[jenny]

 

I have downloaded the trial version of SiDiary to see what it does before buying it.  I have a nice new One Touch Ultra 2 meter which I naively thought would enable me to plug, play, analyse and understand using their free software - but then found I need to purchase a cable to do that.  Someone on the Diabetes Insight Support forum recommended SiDiary so I decided to check that out too.

Anyway I thought I would evaluate both sorts of software before spending any money, by entering everything manually, so I have tried to do that with both, but the One Touch seems so complicated, you have to come out, go in somewhere else to put your carbs in etc, come out, go back in again for the next meal/imjection etc - and to be honest, it is really too much trouble - I believe you can input carbs and stuff on your meter which then downloads itself to the software, then maybe you would be able to see what sort of reports it produced, and then you could evaluate it, but can't do that without spending money.  In comparison, SiDiary seems to be very user-friendly, although I don't like the pie charts though because there doesn't really seem enough info there to be of any real use - unless I'm missing something, in which case please tell me!.  The dot and especially the line-graph info is excellent, and the way you can split this into different times of day is really useful.  It's also very friendly to have the smileys on the Trend tab, but really once you've looked at the line graph and then split it into times - you will already know what the Smileys are going to say and whether your face mirrors theirs!  Perhaps it's something that comes into its own for children???  

(I can't really cope with using mobile phones to do anything except telephone people (I can't even access the address book on mine, I hesitate to tell you its a Siemens one and not half as user-friendly as my old Nokia one.  I understood it in the shop, but haven't a clue now - bit like calculus when I was at school - understood it every time they explained it to me, then forgot it again after they cleaned the blackboard LOL) and am quite happy to sit at my PC and input info at night/weekends, although naturally I realise I may well regret this when I go on holiday for a fortnight in the summer!

My questions are, one of my insulins (NovoRapid) is not on the SiDiary generic list, so it tells me the HbA1c result is just an estimate - fair enough.  I have read elsewhere on this forum where you say there is a way of manually inputting the profile of an insulin which is not on the list, but can't find it on the Trial version.  Is this something that is only applicable to the full version that you have to buy? and

My results say that I have only about 4 results entered under 'night time', - I take this to mean 'before bed' which I do religiously before taking my Lantus (plus a bit of NovoRapid if it's diabolically high) and going to bed - should I be clicking the 'after dinner' choice to get that result - or what?  Or is it because I don't usually go to bed until after midnight, so the program puts an 01.00 or 00.30 result some place else?

Hope you can help - as I am seriously considering spending the money!!!! LOL

Thanks

Jenny

[Alf]

Hi Jenny,

the 30-Day-Trial version is fully functional so you can add your type of insulin to the trial too. You will find the right button on the profile tab (if you currently don't see that tab, please open the Profile Wizard and anser the question about your computer skills with excellent - that will give you more flexibility within the main screens and with more detailed settings).

On the profile tab there is a button at the bottom for adding/editing insulin types and there you can maintain the duration of how long the insulin will have effect in your individual scenario.

On the profile tab there is also a button that allows the time frame maintenance screen. This allows to define the time slices for the statistical analysis.