Patient Experience - Goal setting - Type 2 diabetes

OK, I'm Paul and I've been coming here to see the diabetic nurse for about a year and a half now. That was when I was diagnosed with my diabetes. I see the nurse on a six months basis and I get set goals. My primary one is my blood sugar level, which is good - that's been coming down each six months period. I control that with diet and metformin. That's a good one. My other goal is my weight. Sadly, I haven't been able to control that. So the nurse has been very good and is sort of coaching me into what I should do, what thoughts I have on how to control my weight. I'm now actually booked onto a second session of DESMOND to look at my eating habits and what's good for me. I felt it was something that might help me, because when I first was diagnosed with diabetes and I went on DESMOND, I completely changed. I lost quite a bit of weight, but gradually I've put it back on again, so I need to have another oomph to get me going again. It's like one of those things where at New Year's Eve, when you set yourself a target and think, "I must go on a diet," it works for a week or two and then you forget about it. But hopefully with the DESMOND, I can change my lifestyle again. It works for me, coming here to see Linda and Cathy, because I feel that there's some people that are there for me and they're very friendly and not condescending. They coach me into coming up with the best ideas for me and coming up with how I want to do it. They don't say, "OK, you must lose weight now." They come up with what's best for me. That's when I agreed the second session of DESMOND seemed to be the next best thing to do along the line.