Animas 2020 Insulin Pump Sample Log Report

When using an insulin pump, part of the process is entering your blood glucose levels (BGL) from your meter after testing. Some pumps have a meter attached so the process is automatic. The Animas Ping, for example, does this, but it’s not available in Australia yet. I have the Animas 2020 – basically a Ping without the meter.

Entering your BGL during the day, and then entering BGL with the grams of carbs you’re about to eat, will allow the pump to accurately suggest how much insulin it should give. It’s done on an incredibly complicated algorithm and it also knows how much bolus insulin you still have active at the time. This is called Insulin on Board (IOB). It figures this amount into the insulin-suggestion calculation.

On some pumps, you can just accept the suggested amount. On the Animas 2020, you have to enter the amount yourself. I rather like this idea because the pump has no idea what I’m going to do next – exercise, sleep, eat more, suspend the pump after the bolus and many more possibilities. I can then give less or more according to my needs over the next 3 hours.

The pump can be set to remind you to test your BGL. I have mine set to remind me every two hours after entering my BGL, which I test several times a day. After any entry, the reminder comes on screen for you to confirm it or change the reminder time – 1 hour, 2 hours and so on. When I sleep, I set the reminder to zero hours, so it doesn’t do the reminder alarm and wake me.

Because of what the pump records and the reports it produces, I have not yet needed to record anything manually.

Once a week, I upload the data from the pump to my computer via an infra-red cable. I produce the reports as PDF documents that I email to my medical team. They can then see trends, averages, total insulin and more, and perhaps suggest  adjustments.

The sample report below is just one of a number of reports available. It’s the one most people with diabetes will recognise – it’s very similar to a handwritten log. Yes, it’s my log for last week, with reasonably OK numbers (only reason I’m sharing).

Looking at the report, I see if any adjustments need to be made to any of the pump settings. Of course I’d probably look at a week or more of data, not just a couple of days.

Last week, I made a huge effort to keep my carbs fairly low, lower than my usual under 120 grams per day. It certainly paid off for me.

You’ll see the following:

The time of day across the top. Each day has 3 lots of data: BGL, Grams of Carbohydrates Eaten, Insulin Bolus.

At the far right, you’ll see the average BGL for the day, the total carbs for the day and the total insulin bolus for the day.

At the bottom of the report, the last 3 rows are the averages for the time of day, and the averages for the week on the right.

Note that the BGL measurements are in mmol/L, the standard in Australia. To convert to the USA standard, multiply by 18, or see the chart at the end.

There’s another report hat shows all the BGL testing data. You might test more than once an hour, eg if you’re low, or after a site change. The log book only has BGL value in any given hour – the average of all tests done in that hour. You can’t see in the chart below how many times I might have tested for any one BGL shown.

I’d love it if my HbA1C would be done on just the four days showing! Now, wouldn’t that be nice! Almost everyone I know in the diabetes world, has highs and lows. The days shown aren’t typical for me. I’m still having a problem going high between 11pm and 1am. I’m slowly tweaking the pump to take care of this. It’s not easy because I tend to go low in the early hours of the morning. I don’t want that to happen while I’m sleeping, so any insulin I have between 11pm and 1am will still be active 2-3 hours later.

I wanted to share because it was something I wanted to know and see before I decided which insulin pump to get. As you may have already read, I totally love my pump and I’m extremely happy with the choice I made.

This chart shows HbA1c and what your average BGL would be in both mmol/L and mg/dl. It’s such a handy chart, I use it all the time!