33 patients and relatives participated in the course to learn to handle this ailment.

“Since June we didn't know what it was to go to eat was on a Sunday.

We were afraid of not hitting my daughter's food.We lived the day to day.

The diabetes training course improved our quality of life.We learned that you do not have to condition your life, but it is diabetes that has to adapt to your life and not put limitations. ”

This said yesterday Teresa Montes, mother of a 10 -year -old girl who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in June of this year.

He participated, with another 32 students, in the course “Patient competent in diabetes”, which the nurse specializing in Diabetological Education, Victoria Hierro, taught at the Navia Health Center.

They were 16 hours of training distributed over four days in which patients, family members and interested health professionals learned practical issues about care, guidelines on diet and healthy life habits to ensure that patients self -establish their own disease on a day -to -day basis.

This "school" has been operating since 2011, depending on Sergas and was inspired by the program.

“In Spain, health care is different from that of the United States, where there is a predominance of the private sector, but patients must be active protagonists and not limit themselves to listening to indications when they have a chronic disease such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, they take80%of the decisions and is the way to avoid complications or have to go to emergency, ”explains nurse Victoria Hierro.

“In the course we teach the lifestyle.They must go hand in drugs, food and physical activity, they are not stagnant compartments. ”

Among the attendees was also Juan José Otero, vice president of the Association of Arthritis patients and also suffers from type 1 diabetes. Considers that these training schools should extend to other ailments because they are very useful.

For his part, Teresa Montes explained that her daughter debuted as a diabetic six months ago and that it was a surprise because they had no family history.

“For me it is all very unknown, I come from the legal world and knew little of health.We left Cunqueiro with some very basic notions and we were very crowded, all were fears and doubts.

In the hospital there is a food schedule and depending on that, insulin goes, we left the idea that it had to eat carbohydrates in each meal and then click the insulin.

But and if the girl is not hungry?

Here is the other way around, depending on my life or what I am going to eat, I put the amount of insulin I need, they taught us to calculate the ratio.They also explained the rule of 15 well when it has hypoglycemia, I did not know that there were needles of 4 (finer than those of the hospital 5) and we learned that when it goes to equestrian we must not prick so much insulin because the sport gives a rush.They taught us self -control, ”he says.