Just after some reasurrance and tips(X-PERT)

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Steff

Steff

Little Miss Chatterbox
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi all some of you may know and some may not but I start my X-PERT course on Friday and I would just like to know from others that have attended anything like this r.e DAFNE etc or members in general .I have a plan in my bag of what we are doing in each session we start on friday with understanding diabetes ,I just wanted to know what kind of thing goes on in there do we sit with a pen and paper and listen to a tutor making notes? do we sit and do loads of paperwork?,and do they take your weight and your stats and things like that, I just want a minut idea of how these things work, I was told by my DSN when she booked me for thiS course i would proberbly be the youngest in there that worries me they might judge me,think bad of me , I want to make freinds out of this so hopefully they is someone there i click with

Thanks
 
Hi Steff, I was quite nervous before my RECLAIM and DAFNE courses too. We were given a whole load of handouts at both so there was no need to take notes. The DAFNE course involved lots of quizzes, and tasks that you had to take part in, so we were not just sat listening for 5 days. They meant you spoke to the other people more too. I am still in touch with people from both of the course I did (mainly via FB) but we are planning to DAFNE get together at some point in the future.

I am sure no-one will think bad of you. One thing that really stuck out to me from the DAFNE course was how different everybody is. We were a mix of the newly diagnosed and people who had diabetes for 30+ years. Some people were on about 5 times the amount of insulin to others.
 
Hi rachel thanks,I guess its just a fear of the unknown I aint done any group work since anti-natel classes for my son lol.I have images of going around a circle saying im steff 27 diabetic 11 month.
 
Hi Steff I went on a BERTIE course last year which is DAFNE equivalent in my area I was hoping that I would make friends out of it too so I would get support from someone local who was in a similar situation to me but they were mainly all men and a lot older than me I was the youngest by a few years so unfortunately didn't make any friendships out of it. We mostly sat and listened to different topics but we also had to keep a food diary for the four weeks and levels etc and we discussed them each time we meet with each other as well as the tutors. Also we had to guess how many carbs are in certain foods and learned how to weigh and calculate how much insulin we needed for the foods, we were also supposed to go for an hour long walk to see what exercise dose to our bg levels but the weather was pretty similar to what it's like now so that didn't happen.

Hope that helped a little hun.

Emma xxx
 
Thanks Emma they is a supermarket visit due in the last session should be fun if weather stays around like this lol, seems very good from what you say but hope it aint all men and older or id be dissapointed i really do want to make freinds as i know no diabetics apart from in here
 
Steff2010 said:
Hi rachel thanks,I guess its just a fear of the unknown I aint done any group work since anti-natel classes for my son lol.I have images of going around a circle saying im steff 27 diabetic 11 month.
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LOL - we did actually go round in a circle saying when we were diagnosed etc, and we had to wear name badges to start with.
 
rachelha said:
LOL - we did actually go round in a circle saying when we were diagnosed etc, and we had to wear name badges to start with.
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OoO excellent I will be steff if they got me badge saying my full name i will stamp my feet and protest :D:D
 
Hi Steff, if it's anything like the course I did (local PCT course), then it will be a small group and most of the time will be a discussion of various diabetes related things - like food/carbs, alcohol, sex (!), complications, methods of control, all the various checks like retinal scans, podiatry etc. We also got some short talks from the various professions (dietician, podiatrist, eye specialist) and plenty of handouts.

I did feel a little out of place to start with, because I was at least twice the age of the other people there, but after a short while age didn't really come into it. Hope you get some nice people on your course. And you'll probably be one of the most knowledgeable ones there to start with because you've read about all and everything here!🙂
 
Thats just the worry with me the age thing but guess we are all there to gain the benifits of the course so as long as i listen and learn i will be fine, ooohh the sex part sounds good was they any practical Northe? :D:D:D
 
Steff2010 said:
Hi all some of you may know and some may not but I start my X-PERT course on Friday and I would just like to know from others that have attended anything like this r.e DAFNE etc or members in general .I have a plan in my bag of what we are doing in each session we start on friday with understanding diabetes ,I just wanted to know what kind of thing goes on in there do we sit with a pen and paper and listen to a tutor making notes? do we sit and do loads of paperwork?,and do they take your weight and your stats and things like that, I just want a minut idea of how these things work, I was told by my DSN when she booked me for thiS course i would proberbly be the youngest in there that worries me they might judge me,think bad of me , I want to make freinds out of this so hopefully they is someone there i click with

Thanks
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Been on the XPert course, they are not too bad, heavy emphasis on Lifestyle changes, GI diet and Carbohydrate Awareness ( carb portions at 15 grams e.g ONE new potato, one slice of bread etc.). There's quite a good video on weight loss in Week 2 I think.
First session write your name on a label, discuss with your neighbour what stage you are both at and then report back to the group on the other person.
The course arose out of the work of a Dietitian who did a PhD on managing T2 diabetes.Its designed to be visual and as active as possible without a big lecturing element. There's Group work on exercises and quizes etc. The more visual, active element is the reason why my PCT chose it over the more classroomy Desmond course. There's a body in the first week and they plug in things like the pancreas etc to show where they are. Also model gadgets demonstrating insulin resistance.
There should be a DSN and a dietitian running the course. You have to be wary of the dietitian of course since most hug-the-party-line dietitians are about as much use a chocolate teapot to T2 diabetics. The GI lists and the lists of Carb Portions are useful though
One great big weakness - very little mention of testing, only about 15 minutes in the last session.
 
Thank you for that rundown Peter none of it sounds to bad then.So you would recommend it then
 
Peter C said:
For starters yes. The course book is useful for reference as well.
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Good now I just have to hope it is on i will be ringing up more then likely Thursday to see if the weather might have effected it a few things around here have been postponed cause of the weather.
 
Something I just remembered I was the only woman who hadn't had children (one already had 2 kids with her diabetes and didn't want anymore and the other was a 60yr old who obviously had already had hers too) so they weren't going to bother to talk about diabetes in pregnancy but I kicked up a fuss because it was something I really wanted more info on. They talked about it for about 2 minutes and then changed the subject which really annoyed me because they didn't really cover everything about it, so if it's something you want to know and talk about make sure they do even if you are the only one that wants to know.

We had to do the whole name badge thing as well and say how long we'd had diabetes for.

Emma xx
 
Thanks Emma guess ill find out Friday, I dont mind the name badge thing really lol
 
Just phoned in and spoke to DSN she said theres a high chance i will recieve a phone call tomorrow cancelling , she said she knows the dietician said it might have to be put back, grr the course already got cancelled tuesday thats wenit was suppposed to start but now this grr.
 
Steff2010 said:
Just phoned in and spoke to DSN she said theres a high chance i will recieve a phone call tomorrow cancelling , she said she knows the dietician said it might have to be put back, grr the course already got cancelled tuesday thats wenit was suppposed to start but now this grr.
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That is rubbish. Just when you have got yourself all prepared for it. Are they cancelling it because of the weather?
 
Hi there rachel ty for caring, Well I have heard nothing today as yet via phone call and if i dont I will assume it is going ahead and go, but if i get there and find it has been cancelled and i was not telephoned then I wil be after reinbursement on my bus fare and an explanation as to why , they have my number as i had to let them know i was going to attend via an attached return slip which had my address contact number etc etc on it.
 
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