Tracking blood glucose levels can help a diabetic regain control over her chronic disease. The American Diabetes Association states that reading blood glucose results may elicit feelings of anger or frustration, as they are a direct reflection of disease control. But glucose level graphs are your creation and can be as detailed as you like. The doctor's A1C blood test should reflect the average of the glucose graph and you should be able to avoid surprise results at your biannual check-ups.
Step 1
Review the doctor's orders. Newly diagnosed diabetics will need to check their blood sugar more frequently until their blood sugars stabilize. Check your blood sugar as ordered -- once a day for some and up to four times daily for others.
Step 2
Record the blood sugar using a plain piece of paper, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet on the computer or a free web-based blood sugar graphing program. There are links to two kinds of graphs in the Resources section.
Step 3
Use one column for the date and time, another for the blood sugar and a third for foods consumed. You may wish to go into further detail by adding elements such as exercise, stress and any illness at the time of the blood sugar check.
Step 4
Create the graph, or the diagram plotting blood sugar numbers over time, with a simple paper chart. On the vertical axis draw 10 bars. Label the first bar 100, the second 110 and continue up by increments of 10. The horizontal axis will represent times and dates of the blood sugars.
Step 5
Refer to the chart -- paper, web or Excel -- and use those blood sugar results to fill in the graph. Plot each blood sugar as a dot on its corresponding line, date and time. Draw a line starting at the first plotted result and connect the dots. Large points of fluctuation in the line may show that your blood glucose levels are not well controlled.
Tips and Warnings
- The range on the axis can be changed dependent on personal blood sugars -- if your blood sugars are usually above 150 you can start with the number 140 as opposed to 100.
Things You'll Need
- Blood glucose monitor
- Laptop with Excel or web capabilities (optional)
