The Whiteboard Solution.

Last week's DSMA chat was on looking at blood sugar trends. Or rather, DO you look at blood sugar trends? Or rather, what do you do to see blood sugar trends...

I'm confusing myself already.

Point is, I've been having a tough time for awhile spotting current trends in the boys' blood sugars. Back in the day, my memory was money...not so much anymore. It seems the older I get, the harder it is for me to retain information.

AND, there are three of them. It gets confusing, ok!?!

Spotting trends has especially been an issue since Ryan has taken over most of the nighttime checks. I am a firm believer that nighttime is THE most important time to get things right. Only because it is the easiest time to get things in order. Once nighttime numbers are on track, you have won half the battle. So, since we split up the blood testing duties, when the boys wake up out of range I'm hard-pressed to know if it is human/husband error, or if basals need to be tweaked.

Communication has been pretty much sucking eggs. When I call my hubby at work in the mornings and ask what was up with sugars...he generally doesn't remember. It is usually something like, "Two were good, one needed a correction." I'm not pointing fingers or anything...my swelly brain can't remember things anymore either...remember?

So let me get to the heart of this post right this minute...I hate trying to keep track of numbers. I start with good intentions, writing everything down and it never lasts long. It is my swelly brain rebelling to be sure. For YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS I wrote down every blessed blood sugar number there was, along with every carb that passed through the boys' lips. Once the doc said we didn't have to anymore...that was it. I didn't do it anymore. Ever.

Sure, I would copy numbers off blood sugar monitors...but when the third was diagnosed that all got thrown out the window. All my boys use the same meter...the one that is closest to them at the time. We have a good 10 of them floating around the house and around town. So now we count on the information download from the boys pumps to spot the trends. Trouble is, I don't download them...only the endo does.

Yes, I CAN download them. I just don't like it. Those graphs make me throw up. They make me cry. It is too much information!!! I can't do it...I just can't!! (And...end of dramatic scene...)

So a few weeks ago I finally came up with the solution.

Well, maybe not THE solution, but A solution.

The whiteboard!

Ta da!



We aren't brilliantly consistent with it or anything...but it has helped a ton! The boys even have been writing in their numbers at night and in the morning.

Not the solution to everything. I totally get that I didn't invent the wheel here...

But it's a solution none the less.

And the best part is...I can wipe those numbers away in one swoop. They are not permanent. Very cathartic to erase them away and start fresh!

I'm pretty sure many, if not most of the amazing people who are reading this...(you?)...keep very detailed, computer spreadsheet layouts of every number/bolus/correction/carb...and that makes my little whiteboard look like tinker toys to your Metropolis. But we all do what we can.

I'm doing the best I can.

Even if the best I can comes in the form of blue, black, green and red whiteboard markers...