Right now it’s a couple of days after Christmas and I am currently reflecting on the past few days spent eating all the stuff I usually wouldn’t. I’ve enjoyed it immensley, it’s been really liberating breaking out of my usual highly controlled shackles and instead taking the approach of eating what I want, when I want, and doing my best to correct properly for it.
However, as I expected, it has made my control way tougher. I have been sitting in double figures for much of the past few days and this is despite my insulin requirements having more than doubled. This all got me thinking.
Obviously this is all ok. My control, both on what I eat and my blood glucose is pretty good 99% of the time, and I know exactly what has caused my numbers to be worse over the next few days. It’s also been really nice, from a mental health perspective, to just stop caring as much. It’s been a much needed resetting of my diabetic batteries.
Alongside all of this though it has reminded me about how important regular testing and measuring is. Over the past few days, except for a few lazy periods where I was basically in a food coma, I have been testing and correcting every couple of hours at least. This is much different than my usual schedule of normally testing 4 times a day, once before every meal and once in the evening before bed.
That then got me thinking even more about the past year and how bad I have been on a few months with logging. I have kept up my testing and injecting but I got really disinterested in logging my results. Diabetic burnout is mentioned a lot, and not something I thought I would get, but I guess this is a type of burnout? I know how important it is to log, benchmark and try to improve but I just wasn’t interested for a big chunk of this year. That’s not great, but at least I’ve identified it and am trying to make some positive changes.
Which brings me to the purpose of this page, which is actually 2 fold. Not only do I want to encourage better benchmarking by making myself accountable to you guys and this blog by sharing information on this page. I also want to share my numbers, and be honest about my challenges and mistakes so that you guys can hopefully better own yours and also feel less bad about them as well.
We are all fighting an endless battle against diabetes and it’s only fair and understandable that we will all have periods where we are struggling to find the motivation. For me, the next time I hit a brickwall like this, I will remember this blog and my commitment to myself and you in the hope that it will help encourage me to do the right thing!
2021 Average BG Readings – Per Month
| Avg MMOL | Avg # Of Readings Per Day | % Readings Low | % Readings In Range | % Readings High | |
| December | 8 | 4 | 2% | 74% | 24% |
| November | 7.5 | 3 | 3% | 83% | 14% |
| October | 7.4 | 2 | 0% | 92% | 8% |
| September | 8.2 | 4 | 0% | 80% | 20% |
| August | 8.7 | 4 | 2% | 69% | 29% |
| July | 7.3 | 2 | 0% | 96% | 4% |
| June | 7.6 | 2 | 0% | 92% | 8% |
| May | 7.5 | 3 | 1% | 89% | 10% |
| April | 7.7 | 4 | 2% | 80% | 18% |
| March | 7.1 | 4 | 4% | 87% | 10% |
| February | 6.8 | 5 | 8% | 83% | 10% |
| January | 6.5 | 4 | 9% | 82% | 9% |
So, what do I think these numbers tell me? I think the brutal truth is that I have become more lazy and complacent as the year has gone on. A great average mmol, 4 tests average a day, over 80% in range results and a fair split across low and high results suggests to me a diabetic that has a pretty good handle on his diabetes.
I am genuinely dissapointed looking at these numbers now as it shows that the overarching trend as we have come into the end of the year has been higher avrage mmol, less frequent testing and a lower % of readings in range with many more sitting on the high end of the spectrum.
I am having my HBA1C taken in January and expect it to be worse which is a frustrating thought. However, it’s not all doom and gloom. I have identified an issue and I will now be taking steps to improve it. How? With 3 simple things:
- Increase frequency of testing and logging
- Be slightly more aggresive with my insulin dosing to try and head off these higher results
- Make a concerted effort to get myself a CGM via the NHS to massively improve the data I have available to myself
Let’s hope these 3 steps lead to some improvements coming into the New Year. I will check back and update this page regularly with my 2022 info for benchmarking.
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