Spotting Patterns, Not Reacting

There are two ways to use blood sugar data. One is to react to each number as it arrives. The other is to look for patterns across a week. The second works far better and is much less tiring.

Reacting to single readings produces a see-saw. A high gets an extra correction, which causes a low a few hours later, which gets over-treated with food, which causes another high. The day becomes a series of corrections rather than a plan.

Pattern review is different. You collect readings with a little context — what you ate, your dose, activity, illness, sleep — then sit down once a week and look for what repeats. Lunchtime running high three days out of five is a dose problem you can fix. One high lunch is just a Tuesday.

So record the date, time and result along with what you ate and did, and your insulin doses. Paper is fine; an app is fine; a meter or sensor that syncs is easiest.

Then change one thing at a time and give it several days. Changing two doses at once means you learn nothing from either.

Bring the record to appointments. A week of annotated data lets a doctor make a specific adjustment instead of a general suggestion.