Recent Posts by marke - DAFNE Online

Apr 5, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Children are our future

I have just posted a news item here , which I would like to draw your attention too.
I'm also happy to discuss it in this thread and would be interested to here peoples views.

Apr 1, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: Site Development / Glossary of Terms

Its a good idea, but....
We need to find someone to do it, preferably a HCP rather an Simon or I. This is more to ensure accuracy and get good explinations, we are after all IT people, not a group known for their literary skills ( or their spelling skills Wink

)

Apr 1, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Ideas

novorapidboi26 said:
Wow, the advice of not going above 4 for a correction is news to me, the curriculum of the course is always changing I suppose but I personally would say that is not the best advice, not going over 4 is fine if you blood sugar is not far off target ranges, but 26s are quite uncomfortably high.....

Don't worry you are not out of date Wink

, I am currently toiling over the conversion of the new handbook to the online version and it states:
'Until you have worked out your own sensitivity to your quick acting insulin , it is recommended that no more than a 4 unit correction is given at one time'

The figure 4 is therefore not a hard and fast maximum rather a guide when you are first working out your individual requirements. If you need more then you can give more. They are just urging caution initially.

Apr 1, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Ideas

Until you have worked out your own sensitivity to your quick acting insulin , it is recommended that no more than a 4 unit correction is given at one time

Apr 1, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / What The Hell Happened Today.

Davie, as others have mentioned on other posts, its far easier if you put figures into the online diary and post a setion of that into the formum. Its very hard to give advice based on your free form description of CP's and insulin, especially with no context. I would say its very unlikely one hypo would cause this and given the amount of CP's you pumped into yourself it sounds like you potentailly used the wrong insulin. That could potentially cause what you describe and is one possible explination.

Mar 28, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: Questions ? / New Graduate Ketonuria

Hi, don't panic about ketones. They are not going to do you any real harm short term unless they were pretty high which yours are not. As others have said the key is to get your BI correct and then fix the rest. If you
change more than one thing at once you have no way of knowing what has resolved the issue. One thing that has sort of been mentioned, most people find they need a higher ratio in the morning becasue of the waking up.
Sort of like the Dawn Phenomeon to a degree, most people to wake up in the morning fire off a load of hormones etc to get their body up and running. This tends to mean you need more insulin but as ever everyone is different.
Another thing to bear in mind, when you give yourself 11 QA at 12:30 and another 11+4 at 14:30 you will get an overlap in insulin since the normal time frame for QA is 'about' 5 hours. This can mean you get an effect you don't intend, its worth just bearing in mind.

Mar 28, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Targets

you read the help Shocked

Diary Help

Mar 24, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Iphone Apps

my lifescan meter works fine under windows 7. I used to have Roche Accu-Check meter and SW but gave up on that years ago since I could never get it to work reliably
and they never seemed to support it. If you want specific help you need to tell us what blood meter you have.

Mar 24, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Ratios etc

I'm with Novarapidboi, I think your major issue is being Type 2 you are battling with Insulin Resistance not just a CP ratio. Your DSN should be aware of this and taking this into account but I'm not sure they are fully. As pointed out when your BG is high a normal 1unit QA to 3mmol doesn't really apply and everyones requirements are different. I know its frustratiing and that its not a simple job getting your BG under control but just keep at it and eventually it will start to happen. Patience is the key, which is one of the key DAFNE principles. Often people make a change and think at their next blood test things will have changed. It doesn't unfortunately happen that way and any change you make will take a few days to take effect.
For me your DSN should be concentrating on the Background dose and getting that right. If you keep having to do corrections the whole time that points towards BI not being right. However as you say, your other problems could be having an affect even if all seems well at the moment. Just keep going, you are not alone. All of us on here at one time or another have had problems getting things back in control and sometimes it feels like its a hopeless cause, however it almost always comes right in the end if you stick with it. So keep the faith and if you want any more help or just support keep posting on the site.

Mar 18, 2011

marke 657 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 14, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Census Form

wow all this debate over one question :-) I think the real answer is that we all need to appreciate that Diabetes affects us in different ways and everyones experience is as valid as everyone elses. I don't feel limited and tend fortunately to not have too many hypo's but not everyone is that fortunate.
Perhaps the key thing to remember when posting is that your post may not be interpreted in the way you mean or intend it to be. Some of the debate 'appears' a bit heated at times, this may just be the way it comes across to me. Remeber we are all on the same side, trying to handle the same condition the best way we can. So lets all be nice to each other eh ?
A, B or C one thing you can be sure, Diabetes services will most likely get cut given the current economic situation. A cenus most likely won't change that in the slightest...

Mar 13, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: Site Development / Last

it lets you moved to the last post for a topic immediately rather than having to page through each page of a lengthy topic. Its not much use if a topic only has 2 or 3 posts, but if it has 20 or 30 that are split over 3,4,5 pages its useful to let you go to the last page quickly....

Mar 13, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Census Form

ha, and I thought I wasn't tactful :-) I agree with what you say, not sure I would have been quite so blunt about it but each to their own !

I refuse to let Diabetes limit me in what I do, I might have to be a bit more organised and prepared than some but thats probably a good thing. The world is minus
plenty of people that went climbing mountains/skydiving/etc without being prepared properly.....

Mar 11, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Census Form

Vic, for me there is a difference between 'affected' and 'limited'. I agree we are all affected but I don't consider myself 'limited' in anyway. For any activity regardless of your condition you should do some sort of preperation be it climbing a mountain our just going to work. I ticked 'c', but that just a personnal opinion and others may feel 'b' or even 'a' is more applicable.

Mar 4, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Mobile site released

update, yes it was a change for the iphone app that has caused it. I have identified the problem, however I don't want to change the site back in case it causes problems with the iphone app. As soon as Simon confirms it won't cause a problem I will fix it, hopefully tomorrow or sunday.
Apologies for any inconvenience, but thats always the danger when trying to improve the site. Sometimes changes to one part cause problems in another that we didn't identify and test for.

Mar 4, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Mobile site released

Hi, yes I get the same on the carb counting, the BG diary seems ok for me though ( using an iphone). I suspect the problem with the mobile site is the changes simon made recently for his iphone app updates. Hopefully he will look into this over the weekend, I will try but I didn't make the changes so I'm not entirely sure what he did :-)
I will update you on this thread when its fixed.

Mar 1, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: Site Development / Web Service

Hi, I suggest you email us about this at [email protected] since its a bit technical for the general forums. I brief answer is it very much depends on what your definition of a web service is.

Feb 28, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / BG Graphs

I would suggest the original request is posted in the site development forum. It is technically possible to get the graphs output to an email via the site, however its the level of work needed to do it and the time for us to implement it. Simon is the expert in this area and hes away on business at the moment so I can't give any indication of how simple it will be.

Feb 25, 2011

marke 657 posts

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

Mike,
I take your point about the huge variation from PCT to PCT. Mine reduced the DESMOND course down to a half-day 'brief' which pretty much defeated the point of it. Sadly there are no strict rules over what constitutes structured education. There is/was an initiative to ensure courses ARE to an approved standard its called QISMET and they now have a website. I volunteered to be part of its user committee but didn't make the grade ;-) However I should get the documents and outputs from it. Will it make an difference ? Who knows, but if you don't try.... P.S DESMOND doesn't include insulin education I don't think its aimed at Diet and Exercise I believe.

With regards to michelle's comments, I think you hit the nail on the head ! The best thing for me about DAFNE was being in a room for a week with 7 other Diabetics who fully understood me becasue they went through the same things. I learned a lot from them as well as the course. For me it was one of the big pluses of the course, realising that lots of others have all the same problems and challenges as me.

Feb 25, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Blood monitors

Hi, we were looking at doing this with Lifescan meters, but the project seems to have stalled a bit at the moment. The person helping to do this, like Simon and Myself, was doing this voluntarily in their own time and obviously haven't had chance to progress it. If/when it is implemented we will let people know.
The lifescan meters can be connected to a PC via a 'free' USB cable and upload into their free SW, the plan is to use the same connection to upload the data to DAFNEOnline.

Feb 25, 2011

marke 657 posts

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

sorry just seen Jwo's post, the DESMOND site is http://www.desmond-project.org.uk and yes it is a DAFNE like course for
type 2's. I like their site, even if I know little about it....

Feb 25, 2011

marke 657 posts

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

Hi,
I agree any training is better than none, however the danger with modified courses is how can the benefit of them be proved. The key to DAFNE is it is based on solid evidence gathered over a number of years and so if a PCT does commit to it, in theory they know that it will work. This is supposed to be what PCT's are looking for and there should be no Diabetics cast adrift since PCT's have targets and the National Diabetes Framework which they should be reporting against. These specify that structured education should be provided to all. The reality is this does not happen in all areas and chances are that those in these areas don't even realise they are missing out ! How this is addresed is the million dollar question.
Specifically on DAFNE yes a key component is Carb Counting but its so much more than that and this, as said before, needs to be promoted more. I don't know anything about people insisting on 'default' values, I'm not sure where this comes from. For my course everyone was treated as an individual and everyone was given a chance to 'agree' changes to their insulin regime. No one can, or should, force you to change to something you don't agree with. That said my regime was changed and it was a leap of faith, but one I was happy to take. Perhaps not everyone is comfortable with this.
It's good that you are discussing the article, I don't think anyone on here was being critical just highlighting the 'extras' DAFNE provides. We all want Diabetics to get the support they deserve either through DAFNE or some other means ( preferably structured with the support of HCP's)

Feb 25, 2011

marke 657 posts

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

again I agree and it makes me think we should do more on this site ( when we have time :-) ).
Our overview on the 'home' page doesn't do much to dispell the image of DAFNE being all about Carb Counting. I will try to get a better summary written and then get it agreed by the DAFNE Management Team so I can put it on the site. Its important that people realise the other benefits of DAFNE apart from Carb Counting !

Feb 24, 2011

marke 657 posts

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

My thoughts will come as no suprise, I did after all start this site with Simon, the article like most that have not done DAFNE misses the point conpletely. Just becasue the name of the course includes a reference to eating people presume thats all it is. Those that have done the course know different. Unfortunately it seems that even some of those in the medical profession don't get the point.
DAFNE is evidence based, this means it is based on lots of research and a large amount of data that proves it works. Doing it DIY or doing a PCT version of DAFNE is NOT the same. Changing the course to 5 x 1 day a week is NOT the same. Evidence is base on fact not presumption. This sadly is where it does need a louder voice, to make people understand its more than just carb exchanges and the body of evidence that supports it.
I have no problem with people adjusting their insulin themselves and I too did it pre-DAFNE, however it is niave to compare this to DAFNE and believe you are doing 'the same' as DAFNE. You are not.
Anyway, my views, interested to hear what others think.

Feb 23, 2011

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / local meetings

Hi, interesting to hear these suggestions, it is something that has been discussed in the DAFNE User Action Group but not really moved forward. Part of the issue is contacting people in the local area. DAFNEOnline obviously has a user based but the general DAFNE graduate population is much higher. The big problem is only the local DAFNE eductators have any record of local graduates so its hard to make progress without their input. They tend to be VERY busy people who are very stretched and so don't always have time to assist.
That said I'm 100% in favour of this idea and am happy to help in my DAFNE Centre, we even have our own 'free' venue to hold a get together since the local Diabetes charity built our Diabetes centre and allow us to use it in the evening for free. I'm in South East Kent.
Lastly I would suggest people interested in organising something like this, post in their DAFNE Centre forum to gauge interest as this is the idea of the centre forums. Its worth keeping people updated in this forum but you are likely to find it easier to do the orgainsing in the local forums. I agree with Sarah, that is better graduate led because its more likely to occur and keep occuring with its 'driven' by the people its for rather than by the DAFNE Educator. I would still invite the educators to the meetings though !

Apr 5, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Children are our future I have just posted a news item here , which I would like to draw your attention too. I'm also happy to discuss it in this thread and would be interested to here peoples views.

Apr 1, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: Site Development / Glossary of Terms Its a good idea, but.... We need to find someone to do it, preferably a HCP rather an Simon or I. This is more to ensure accuracy and get good explinations, we are after all IT people, not a group known for their literary skills ( or their spelling skills )

Apr 1, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Ideas novorapidboi26 said: Wow, the advice of not going above 4 for a correction is news to me, the curriculum of the course is always changing I suppose but I personally would say that is not the best advice, not going over 4 is fine if you blood sugar is not far off target ranges, but 26s are quite uncomfortably high..... Don't worry you are not out of date , I am currently toiling over the conversion of the new handbook to the online version and it states: 'Until you have worked out your own sensitivity to your quick acting insulin , it is recommended that no more than a 4 unit correction is given at one time' The figure 4 is therefore not a hard and fast maximum rather a guide when you are first working out your individual requirements. If you need more then you can give more. They are just urging caution initially.

Apr 1, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Ideas Until you have worked out your own sensitivity to your quick acting insulin , it is recommended that no more than a 4 unit correction is given at one time

Apr 1, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / What The Hell Happened Today. Davie, as others have mentioned on other posts, its far easier if you put figures into the online diary and post a setion of that into the formum. Its very hard to give advice based on your free form description of CP's and insulin, especially with no context. I would say its very unlikely one hypo would cause this and given the amount of CP's you pumped into yourself it sounds like you potentailly used the wrong insulin. That could potentially cause what you describe and is one possible explination.

Mar 28, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: Questions ? / New Graduate Ketonuria Hi, don't panic about ketones. They are not going to do you any real harm short term unless they were pretty high which yours are not. As others have said the key is to get your BI correct and then fix the rest. If you change more than one thing at once you have no way of knowing what has resolved the issue. One thing that has sort of been mentioned, most people find they need a higher ratio in the morning becasue of the waking up. Sort of like the Dawn Phenomeon to a degree, most people to wake up in the morning fire off a load of hormones etc to get their body up and running. This tends to mean you need more insulin but as ever everyone is different. Another thing to bear in mind, when you give yourself 11 QA at 12:30 and another 11+4 at 14:30 you will get an overlap in insulin since the normal time frame for QA is 'about' 5 hours. This can mean you get an effect you don't intend, its worth just bearing in mind.

Mar 28, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Targets you read the help Diary Help

Mar 24, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Iphone Apps my lifescan meter works fine under windows 7. I used to have Roche Accu-Check meter and SW but gave up on that years ago since I could never get it to work reliably and they never seemed to support it. If you want specific help you need to tell us what blood meter you have.

Mar 24, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Ratios etc I'm with Novarapidboi, I think your major issue is being Type 2 you are battling with Insulin Resistance not just a CP ratio. Your DSN should be aware of this and taking this into account but I'm not sure they are fully. As pointed out when your BG is high a normal 1unit QA to 3mmol doesn't really apply and everyones requirements are different. I know its frustratiing and that its not a simple job getting your BG under control but just keep at it and eventually it will start to happen. Patience is the key, which is one of the key DAFNE principles. Often people make a change and think at their next blood test things will have changed. It doesn't unfortunately happen that way and any change you make will take a few days to take effect. For me your DSN should be concentrating on the Background dose and getting that right. If you keep having to do corrections the whole time that points towards BI not being right. However as you say, your other problems could be having an affect even if all seems well at the moment. Just keep going, you are not alone. All of us on here at one time or another have had problems getting things back in control and sometimes it feels like its a hopeless cause, however it almost always comes right in the end if you stick with it. So keep the faith and if you want any more help or just support keep posting on the site.

Mar 18, 2011 marke 657 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 14, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Census Form wow all this debate over one question :-) I think the real answer is that we all need to appreciate that Diabetes affects us in different ways and everyones experience is as valid as everyone elses. I don't feel limited and tend fortunately to not have too many hypo's but not everyone is that fortunate. Perhaps the key thing to remember when posting is that your post may not be interpreted in the way you mean or intend it to be. Some of the debate 'appears' a bit heated at times, this may just be the way it comes across to me. Remeber we are all on the same side, trying to handle the same condition the best way we can. So lets all be nice to each other eh ? A, B or C one thing you can be sure, Diabetes services will most likely get cut given the current economic situation. A cenus most likely won't change that in the slightest...

Mar 13, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: Site Development / Last it lets you moved to the last post for a topic immediately rather than having to page through each page of a lengthy topic. Its not much use if a topic only has 2 or 3 posts, but if it has 20 or 30 that are split over 3,4,5 pages its useful to let you go to the last page quickly....

Mar 13, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Census Form ha, and I thought I wasn't tactful :-) I agree with what you say, not sure I would have been quite so blunt about it but each to their own ! I refuse to let Diabetes limit me in what I do, I might have to be a bit more organised and prepared than some but thats probably a good thing. The world is minus plenty of people that went climbing mountains/skydiving/etc without being prepared properly.....

Mar 11, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Census Form Vic, for me there is a difference between 'affected' and 'limited'. I agree we are all affected but I don't consider myself 'limited' in anyway. For any activity regardless of your condition you should do some sort of preperation be it climbing a mountain our just going to work. I ticked 'c', but that just a personnal opinion and others may feel 'b' or even 'a' is more applicable.

Mar 4, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Mobile site released update, yes it was a change for the iphone app that has caused it. I have identified the problem, however I don't want to change the site back in case it causes problems with the iphone app. As soon as Simon confirms it won't cause a problem I will fix it, hopefully tomorrow or sunday. Apologies for any inconvenience, but thats always the danger when trying to improve the site. Sometimes changes to one part cause problems in another that we didn't identify and test for.

Mar 4, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Mobile site released Hi, yes I get the same on the carb counting, the BG diary seems ok for me though ( using an iphone). I suspect the problem with the mobile site is the changes simon made recently for his iphone app updates. Hopefully he will look into this over the weekend, I will try but I didn't make the changes so I'm not entirely sure what he did :-) I will update you on this thread when its fixed.

Mar 1, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: Site Development / Web Service Hi, I suggest you email us about this at [email protected] since its a bit technical for the general forums. I brief answer is it very much depends on what your definition of a web service is.

Feb 28, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / BG Graphs I would suggest the original request is posted in the site development forum. It is technically possible to get the graphs output to an email via the site, however its the level of work needed to do it and the time for us to implement it. Simon is the expert in this area and hes away on business at the moment so I can't give any indication of how simple it will be.

Feb 25, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View Mike, I take your point about the huge variation from PCT to PCT. Mine reduced the DESMOND course down to a half-day 'brief' which pretty much defeated the point of it. Sadly there are no strict rules over what constitutes structured education. There is/was an initiative to ensure courses ARE to an approved standard its called QISMET and they now have a website. I volunteered to be part of its user committee but didn't make the grade ;-) However I should get the documents and outputs from it. Will it make an difference ? Who knows, but if you don't try.... P.S DESMOND doesn't include insulin education I don't think its aimed at Diet and Exercise I believe. With regards to michelle's comments, I think you hit the nail on the head ! The best thing for me about DAFNE was being in a room for a week with 7 other Diabetics who fully understood me becasue they went through the same things. I learned a lot from them as well as the course. For me it was one of the big pluses of the course, realising that lots of others have all the same problems and challenges as me.

Feb 25, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Blood monitors Hi, we were looking at doing this with Lifescan meters, but the project seems to have stalled a bit at the moment. The person helping to do this, like Simon and Myself, was doing this voluntarily in their own time and obviously haven't had chance to progress it. If/when it is implemented we will let people know. The lifescan meters can be connected to a PC via a 'free' USB cable and upload into their free SW, the plan is to use the same connection to upload the data to DAFNEOnline.

Feb 25, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View sorry just seen Jwo's post, the DESMOND site is http://www.desmond-project.org.uk and yes it is a DAFNE like course for type 2's. I like their site, even if I know little about it....

Feb 25, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View Hi, I agree any training is better than none, however the danger with modified courses is how can the benefit of them be proved. The key to DAFNE is it is based on solid evidence gathered over a number of years and so if a PCT does commit to it, in theory they know that it will work. This is supposed to be what PCT's are looking for and there should be no Diabetics cast adrift since PCT's have targets and the National Diabetes Framework which they should be reporting against. These specify that structured education should be provided to all. The reality is this does not happen in all areas and chances are that those in these areas don't even realise they are missing out ! How this is addresed is the million dollar question. Specifically on DAFNE yes a key component is Carb Counting but its so much more than that and this, as said before, needs to be promoted more. I don't know anything about people insisting on 'default' values, I'm not sure where this comes from. For my course everyone was treated as an individual and everyone was given a chance to 'agree' changes to their insulin regime. No one can, or should, force you to change to something you don't agree with. That said my regime was changed and it was a leap of faith, but one I was happy to take. Perhaps not everyone is comfortable with this. It's good that you are discussing the article, I don't think anyone on here was being critical just highlighting the 'extras' DAFNE provides. We all want Diabetics to get the support they deserve either through DAFNE or some other means ( preferably structured with the support of HCP's)

Feb 25, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View again I agree and it makes me think we should do more on this site ( when we have time :-) ). Our overview on the 'home' page doesn't do much to dispell the image of DAFNE being all about Carb Counting. I will try to get a better summary written and then get it agreed by the DAFNE Management Team so I can put it on the site. Its important that people realise the other benefits of DAFNE apart from Carb Counting !

Feb 24, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View My thoughts will come as no suprise, I did after all start this site with Simon, the article like most that have not done DAFNE misses the point conpletely. Just becasue the name of the course includes a reference to eating people presume thats all it is. Those that have done the course know different. Unfortunately it seems that even some of those in the medical profession don't get the point. DAFNE is evidence based, this means it is based on lots of research and a large amount of data that proves it works. Doing it DIY or doing a PCT version of DAFNE is NOT the same. Changing the course to 5 x 1 day a week is NOT the same. Evidence is base on fact not presumption. This sadly is where it does need a louder voice, to make people understand its more than just carb exchanges and the body of evidence that supports it. I have no problem with people adjusting their insulin themselves and I too did it pre-DAFNE, however it is niave to compare this to DAFNE and believe you are doing 'the same' as DAFNE. You are not. Anyway, my views, interested to hear what others think.

Feb 23, 2011 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / local meetings Hi, interesting to hear these suggestions, it is something that has been discussed in the DAFNE User Action Group but not really moved forward. Part of the issue is contacting people in the local area. DAFNEOnline obviously has a user based but the general DAFNE graduate population is much higher. The big problem is only the local DAFNE eductators have any record of local graduates so its hard to make progress without their input. They tend to be VERY busy people who are very stretched and so don't always have time to assist. That said I'm 100% in favour of this idea and am happy to help in my DAFNE Centre, we even have our own 'free' venue to hold a get together since the local Diabetes charity built our Diabetes centre and allow us to use it in the evening for free. I'm in South East Kent. Lastly I would suggest people interested in organising something like this, post in their DAFNE Centre forum to gauge interest as this is the idea of the centre forums. Its worth keeping people updated in this forum but you are likely to find it easier to do the orgainsing in the local forums. I agree with Sarah, that is better graduate led because its more likely to occur and keep occuring with its 'driven' by the people its for rather than by the DAFNE Educator. I would still invite the educators to the meetings though !