I’ve changed around the order of the “sections” in the sidebar. I was getting a little annoyed at how long and unmanageable it all seemed, so I re-ordered it.
I’ve also added a link to a web page I’ve had around for a while where I’ve been keeping track of my A1C’s over the years (viewer discretion advised – explicitly high readings) as well as some weekly BG records. There’s a large gap in the BG records, but that’s life.
I also moved my list of links onto it’s own page. I love all of you bloggers out there, and would update that list every time I came across a new blog. It just got to be too long and I felt it was distracting. So, it’s on it’s own page now.
I moved the webring code up in the page, so it should be more noticeable now and easier to get at.
I think that’s about it – but I might continue to tweak it a little bit. Please let me know if you find something that is broken, doesn’t work right, or simply looks funny (besides my picture, thank you!).
Thanks!
Scott, I think you’re doing a wonderful job logging everything. It does make a difference. I have been doing that for my food and although I don’t like (hate) it, it does make a tremendous difference.
I’ve not logged anything as far as my bg, although I do have some software for it. After reading and seeing all this, I might get myself back into it.
In the past, I used to create some very complicated spreadsheets in Excel & I was really proud of all the progress I was making. I thought it looked really cool. (I was really a freak about it… ):-) But really I was more impressed with what other formula I could use here and there, then I was trying to improve my sugars, so after a while, I totally abandoned it. Haven’t done anything after that.
My CDE does use the same software from Minimed as I have. So everytime I go see her, she downloads it from my pump and that way we can see what I’ve been doing. (You can download your readings from you test kit. But even better, if you download the readings from your pump, then you can really see it all, incl. basals, bolusses, test results, patterns, etc.) I’m still a freak about it, because everytime I see all the possibilities, I think it’s totally cool.
Nic – Thanks! A “set change” rate is something I’ve set up in my pump (I use a Cozmo, which lets me customize (using the computer) the names of some of the menu items).
I normally use an insulin to carb ratio of 1:7.5 (so one unit of insulin will “cover” 7.5 grams of carbohydrates). But, I’ve been having a lot of trouble with the first meal I eat after changing my infusion set.
I’ve been experimenting with using a different ratio for that first meal. So, something like 1 unit covers 6.5 grams of carbs (resulting in more insulin).
So when I go in and tell the pump I want a meal bolus, the next menu gives me choices of “Standard”, “Extended”, “Combination” or “Set Change”. In this case I selected “Set Change”. The next screen asks me how many grams of carbs I’m eating, then it calculates the dose based on the ratio that I have programmed.
Clear as mud right?
Some of the notes you will see are not entered with anyone other than me in mind – so some things may not make any sense at all (except to me).
Snazzy! The posts of your blood sugars are really cool, and your notes are informative and educational. I’m learning things. A question: What’s a set change rate?
Skytor – I had been using “Diabetic’s Pocket Insulin Manager” – I think I mentioned that in a comment on your blog? Maybe – I can’t remember. I really liked the program, but I think it’s been abandoned by the developer. Even still, I have not been able to find anything I liked better. I’m not exactly sure why I stopped using it – I think I was having problems with having to reset the basal rates after I generated a report. Never got an answer back on a support inquiry I sent in. It’s worth checking out either way.
Zazzy – I think I tend to go through spurts. What gets me bothered most I think is recording individual food items – but strangely enough I have been putting them into the comments section of the spreadsheet I’m using now. I do believe tracking things helps my control. The key might be for me not to get all obsessive compulsive about it and burn myself out. An approach that Kevin helped me start was to just log stuff in the spreadsheet while I’m at work, then go back through my pump history for the evenings and weekends once I’m back at my desk. I think splitting it up like that has really helped the burnout factor.
Kevin – For the pdf printouts I used something called CutePDF. It’s a freeware package that basically installs as another printer. Then in excel I print the entire workbook to the CutePDF printer, which then prompts me for a location and file name. I would be interested in seeing what you’ve done with the stats (I had thought about counting total carbs/day, etc. too).
Nice!
The OC Webring doesn’t flow over into your posts now (I probably should have mentioned that to you sooner, huh? Sorry).
I like the pdf version of your logbook too. How’d you do that? And just so you know, I’ve added some more stats to the logbook (a logbook 2.0, if you will). If you’re interested, I’ll happily send it along.
This type of housekeeping is so much more fun than real housekeeping…
Wow Scott! Those records are so impressively organized. I thought you hated to write stuff down?
I think it is great of you to post all your results Scott. You, like I, have BG graphs showing some “brownian motion”. One question: how did you track all the carb intakes before May? I got a pocket PC and now I am looking for software…