Analysis

The January Diabetes Social Media Advocacy blog carnival post asks me to fill in the blank: 'Stiving for ......... in 2013.'

'Analysis' is the word which best fills in the blank.

I tend to go in spurts in terms of how much time I spend on my daughter's diabetes.  I don't think this is unusual.  I would imagine phases of simply reacting to numbers and moving on occur for many people who live with diabetes. There are other things going on in life, and many of them are more fun or at least more interesting than sorting through a week's blood sugar log.

To be clear, we don't ever stop managing her diabetes.  The finger sticks, carb counting, and bolusing continue all day, every day.  The 2 a.m. checks happen.  I continue to be alarmed by and to react to very high or very low numbers.

What I don't do consistently is stop to evaluate the overall picture. I'm certain we could eliminate more highs and lows if patterns were picked up earlier than they often are.

Eventually, something will move me to action.  It could be a week of constant calls from the school nurse's office or a series of sleepless nights.  I'll then take a long hard look at the numbers and make some adjustments or call the endocrinology team. Yet analyzing those numbers more regularly could quite obviously lead to better blood sugar control, resulting in better health.

With a growing 'tween,' adjustments are needed more often than ever.  Therefore, 2013 seems like the perfect year to adopt a goal of weekly blood sugar reviews.

What will a consistent weekly diabetes analysis yield?  Fewer calls from the nurse's office?  More sleep?  Fewer hours of my daughter feeling sluggish from high blood sugar?  A grocery savings on juice boxes?  More productive endocrinology appointments?  A lower A1C?

I hope it's all of the above.

“This post is my January entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival. If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information at http://diabetessocmed.com/2013/january-dsma-blog-carnival-2/“