I have talked about this before, the fact that I don’t log.
I went to the endo about two weeks ago and we made a few changes to things and I downloaded my pump and my sensor readings, but I don’t feel this gives the true picture of life and for me, movement. Any amount of moving for me can make my bgs drop in a second.
Endo wants me to log as I really need to exercise and move and I need to keep track of how all things effect me… movment, carbs (what I ate, not just the carb count), insulin dosages, basal rate changes, and how my bgs drops with exercise.
I am looking for a log book where I can log, calories, carbs, insulin dosages, exactly what I ate, and space for exercise and change of my basal going into the exercise, something I don’t use often enough and really need to document as I need to start gearing up my exercise, as endo suggested the need for it as my weight gain is soaring. I told her I avoid exercise to avoid bloodsugar lows.
Any (hand written) log book suggestions that I can list all of this, and that is portable?
Karen, I make my own log book from graph paper. I create a graph in the top part where I track my BG levels (vertical axis) with the time on the horizontal axis and I log my exercise, insulin doses and other info in the bottom part. I photocopy the sheets and fold them into a little book. I find it so much easier to understand the relationships when it is in the visual form of a graph. I can literally see how much time I spend in my target range and make the connections as to what happens when I exercise or miscount the carbs, etc. I’d be happy to send you the template if you like.
I am like you: I don’t log. I don’t think that I could be that accurate. At least not for a long period of time. I have kept food journals and the like to help with tweaking stuff, but mostly I just wrote that stuff down in a notebook.
I use My Other Checkbooks from Diabetes Mall, yep its 21.45 for a year’s supply…but they are very convenient/portable, and I can write down everything that may be affecting bgsI(basals,carbs,boluses, correction boluses, site changes, exercise, illness, etc…)
I use something very similar to this…but I created it myself and altered it, so that I could keep track of more info. I think it’s imperative to look at your patterns in order to maintain good control…especially becuase diabetes effects everyone differently. It would probably improve your quality of life if you can use the information to adjust insulin levels and avoid lows and highs more easily. If your intereseted let me know and I can email you my template.
Got a lovely hand made log book today via snail mail from Libby. How nice is that?? It looks like something that will work for me and has space for all the stuff I want to keep track of.
I’m glad you like it. I used to write down everything when I remembered but it never really made much sense to me till I started graphing the info. Also it was a pain to write things, whereas putting an X on a graph takes just a second.
I don’t log either and that makes my Dr really mad. What I have found to do this is just a plain peace of note book paper writ down the date you cheak your sugars and at what time you do it then fix a little commit section out at the side. Sorry to say but exersise does the same for me it even got me scared to do it for the longest. I didn’t want to fall low (as usual) without warning. It just seems that us Type 1’s lose our sensory for that after awhike. What can I say I’m SO GUILTY of all of the above!!!
I told her I avoid exercise to avoid bloodsugar lows.