I said I would be better (more consistent) about posting in 2022, and since today is a special number day, here we go.
First, anyone else remember “blood sugar bingo”? We played it at Clara Barton Camp back in the 80s (brought to us by a fun pediatric endocrinologist). If your glucose reading was the same as the date, you won. So on July 2nd, 72 was a winner, and so on. A glucose reading of 100 always won, in addition to the date. I think for dates past 9 the winner became 110, 111, etc. We weren’t hoping for results like 718 or 812 or anything like that! (Feel free to correct me in a comment if I’m remembering this wrong.)
Second, to continue with the theme of “why it matters,” I will discuss one of the words we are trying to remove from the language of diabetes. Since we’re already talking about glucose readings, I’ll highlight test.
The reason test doesn’t work in diabetes is because blood glucose monitoring is not a test or a test result. Many people think of a test as a pass/fail scenario. At the very least it’s a measure of how we are doing at something, which also implies good/bad. Diabetes management is about making decisions and choices on a moment to moment basis every day. It’s not about right or wrong. We take the information we have – including glucose readings – and make a decision about what we will do next. In fact, some people refer to glucose readings as data points.
Replacements for test include monitor and check. I like to think of it as checking in. This conversation will be moot in a few more years when continuous glucose monitoring takes over and everyone with diabetes has access/coverage. Until then…I vote for eliminating test when referring to glucose levels.