BG Tracking Log

Someone PM'd me the other day about how we log Samuel's info. There isn't a right or wrong way - whatever works for you. Some people use basic pen/paper. Some use apps. Some use nothing. I use Excel.

I will admit that I take logging to the extreme. This isn't for everyone. I'm proficient in Excel because of my work, so this just makes sense for me.

This is our "main" log. It's open on a tablet sitting on the kitchen counter 24/7. You can see I log every finger prick, if I gave glucose/carbs, when gave a bolus and how much, what he ate, etc. I am constantly looking at 3 days - yesterday, today and tomorrow. You'll notice yesterday right before lunch he dropped a bit, so I entered right then what his bolus would be for breakfast today (lowered the Regular a bit). Today he still dropped before lunch, so if you look at tomorrow, I've already entered what I plan to do for his breakfast bolus. For close to a week he's gone high in the middle of the night so I upped his basal a quarter unit last night (that's why it's yellow - to indicate a change)and I've already entered what I'm going to try at dinner tonight to try stop that rise (all Regular). Although sometimes I enter what I plan to do, I sometimes change my mind. What I list for the future is a rough idea to help me remember that I need to change something.  This is a living, breathing file that is constantly in motion.  If you look at the very bottom, each week has it's own sheet. 

There are two supplemental sheets.

The Weekly Averages sheet is just transferring over the BG and SD averages from the "main log" at the end of the week to a sheet of it's own, along with significant notes from the week.  I use this to guestimate his A1C between Endo appts.  For the past 3 years, I've estimated his A1c within 0.1 accuracy

The last supplemental sheet is just his A1c's along with any high-level notes.  The entries automatically update the graph.

 
NOTE: this post isn't really about doses or how to maintain control, but I do want to point out something you see in the bolus fields of the "main log" (ND 1:4 and RD 1:4). We dilute insulin, so ND 1:4 is code to us that means Novolog Diluted to a 1 to 4 ratio (same for the R). We write down what we pull from the syringe because it's easier, but that means using the top breakfast example, Novolog is actually only 0.6u and Regular is 0.5u = so 1.1u for the whole meal.