary - you'll get an update form. Thanks, Simon

Oct 1, 2009 Stew B 125 posts	Topic: Site Development / Online BG Diaries Hi Simon I use "standard" DAFNE targets, and I've just noticed that a BG entry of 7.6 at bedtime has shown up red (i.e. above target) in my on-line diary. My hard-copy DAFNE Diary shows bedtime target as 6.5 - 8.0. Is this a glitch or have I missed something (entirely possible!!). Stew

Oct 1, 2009 John Roscoe 14 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / CP value of Stoneless Dates Hi, Can anyone tell me what the CP value of stoneless dates is (my wife is using the ones from Julian Graves to add to her home made museli)I think it may be 75g/100g but I'm not certain so any info would be really helpful. Thanks. John

Oct 1, 2009 Sarah 1 post	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / CP value of maize flour My Carb counting book says 78g CHO per 100g of maize flour!

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 marke 681 posts	Topic: General Discussion / How many Test Strips ? David, thanks for sharing this experience with everyone, hopefully it shows others that it IS possible to make sure your get the tools you need to manage your diabetes properly. If anyone has been unable to get test strips please post and let us know. With the growing membership here AND the User Group now running we should be looking to resolve any issues with PCT's and Doctor practices that are not 'enlightened'. If they refuse to be 'enlightened' then we will send the boys round !!

Oct 1, 2009 marke 681 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 :-)

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.

Sep 30, 2009 Karen Westwood 38 posts	Topic: General Discussion / How many Test Strips ? Excellent news David. At least you will be able to do all the tests needed now! Good luck Karen x

Sep 30, 2009 DavidJ 23 posts	Topic: General Discussion / How many Test Strips ? Good News. I saw the Practise Nurse and she was as helpful as I could have wished. The test strips are now on my repeat. I only wish I'd seen someone sooner instead of 3 months of frustration trying to eke out my test strips until the next repeat. She issued me with a new Autopen as well. Whoopee!!!

Sep 28, 2009 marke 681 posts	Topic: DAFNE Graduate Group (DGG) / DAFNE user group first meeting John, I don't want to name any names or even get territorial/personal but I think I can guess which forum you found, we had a brief flurry with some of their members on this site. Their views do not correspond with ours, I think is the best way of putting it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions so I won't comment further. With regard to other names for DAFNE, they are NOT DAFNE courses, they are usually cut down versions to save money. Unfortunately we do not recognise them as DAFNE Courses. Why ? Because one of the things about DAFNE is it is based on a lot of research both here and in the germany and is rigorously controlled to ensure that it is based on the research carried out. There is no evidence to support the cut-down courses and it is not clear if they are as effective as the official DAFNE course. While I am keen for everyone to get Diabetes Education regardless of the course, I would still prefer it to be the official DAFNE course which I personally know works. This is the standpoint of the people who run the DAFNE Programme as well. Unfortunately some people don't like this approach, but it is what we believe to be the correct approach. The User Group will be trying in the near future to encourage PCT's to run DAFNE Courses by demonstrating the benefits, one of which is you can have a support website that is both national and international. This is NOT possible if every PCT runs its own 'version' of the course with different course contents. Thank you very much for trying to promote DAFNE and don't be discouraged. We all know it IS a great course and can make a huge differnence to all Diabetics. If we all keep working at promoting it, eventually we will reach critical mass and more and more PCT's will provide the course. Which is a result that will benefit everyone.

Sep 28, 2009 John Roscoe 14 posts	Topic: DAFNE Graduate Group (DGG) / DAFNE user group first meeting Thanks for the info things are becoming clearer now. Last week Claire Swift sent me copies of the minutes of the first two DUAG meetings. I like the approach that the Awareness Group are taking especially the messages outlined in point 6.2. I think this is a particularly important issue and in my view the group has got this exactly right. As a point of interest, earlier this year I linked into a Diabetes forum I found on the internet and I tried to encourage folk to attend the DAFNE course if given the opportunity, sadly the feedback I was given was rather discouraging and some people seemed to be rather cynical about DAFNE. Additionally it seemed that in some areas of the country it is called something other than DAFNE which certainly won't help the cause of the DUAG Awareness Group. Finally on the Involvement Group there is some good stuff going on in the Darlington/Darlington area which may interest you. At least once a year they do a training course for HCP's and one of the things they do is ask about 4 patients to attend and talk to the HCP's. For the last two years they have asked those of us that are DAFNE Graduates to take every possible opportunity to mention DAFNE and its benefits. This has worked really well and there is a great deal of interest from the Doctors and Nurses. I think I have said enough now. It's all good stuff well done to the group. John.

Sep 28, 2009 DavidJ 23 posts	Topic: General Discussion / How many Test Strips ? I'm going on Wednesday so I should have news by Thursday. I've printed out the posts on this forum plus I'll take my Dafne course notes. They might respond positively when I explain my position and the reasons that I need more.

Sep 28, 2009 digth 19 posts	Topic: DAFNE Graduate Group (DGG) / DAFNE user group first meeting Hi John I can confirm that your application to join the DAFNE User Group was received and that you are duly a member of the DAFNE User Group. As we state in the information about DAFNE User Group, Central DAFNE will only contact you if there is a reason; so far this year we have contacted members to: 1. Volunteer to stand for election of DUAG (21 people responded) 2. Send out voting packs for DUAG 3. Announce the outcome of the DUAG elections 4. Send out the minutes from the 2 DUAG meetings 5. To give information about dafneonline 6. To contact Graduates from 2 DAFNE centres that have decided to withdraw their DAFNE services Contacts 1-3 above would have occurred before you registered with the User Group, but I do hope you received the minutes. We currently have 527 DAFNE Graduates on the DAFNE User Group database; date around one quarter of the DAFNE User Group have requested that we only contact them by post. We hope that over the coming weeks as DUAG start to develop that they will provide updates to Central DAFNE to send to the members of the DAFNE User Group; and indeed start to invite the DAFNE User group to become more actively involved in their work streams. It's important to bear in mind that not all members of the DAFNE User Group will be registered with dafneonline, and vice versa, so Central DAFNE and the DUAG will be working together to maximise exposure to the workings of the DUAG using both dafneonline and the DAFNE User Group.

Sep 27, 2009 John Roscoe 14 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Watch out - Corn on the cob! Hi Folks, I was interested to read your notes on corn on the cob. Like Karen I used to count it but since DAFNE I haven't and I don't get high blood sugars as a result. Strange how different people react in different ways. Cheers John

Sep 27, 2009 john day 54 posts	Topic: Questions for HCPs / BG Diary at Clinic Hello all.. One additional thought re getting a paperless diary to others to view. a- set up & open an empty Word document b- call up the dafne printable diary format to screen c- Use CNTRL_A to highlight all the diary then Cntr_C to Copy it d- go to the open Word document and Cntrl_V to paste the diary to this document. e- Save the document f- Create mail to the intended recipient and attach the diary document and send. A bit convoluted perhaps but can be emailed to anyone, whether or not they are registered on Dafne online, just as long as you have their email! Hope this helps, John.

Sep 26, 2009 Simon 578 posts	Topic: Questions for HCPs / BG Diary at Clinic Hi Sue, This functionality is now available, see my posts on this forum thread for more information on how to do it. Thanks, Simon

Sep 26, 2009 suebriggs 2 posts	Topic: Questions for HCPs / BG Diary at Clinic On teh DAFNE course it was particularly helpful having the discussions about readings one by one, as you got to hear other people's ideas wbout what you should do. Simon you say that the option of sharing your diary with nominated users is not yet available. To have this facility would be very helpful if it were posible to set up.

Sep 26, 2009 suebriggs 2 posts	Topic: Questions for HCPs / post menopause This was a problem for me, as I was post menopause when I was diagnosed in Feb 2008. I was very scared of the hypos at first having ended up straight back in hospital just days after diagnosis, adn gettign hot was my first sign, but I already had my own 'central heating' activated without warning before dignosis. Very confusing I found no way round it. I just tested. Very sore fingers in the early days but now I am more confident about deciding the times that I am very unlikely to be hypo (just after meals/snack). That usually works and if I was wrong I soon know from the other signs.

Sep 25, 2009 marke 681 posts	Topic: General Discussion / How many Test Strips ? David, Please keep us posted on what happens. I am fortunate enough to not have had any problems myself, I just write to my GP make my demands and she does as she is told ;-) But seriously in my guise as a DAFNE User Action Group member this is an issue we would be interested to hear about. If DAFNE Graduates cannot get the test strips they need to function then something needs to be done about it. Sadly some people in the medical profession believe short term savings are good. However if you cannot test properly have a hypo and need hospital treatment all those savings go flying out the window. Sometimes they need this explaining to them :-)