In intensive monitoring, you perform the pre-meal/post-meal tests for each meal for a minimum period of three days plus the evening/morning paired tests. In other words, you check your blood sugar before and approximately 2 hours after breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper each as well as at bedtime. In practice, this means 6–9 tests in a 24-hour period.
You should carry out the intensive monitoring before an appointment or other care meeting to assess the effectiveness of the treatment. Likewise, if your morning blood sugar is within the target range but the glycated haemoglobin HbA1c is high, intensive monitoring will help you indicate the time of day when your blood sugar rises too high.
Therefore, in addition to your blood sugar test results, you should at least periodically, and before an appointment, make a note of the following things for at least three days:
The blood sugar drug treatment or, for insulin therapy, insulin doses
The amount carbohydrates in meals
If you are not familiar with estimating the amount of carbohydrates, you should keep a meal diary for three days, for example
Exercise, the type and intensity of it
Low blood sugar symptoms
Sick days or in other abnormal situations
Intensive blood sugar monitoring helps you with interpreting the test results in terms of the therapy, food, exercise, varying daily routines or other factors affecting your blood sugar. After all, the purpose of self-monitoring is to consider what the result means for the diabetes care.