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I was delighted to get on to a DAFNE course in Maidstone last October. D.A.F.N.E. stands for ‘Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating’. It means that now I can eat what and when I want and maintain normal blood glucose readings. DAFNE is a five-day course, which teaches you the carbohydrate values of what you eat and the amount of insulin you need to keep your blood glucose (BG) between 4.5 and 8.0 at any time of day. This enables you to “Eat what you like and like what you eat” Trained diabetes professionals teach the individual Type 1 how to keep stable, low blood glucose readings and therefore a low HbA1c at all times whilst living and eating normally. The DAFNE system is however a whole lot more than that. Look on Diabetes UK web site and back copies of Balance magazine for information. If you are an adult with Type 1 diabetes, on multiple injections and test your blood glucose (BG) frequently, ask your diabetes specialist to register you on to a course. I now have a much clearer understanding of my diabetes; being well taught, using trial and error with the aid of the DAFNE handbook to fine tune. The back up and support have been marvellous. I am learning to adjust my insulins to suit the many and varied situations that life presents and to keep my BG low. BGs are tested for a reason now, as I am acting on the information to keep readings low. I have a better idea if the BG is rising or falling. Running at lower levels I still get hypos but am able to treat them correctly using the DAFNE principals. The BG will not continue to drop and I expect now to recover within a few hours. There is less likelihood of feeling drained after a hypo or suffering after effects the following day. It is wonderful to have control of hypos. I rarely catch colds but this year caught a nasty one. I managed to adjust the insulins by the correct amount using DAFNE principles. I felt very much better because of normal BGs and was pleased with my control over the diabetes. Before DAFNE, my consultant would tell me to reduce my long acting/basal insulin (BI) by two units and then more if necessary. It was impossible to be sure how much it should be reduced. With DAFNE and the support from the diabetes specialist nurse I have finally reduced my BI by a considerable percentage (21 units to 14 units). I think now that taking excess BI must have been the reason I was always battling with my diabetes and wildly swinging BGs, which was why I was becoming so despondent. I know now how to eat to raise my BG by a few mmols and how many units of insulin to inject to lower my BG. I do this knowing I have different insulin requirements during the day. I am growing in confidence with my ability to adjust the insulins and my accuracy in counting carbohydrate portions (CPs). It will take time but I am getting there. I will not expect total, daily perfection. I look forward to being more independent of medical expert intervention. My Hba1c has already dropped and I look forward to it going down further. The consultant has suggested I should aim for 7.5 – 8.0% now. He said that each person should be given their own individual target. DAFNE is flexible. It will be used if I go onto a pump or anything else that may be invented. It will adapt as I get older and my needs change. It is not a ‘fad’ but a logical, trustworthy and a masterful system. I recommend DAFNE to all Type 1 diabetics. You will find different benefits, but they will surely be life changing for you as they have been for me. Such control is liberating. Now I am no longer ‘at war’ with diabetes, battling from day to day. I look forward with more optimism to a healthy old age. by Lynda Firth |