I woke up feeling like the toes on my right foot were on fire last night around 3:30am. It was more of a cold-burn sensation. Almost as if someone had applied too much Icy Hot to them — only on steroids. I had trouble getting back to sleep as my mind headed in different directions. Our minds are interesting things. Why do certain thoughts and memories come at various times, seemingly from nowhere? Only then to occupy the primary focus of our thought process like that’s the only thing going on in our world at that moment?
I fell back to sleep a little after 4:30am — at least that’s the last time I remember seeing the clock. (Just for kicks check out this TED talk about the mystery of what makes 4am such a significant time of the day.)
The alarm went off (or on, depending on how you prefer to say it) at 6:35am as usual. I sleepily stood up, walked across the house, and woke up my daughter so she could start to get ready for school only to discover that there was a 2 hour delay. Man, this weather sucks. The winter hasn’t been bad. February has been bad. The combination of the extreme cold — more than two weeks in single digits — and more than four feet of total snow has made for an intense month. I know other parts of the country get this much snow every year, but it’s not normal here. Then the school has cancelled or had a 2 hour delay at least 2-3 times a week. My daughter loves it, but it throws off any type of normal morning routine. So we worked on her science project while we waited out the delay — after a couple episodes of Scooby Doo, of course.
I spent the day working and when I was done with that, I started looking at software for diabetes management. I’m a geek at heart, and I have always loved looking at new software. I’m not crazy about why I’m looking for software, but at least this can be a silver lining in an otherwise dumpy looking cloud.
What I’m realizing as I look around is that none of the software out there has all the features I want. There is one that gets really close, but the aesthetics of it aren’t very good. It looks like something out of the 80s. Then there are others that look slick, but lack either features like emailing reports or functionality like syncing across multiple devices. Maybe I’ll do a review of some of them down the road, but for now I’m using GoMeals — which is free on mobile and desktop — to keep track of my overall food intake and DiabetesPal ($4.99 desktop and $2.99 mobile) to keep track of overall carbs, medication, insulin, and A1C. I’ll put the links below. It’s a double entry system, but I want the better reports that DiabetesPal offers with the more detailed food intake that GoMeals offers. The time it takes to record into each is negligible so it’s working for now. DiabetesPal was created by a guy whose son has Type 1 Diabetes, which makes a little more unique than some of the other options. He understands both the overall functionality as well as the daily use of inputting and tracking. Plus it’s a bonus to feel like I’m supporting someone who can relate.
GoMeals — desktop: GoMeals.com
GoMeals — mobile: App Store
DiabetesPal — desktop: Mac App Store
DiabetesPal — mobile: App Store