Gaining control of the numbers

How I gained control

When I got out of hospital my bloods were still running very high. Most days would see me in the 20’s. These levels had to be got under control and I was determined to get in done as quickly as possible. My consultant told me damage occurs when readings are above 9, this still worries me today.

I knew that I needed to be writing every single bit of info down so I could review and make logical choices based on the facts.

Step one for gaining control was for me to record all:-

1. Blood sugar readings
2. Carbs eaten
3. Exercise taken
4. Bolus taken
5. Basal taken
6. How I was feeling at the time

Even with writing all of this down in my little note book, it still didn’t really give me the full picture. It is very difficult to spot a trend when you have all that information written down. I find it much easier if i have a graph and a neat little table to look at. That just doesn’t happen with a pen and paper, a bit more effort is required. As with anything in life the more effort you put in, the better the results.

After a couple of weeks I knew I needed to get all this information formulated into a better layout.

I am not a genius on Excel, but I know my way around a spreadsheet and a graph!! so decided this was the best option for me.

So armed with my 2 weeks of data I set about making this funky little document.

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This now meant I was having to write everything down in my little book, and then once a day input all that data into a spreadsheet. I felt diabetes management was taking over my life, and if it was like this forever more I could see diabetes burnout coming on soon.

I made a decision to only write down certain things. The readings when I woke and when I went to bed and the ones before each meal, insulin taken and carbs eaten. This is still a lot to keep track of but I figured exercise could be dropped from the list

This wasn’t ideal as I then had no record of the in between times, the times when I hadn’t written stuff down.

It was when I started using the Freestyle Libre it really opened my eyes as to what was happening. That’s another post for another day though.

At this point I had changed from Lantus over to Levemir due to dawn phenomenon and afternoon hypos. I thought an updated spreadsheet was in order, similar to the type of table Diasend puts out.

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Using excel at least meant I could make pretty graphs though. I do find a visual representation easier to spot trends with than a load of figures written down. I did format my sheet to highlight any values out of my target range, again making it a bit easier to spot trends.

As you can see by my numbers, something is working right for me. I know not everybody will want to take this much effort, but for me its what needed to happen to get this right.

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Now I am coming up to 2 years past diagnosis I have eased off of the logging everything. Writing it in a notebook went out the window ages ago, and since May I have stopped doing the spreadsheet. That’s not to say I wont start again if my control starts to slip.

For the time being I just use the apps on my phone and Diasend website

Check out the articles in ”Tech” menu about the various apps I have used in the past or am still using.

 

For now

Take care and log it there

 

Type1Bri