So on Tuesday I had the first of 2 3 hour education sessions from our local health authority for newly diagnosed t2 diabetics. First thing was the attendance. There were 12 people booked on the afternoon session with only 6 showing up and one of them showing up late then making an excuse to use the loo after about 5 minutes and not coming back. Apparently the morning session was similar.
We're Eastbourne based and as seems usual with anything unless my daughter comes along I was the youngest. There were clearly some who weren't as comfortable using online resources such as this which is a shame.
What was interesting was that the nurse and the nutritionist running it gave quite different advice than we tend to give for t2 here. 0-130g of carbs per day was deemed very low carb and I think 130g to somewhere over 200g as moderate with the suggestion that <130g might be good short term if you need to lose weight but not necessary longer term without focusing on any suggested intake. They also repeated the view I was given by different people at my local GP's surgery of volume of carb per meal to be no more than the size of a clenched fist and had a much bigger focus on GI and eating things that would cause slower BG rises. It really feels hard for anyone who's getting diagnosed because whilst I think quite a lot makes sense in avoiding spikes the whole bit about the amount of carbs just seems out of kilter with everything I hear here. And I'd add that the suggestions here have worked pretty well for me as well as apparently many others so it's not something I plan giving up.
The other disappointing thing that seemed common was that when we introduced ourselves, in common with the welcome section on these forums there were so many people who's support with the diagnosis was really awful. There were a couple of guys who'd had diagnosis as prediabetic whose docs had just told them nothing other than not to worry about it and another who found out by text but not with a come and see us message. The whole state of diabetes care and especially prevention outlined both by the other attendees and the nurse running it seemed really poor. Hopefully if the new government's serious about prevention being better than cure it's something that'll improve.
We're Eastbourne based and as seems usual with anything unless my daughter comes along I was the youngest. There were clearly some who weren't as comfortable using online resources such as this which is a shame.
What was interesting was that the nurse and the nutritionist running it gave quite different advice than we tend to give for t2 here. 0-130g of carbs per day was deemed very low carb and I think 130g to somewhere over 200g as moderate with the suggestion that <130g might be good short term if you need to lose weight but not necessary longer term without focusing on any suggested intake. They also repeated the view I was given by different people at my local GP's surgery of volume of carb per meal to be no more than the size of a clenched fist and had a much bigger focus on GI and eating things that would cause slower BG rises. It really feels hard for anyone who's getting diagnosed because whilst I think quite a lot makes sense in avoiding spikes the whole bit about the amount of carbs just seems out of kilter with everything I hear here. And I'd add that the suggestions here have worked pretty well for me as well as apparently many others so it's not something I plan giving up.
The other disappointing thing that seemed common was that when we introduced ourselves, in common with the welcome section on these forums there were so many people who's support with the diagnosis was really awful. There were a couple of guys who'd had diagnosis as prediabetic whose docs had just told them nothing other than not to worry about it and another who found out by text but not with a come and see us message. The whole state of diabetes care and especially prevention outlined both by the other attendees and the nurse running it seemed really poor. Hopefully if the new government's serious about prevention being better than cure it's something that'll improve.
