Knowledge is a calming thing

[mamadeb]

One of the first things I did, knowing who and what I am, was find and download a diabetes monitoring program that coordinates between my desktop and my pda.

I knew that entering the data (the food I've eaten, the exercise, the blood glucose readings) into electronic form would be motivating and interesting, and that was why I did it. And it has been.

What I didn't know was that it would also make things less stressful. I take a reading, say, and it looks high. "It's never been this high at this point," I think. And then I enter it into the pda and have the program tell me what my other readings have been this time of day. And I can see it's the same or in the same category or even *lower* than other readings and I feel better. I can't keep track of all this in my head, so it helps. (My glucometer, like all of them these days, records readings as well, so I can check back on Shabbat. I can take readings on Shabbat - I just can't record them myself.)

And I get to play with what and how the information is repeated, and see graphs and...it helps a lot.

Comments

[gingicat]

That does sound incredibly useful; I'm glad that it's also reassuring.

And of *course* you can use the glucometer over Shabbat; it would seriously impact your health and could shorten your life if you couldn't.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

It's not nearly so cut and dried as that. If I used insulin, it would absolutely be, and I could carry it even without an eruv. I'm not sure I'd be able to once I get things under control, since we would no longer need the data, which we do now.

[kmelion.livejournal.com]

Tried emailing you at the email listed on your info page and it came back... have an alternative?

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

that should work.

debra dot baker three at verizon dot net