Diabetes Blog Week – Day 3
Phew, just one thing? There is quite the list when I think through the opportunities for doing better…
This one is actually pretty easy when I think through it. I’ve mentioned it before and will combine it with something I learned from Gary Scheiner who talks about Critical Analysis with diabetes data. So my quote and answer to this question is without a doubt, the one thing I could improve is by using “Aggressive Diabetes Management with Critical Analysis“.
Aggressive diabetes management is simply the opposite of testing my blood sugar, correcting, bolusing, repeat every 4 hours or so. My aggressive approach is asking the question WHY all the time. Why is that 350 there and what can I do next time to avoid it. Why am I low and did the exercise I did have an impact on it. You get the point. No longer approaching diabetes with a carefree or lighthearted mindset just to do OK. In order to do better and get my A1c consistently under 7% it has to be an acute focus to improve my health.
Critical Analysis comes into play by reviewing and studying my data charts and graphs from my Dexcom CGM. There are certain patterns and things that will jump out when a series of days are plotting on a graph. Maybe it’s a basal rate adjustment or insulin:carb ratio that needs to be adjusted. The point here is to use the data and do it often, probably once a week.
Gary Scheiner shared his formula for estimating an A1c based on CGM data and average blood sugar. In order to get my A1c to where I want it to be, I need to have an average blood sugar between 140-147 mg/dl. But we also know that standard deviation is also key to having a good A1c that doesn’t contain too many lows/highs to offset each other.
So my approach is going to be much different than in the past to get OK results. I want excellent and awesome results.
Tony, reading your post was like being forced to look into a mirror. I also need to improve on “Aggressive Diabetes Management with Critical Analysis“.