Best resources to track and manage BG

[Ayma]

Hi all!

Could really do with some help and guidance on helping the new Husbs manage T1D.

Its all really new to me and am still in the process of understanding everything but am desperate to help get this on track for him.

The night time hypos often mean hes waking up middle of the night, sweating etc. Desperately want to get a handle on this and want to start tracking and manage this for him but no idea where to start or how to track an log.

He had the freestyle system so that makes things so much easier but would massively appreciate some guidance on this.

Thanks all

 

[novorapidboi26]

How new is he?

Education would be a great start but may not be available straight away, depending on how new the diagnosis is..so a course provided by the diabetes clinic...

as far as tracking goes the old school method of writing it down is still very effective, this allows you to look over the readings for a day and spot patterns.....

management I suppose is all about interpreting the results that you see written down, this is where the education comes in........

the basics for BG management in my eyes is firstly, basal dose.......is it right?, then bolus ratios, are they right? Once these things have been established alongside correction ratios it will finally end with food choices....

His team should provide him with a log book but you can make one up yourself if needs be, for each day it should include things like, BG before each meal with the time taken, how many carbs are being eaten in grams per meal, how much insulin has been given for the carbs per meal, how many units of insulin have been used as a correction per meal.....

the first thing that I would do with the occurrence of night time hypos is reduce the basal dose and then test the new dose by having no carbs after dinner and then viewing the libre graph produced overnight....

I have went on a bit there and I have left a lot blanks, it may seem like a lot to take in.....but we can all help you take it one step at a time....

 

[DeusXM]

Umm....I'm going to stop you right there.

Desperately want to get a handle on this and want to start tracking and manage this for him

Look, it's lovely that you want to help BUT it is not your job to manage your husband's diabetes for him. It's HIS job.

You are not his mum. You are not his carer. You are not his nurse. You are his WIFE. You are his equal partner and it is his job to make sure he is as healthy as possible to spend the rest of his life with you.

 

[grovesy]

Welcome!

 

[Diabeticliberty]

I hope that he finds it very encouraging that you wish to fully understand and help manage his condition. I don't wish to be impertinent but it might be a good idea to ask him directly if he wants your help. Not everybody responds too well to having well meaning people attempting to take part. If in fact he does want you to involve yourself in his condition then rather than going out and trying to find everything you can about the condition which I suspect will be very intensive. Perhaps the best starting point is to speak to him directly about how the condition affects him individually and what help he feels, if any you might be able to offer. It may be that he is crying out for assistance or not at all but until you ask him directly you really don't know. Surely the starting point for you and him is to open up a dialogue. For my own part my own family have left me alone with my condition. if any of them had chosen to ask in depth questions about my conditions there would have been a time when I would have flatly refused. With experience however hopefully comes enlightenment. Good luck with stuff I would personally be interested to know how you both get along 🙂

 

[Ljc]

Hi Welcome. I too suggest asking your husband how he would like you to help if needed. Speaking personally, I honesty, I don't mean this to sound harsh at all, it's just how I feel. Its my diabetes I will handle it or not as I see fit, all I want is for family / friends to know what to do if I'm unable to treat a hypo , it's nice to be asked how your feeling after one though, coz boy can you feel rough. I really don't like family asking about my BGs when I test. Now your husband may be totally different but he may not. IMO the tracking and monitoring is his job.
It is great that you want to help though and by coming here asking us questions you are going to learn a lot. You will find we will be quite open and frank with you.
Does your husband have lots of nighttime hypos or is it just occasionally

 

[khskel]

I wouldn't be happy with anybody else managing my D I would much rather make and learn from my own mistakes. Saying that the best thing I ever did was to keep a food and insulin diary in a spreadsheet.