Day 143 — Breaking Down our Levels & Modules

A bear-y productive day of content design.

Today I made decent progress on mapping our content progression into 3 distinct “levels”:

1. Level 1: Survival Skills. All the things you must know and/or be able to do to safely live with diabetes.
2. Level 2: Essentials. Things you must learn/do to start getting your life back to normal.
3. Level 3: Finding Rhythm. More advanced skills that build on survival skills concepts.

I like the idea of levels because it shows a sense of progress and mastery during a time that you typically feel anything but. My goal is to develop a repeatable process that all people with type 1 diabetes can utilize during the first weeks post-diagnosis.

I’m continuing to rely on the ADCES Self-Care behaviors and content from the Understanding Diabetes Pink Panther Book, blended with my own creative license for organizing content into bite-sized modules.

Here’s how the first 3 levels break down.

Level 1 (Days 1-2): Survival Skills

Diabetes Basics

• What diabetes is and what causes it
• Type 1 will not stop you from living your life.
• Identify what type of diabetes they have.
• Type 1 is not easy — involves lots of decisions that impact health.

Monitoring 1

• Blood sugar checking
• Urine/blood ketone checking
• Recognizing a low BG and how to treat it

Insulin 1

• Describe Insulin types and actions
• Drawing up insulin
• Giving shots

Food 1

• Food Survival Skills

Supplies 1

• Getting Supplies
• Proper Care

Level 2 (Days 3–4): Essentials

• Plans for the next few days
• School Plan
• Details of treatment (“thinking scales”)
• Education about food (dietitian)
• Feelings (psycho-social team)

Level 3 (Day 5–7): Finding Rhythm

Food 3:

• Details of food management w/ diabetes

Monitoring 3

• Review of A1C: What it is, why it’s important
• Pattern management of BGs: how to identify trends and when to fax/email numbers
• Sick Day Management: How often to check BG and ketones, fluid replacement — what type and how much when and how to urgently call for assistance.

Insulin 3:

• Insulin actions and different insulin regimens

Hypoglycemia 1:

• Low BG Care: Causes, signs, and treatment of mild to severe lows, including glucose tabs and gel and glucagon

Hyperglycemia 1:

• High BG Care: Prevention of diabetic keto-acidosis; causes, signs, and treatment

What’s Next?

Tomorrow I’ll get this map to a good stopping point so we can start biting off pieces of content to develop starting next week.