DAFNE course

[Jonpar00]

Hi a newbee here. I have been asked by my doctor to attend a DAFNE (?) course, apparently it last for a week,
Has anybody been on this course ? if so was it useful.? what does it tell you ?
My control has not been that great (although its improving) and this has prompted my Doc to advise I attend this course,
any info would be welcomed

 

[Steff]

Jonpar hi and welcome to the forum,sorry i cant help with the course I do know of it but only cause of people on here, theres been a load of type 1s on this course so they will be along soon to let you know what they thought of it.x

 

[Northerner]

Hi a newbee here. I have been asked by my doctor to attend a DAFNE (?) course, apparently it last for a week,
Has anybody been on this course ? if so was it useful.? what does it tell you ?
My control has not been that great (although its improving) and this has prompted my Doc to advise I attend this course,
any info would be welcomed

Hi Jonpar00, welcome to the forum 🙂 DAFNE (Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating) gets some very good reviews from a lot of the people here. Haven't done it myself (mine was something different), but it is supposed to be very well structured and you will hopefully get a lot out of it and from meeting others in a similar situation to your own (this is often one of the best things - spending a week in the company of fellow diabetics! 🙂)

Have you been diagnosed long? What insulin are you on?

 

[Jennywren]

Hi a newbee here. I have been asked by my doctor to attend a DAFNE (?) course, apparently it last for a week,

If you can attend this , you would benfit from it there are lots of people on here that would love to go on one but cant , ive been on one and i found it made so much difference to my diabetes

 

[margie]

Welcome to the forum.

One of the things they teach you on Dafne is carb counting. However, if you want to get ahead you can try an online carb counting course here.

http://www.bdec-e-learning.com/

 

[MCH]

If you can attend this , you would benfit from it there are lots of people on here that would love to go on one but cant , ive been on one and i found it made so much difference to my diabetes

I agree. Mine wasn't officially called a DAFNE course, but was superb and well worth doing. It gave me a lot more confidence in what I am doing.

As has been said, if you get the chance go for it. (Even just spending some time with other type 1's is great and something most of us don't really get the chance to do.)

 

[trophywench]

I'm sure I'd been diabetic longer than you when I went on my course (over 35 years) and I got a LOT out of it even though I could already carb-count after a fashion.

It puts the meat on the bones. We all got loads of 1 to 1 with proper DSNs, the dietitian and the group had a whole afternoon with one of the consultants, on my course.

If your control isn't all that brill, it will help you very much indeed. Most useful week ever of my diabetic life. And it was fun, there was a LOT of laughter.

 

[Ellie Jones]

I've been on the official DAFNE course and highly recommend it be it that you are a new comer or long standing diabetic...

There's a max of eight diabetic's, the structure of the course is built around carb counting, but around this they build the actual week around what individual needs are, our group didn't do pregnancy as it was 4 males, and us 4 females had gone be there done that🙂

And it's not like a works training course where you expected to sit straight in your seat and listening to somebody going on and on and on😱 You have fiddle toys, sticky note pads, so you can write down a question that pops into your head at a later point, and they do a board where you can put questions on, so the team can do a end of day answer time, and one at the end of the week..


And as trophywrench says, a week of laugher it was good fun, and I was already carb counting as I when I was diagnosed it was the carb Exchange regime and I didn't quite drop it when it went out of fashion and I still learnt a lot from the course...

So yes it's well worth attending if they are offering

 

[martindt1606]

I did a DAFNE Course in November and whilst it hasn't resulted in any major changes to my daily routine it did help with my understanding of why I had been doing certain things. Some of the more interesting stuff includes:

* Understanding the carb to bolus ratio
* Better appreciation of what food includes carbs
* Sick Day Rules - with keytones and just feeling ill
* How to start understanding the impact of exercise (unfortunately this is only a small session)
* Sharing Experiences - most people on my course had 25 years + more T1 experience than me - so lots of stories and it certainly helps to know you are not alone in having used the bolus pen to inject the basal dose...
* option to switch blood meter to one that advises bolus requirement based on BS and input ratios

A couple of the long termers certainly had big changes with the basal dose cut be half during the week with no impact on the required bolus ratio....

I have my first follow up meeting next week , which should be interesting as I've only been within target for 30% of the readings.

 

[imtrying]

I did a DAFNE Course in November and whilst it hasn't resulted in any major changes to my daily routine it did help with my understanding of why I had been doing certain things. Some of the more interesting stuff includes:

* Understanding the carb to bolus ratio
* Better appreciation of what food includes carbs
* Sick Day Rules - with keytones and just feeling ill
* How to start understanding the impact of exercise (unfortunately this is only a small session)
* Sharing Experiences - most people on my course had 25 years + more T1 experience than me - so lots of stories and it certainly helps to know you are not alone in having used the bolus pen to inject the basal dose...
* option to switch blood meter to one that advises bolus requirement based on BS and input ratios

A couple of the long termers certainly had big changes with the basal dose cut be half during the week with no impact on the required bolus ratio....

I have my first follow up meeting next week , which should be interesting as I've only been within target for 30% of the readings.

haha that's pretty much just about everything i was going to say!

It's a definite yes from me...what have you got to lose? For me it made everything actually make sense, and gave me the knowledge to manage my diabetes better myself. My lantus dropped as a result and I now know what my ratios are....for the first time since I started MDI over 15 years ago!

Say yes and let us know how you get on!