Resource
Seasons Part I
Small Beginnings
Background
“Seeing is easy; observing is hard.”
I think Sherlock Holmes said something like that to Watson. Watson walked up some steps every day, but Sherlock actually counted how many there were. When Sherlock asked Watson about the number, Watson had no idea!
T1d is a bit like that. Every day I ‘see’ what my BGL is; I ‘see’ how much insulin I injected; I ‘see’ the food I eat, etc.
But the ‘observe’ part is a deeper step. It takes thought.
So, to help with that, I developed a seasonal tool for observing. There are 4 parts to it, so buckle up and get ready for the ride.
(See main Resources page for a link to the file itself).
THE WEEK
I note how much insulin I inject at different times of the day.
I don’t write as much in the weekends (leisure time)
I write down my BGLs during the day.
I make little notes anywhere I can find space!
Summary to compare with other weeks
Step-by-Step
Let’s look at a Wednesday not too long ago.
Morning: I woke up with a BGL of about 8 (middle row). I injected 2U of bolus (top row) and 11U (bottom row) of basal. I didn’t eat breakfast.
Lunch: my BGL was about 6-and-a-half (I write as ‘6+’). I injected 10U bolus for lunch.
Dinner: BGL was 7. I injected 8U basal. In the evening, I had a hypo (4+) which I highlighted orange. Whoops.
In total, I had 12U bolus + 19U basal = 31U insulin for the whole day. Most of my time was in ‘normal range’.
Once I finish the week, I colour-code any hypers (>9 for me) and any hypos I had to treat. Notice I also write hyper BGLs in the TOP row and hypo BGLs in the BOTTOM row.
Finally, the Median bolus was 12 (middle of 11, 12, 15) and the Median basal was 17 (middle of 15, 17, 19).
The very last chart on the page is where I draw the colours to summarise the WEEK.
Blue is Hyper, Orange is hypo in my colour palette.