Only when I'm trying to analyze for sanity beyond what I can see in the pump records. My teen isn't too interested, so I usually give up.
When my son was just diagnosed, the Dr gave us this log at the hospital. This was before the pump, and it made sense. Then we got the pump, and I personally like Diasend logs and statistics better, but our Dr prefers paper logs. So I was just wondering if it's still a thing, if anybody still uses them. I use Diasend myself, but for our check-ups I hand write his numbers in the log.
I think the first few weeks after a diagnosis manual logging is great as it gets you in tune with the situation that has just landed on your doorstep. Doing the paper logs initially was great because you didnt have the burden of learning anything electronically new on top of the diabetes learning curve. I think though that after a while all of the devices that we have come to use then take over. It seems all of the pumps, meters, heck even apps for your phone, do a much better job. For us, once the Dexcom arrived I never wrote a paper log again.
Rarely use them. They can be helpful though, when you want to include notes or details about food or activity. Sometimes those details really help when you are trying to figure out patterns for insulin adjustments. I know when my daughter was busy with different school activities, I would forget what she did on last Tuesday afternoon...thinking oh we must have over-bolused the food, when sometimes it was, oh yeah, we ran the mile in PE that afternoon. I think when ill, it is a good idea too. I was more likely to look at the list/log on the counter to see what the last dose was, what she had eaten, etc, than disturb her to look at her pump. It's all what you get used to. Whichever method you actually USE will work.
Scientist here - and yes we used paper log books for as long as my daughter was living at home.. Just used one again when she was back for a visit, to get a handle on some trends. :cwds:
When my daughter went from daycare, to school and then to home we used an Excel spreadsheet. We always put it in her diabetic bag and it went with her everywhere. If anything went wrong, all of her basals and ratios were on the sheet.
We don't use a log book like you showed and never did. At first we weren't consistently recording but it was really hard to go back and forth between me and my husband doing things for her during the day. Now we keep a spiral notebook on the kitchen counter. We write down the meals as we are measuring and calculating carbs and the BG and timing of her meds. It makes it easier for us to see what she needs at any given moment plus helps when I'm going back to look a trends ( a little). It would help tons more if I had the CGM tracing side by side to see how she responded to the food/insulin but I don't have that. We don't have a pump though so no way to go back and see when/what insulin given if we didn't write it down
We record everything but we do it on electronic logs. Right now we use MyNetDiary diabetes option (about $60/yr), but we may switch to Glooko (also $60/yr). We have everything on our log: - food to the gram for each item (we use rthe online database of course) - BG - exercise - insulin - other stuff as needed such as medication Glooko will also integrate with your CGM and pump, and give you all data on a single platform. To us, getting access to the data is 100x easier if we can run it electronically, for all members of the family. I can also look up what is happening at school at any time - it makes a huge difference.
My endo uses Diasend. I don't like to print out or look at it. I still log my numbers, I've been doing that since I took over my control at age 9. I have a spread sheet with columns for the date, time, Dexcom (when I use it) T:Slim CGM, Next meter and insulin amount, and notes. The notes can be from what I've eaten, if I'm sick, to a site change, new sensor, bad sensor, bad site, anything. I like doing this even though the pump does contain all the information. I do it because the Dexcom and CGM on my pump can be up to 80+/-% off from my meter. My endo knows this, as does my husband yet both of them want me to wear it. So to keep peace I wear it. I think it's a waste of time and money because I'm testing just as much when I wear the CGM as without. And I can tell when I'm low or high, except for when I'm sleeping.
Something is not working correctly with your CGMS, it should be much more accurate than what you are reporting. You may need to try a different CGMS<ie Medtronics, but first work with your Diabetes team and Dexcom to figure out what is going wrong. Might be where you are wearing the CGMS, I have never been able to get good results on my stomach, so mainly use back of arms, need someone else to put in for me, or upper rear area of sometimes an upper thigh area. The way you insert can really make a difference also as well as when you calibrate. Call your team and see if they can do some intensive work. Good luck.
We're discovered that there are several of us that for some reason the CGM just has problems. It has gotten better, when it was the G4, it was more often than not 100%+/- off. I've called Dexcom and they tell me there's nothing they can do. We've discussed how I calibrate, I've talked to everyone in my endo's office. So I've done everything you've suggested. I've decided to wait for the G6 and see if that will work better. If I would have gotten my T:Slim G4 later so I could have gotten the upgrade without paying I would have. But our insurance won't let me get a new pump until the warranty on this one is gone.
We don't have a book like that, we just began to rely on the dexcom and pump output once we had those. Prior to that, we had filled several notebooks with all her meals, doses, etc. using 1 page per day. It was actually pretty helpful at her appointments. Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe we should get back into logging for a while, since we've had some wackiness lately.
