What to Bring to Your Endocrinologist Appointment When You Have Type 1 Diabetes
Endocrinology appointments can go by surprisingly fast.
You may have spent the last three months dealing with stubborn highs after dinner, unexplained overnight lows, an insulin dose that doesn't seem to work the way it used to, or a CGM pattern you've been meaning to ask about. Then you sit down in the exam room and suddenly can't remember half of it.
For people living with Type 1 diabetes, an endocrinology appointment is much more useful when your care team can see not only your glucose numbers, but the context behind them.
A little preparation can help you make the most of the time you have.
Here's what to bring—and what to think about before your next appointment.
1. Your CGM or Blood Glucose Data
If you use a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), make sure your endocrinology team can access your reports or bring copies with you.
Useful information includes:
- Time in range
- Time below range
- Time above range
- Average glucose
- Glucose management indicator (GMI), if available
- Overnight patterns
- Recurring highs or lows
- Trends at particular times of day
If you use a blood glucose meter instead, bring the meter or your recent glucose records.
But don't worry about presenting your doctor with a perfectly organized collection of numbers. The goal is to identify patterns worth discussing.
For example:
I've been going low around 3:00 p.m. several times a week.
That's much more useful than trying to explain every individual glucose reading you've had since your last visit.
2. Your Current Insulin Doses and Settings
Write down exactly how you're currently using insulin.
If you use multiple daily injections, that may include:
- Your basal insulin and dose
- When you take your basal insulin
- Insulin-to-carb ratios
- Correction factors
- Glucose targets
- Any different ratios or doses you use at different times of day
If you use an insulin pump or automated insulin delivery system, bring your current settings or make sure your care team can access them.
Don't rely entirely on memory.
Diabetes settings can become surprisingly difficult to recite when someone asks you about them in an exam room.
3. A Record of Recent Insulin Changes
Your current insulin regimen tells your endocrinologist where you are now.
It doesn't necessarily explain how you got there.
If you've changed your basal dose, insulin-to-carb ratio, correction factor, pump settings, or timing since your last appointment, make a note of:
- What changed
- When you changed it
- Why you changed it
- What happened afterward
This can help your care team understand whether a change improved the problem, made it worse, or simply moved the pattern somewhere else.
4. Notes About Significant Hypoglycemia
Your CGM may show that you went low.
It doesn't always explain why.
If you've had significant or recurring hypoglycemia, write down whatever you remember about the episodes, particularly:
- Date and approximate time
- Glucose level
- Symptoms
- What you were doing beforehand
- Recent insulin
- Food or carbohydrate intake
- Exercise or unusual activity
- How you treated the low
- How long recovery took
- Whether you needed help from another person
- Whether glucagon was required
Be sure your endocrinologist knows about severe hypoglycemia, episodes requiring assistance, loss of consciousness, seizures, or glucagon use.
Recurring milder lows matter too. A pattern of lows after exercise, overnight, after certain meals, or at a particular time of day may point to something in your diabetes management that needs adjustment.
5. Notes About Significant Highs or Ketones
The same principle applies to hyperglycemia.
Your glucose report can show the number. Your notes can help explain what was happening around it.
Record recurring or unusual highs, especially if they involved:
- Moderate or large ketones
- Illness
- Vomiting
- Suspected pump or infusion-set problems
- Repeated correction doses
- Difficulty bringing your glucose down
- A possible missed or ineffective insulin dose
If you've had diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) or needed emergency treatment since your last visit, make sure your endocrinologist knows.
6. Your Medication and Supplement List
Bring an up-to-date list of everything you take regularly—not just insulin.
Include:
- Prescription medications
- Over-the-counter medications
- Vitamins
- Supplements
- Insulin types
- Glucagon products
Include the dose and how often you take each one when possible.
This is particularly important if another healthcare provider has started, stopped, or changed a medication since your last endocrinology appointment.
7. Your Recent Lab Results
Your endocrinologist may already have access to your laboratory results, especially if the tests were ordered through the same health system.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't keep your own record.
Depending on your individual situation, your diabetes care team may monitor things such as:
- A1C
- Kidney function
- Urine albumin
- Cholesterol and triglycerides
- Thyroid function
- Liver-related tests
- Other labs based on your medical history
Keeping your results over time makes it easier to see trends instead of treating every lab result as an isolated number.
8. Changes in Exercise, Eating, Sleep, or Daily Routine
Insulin doesn't operate in a vacuum.
Changes in everyday life can change glucose patterns too.
Tell your endocrinologist if you've recently:
- Started or changed an exercise routine
- Changed your eating habits
- Changed your work schedule
- Started working nights
- Been traveling frequently
- Had significant sleep disruption
- Been ill
- Experienced a major change in your normal routine
You don't need to document every meal or every workout unless your care team has specifically asked you to.
Focus on changes that might help explain what you're seeing in your glucose data.
9. Device Problems
If you use a CGM, insulin pump, smart insulin pen, or automated insulin delivery system, make a note of recurring problems.
That might include:
- Sensors failing early
- Frequent signal loss
- Infusion-set failures
- Adhesive problems
- Skin irritation
- Compression lows
- Difficulty obtaining supplies
- Problems uploading or sharing data
- Alerts that interfere with sleep or daily life
Technology is supposed to help you manage diabetes. If using it is creating a new problem, that's worth discussing.
10. Diabetes-Related Symptoms or Health Changes
Don't assume your endocrinologist only needs to hear about your glucose.
Mention new or changing symptoms, even if you aren't sure they're related to diabetes.
That can include changes involving your:
- Vision
- Feet
- Skin
- Digestion
- Energy level
- Weight
- Thirst or urination
- Injection or infusion sites
Also tell your endocrinologist about important diagnoses, procedures, hospitalizations, or medication changes since your last appointment.
11. How Diabetes Is Affecting You Emotionally
There is another part of diabetes management that doesn't appear on a CGM graph.
Living with Type 1 diabetes requires constant decision-making. Food, insulin, exercise, sleep, supplies, alarms, appointments, insurance, numbers and the possibility of highs or lows can become exhausting.
If you're experiencing diabetes distress, burnout, anxiety about hypoglycemia, fear surrounding complications, or difficulty keeping up with diabetes tasks, tell your care team.
These aren't irrelevant side issues.
They're part of living with diabetes, and they can affect how manageable your treatment plan actually is.
12. Your Questions
This may be the most important thing you bring.
Before your appointment, write down the questions you want answered.
Don't count on remembering them once you're there.
Try putting your most important questions first in case time runs short.
For example:
- Why am I repeatedly going high after breakfast?
- Could my overnight lows mean my basal insulin needs adjustment?
- Should my insulin-to-carb ratio be different at dinner?
- What should I do differently on exercise days?
- When should I check ketones?
- What should I do when a correction doesn't seem to work?
- Are my time-in-range goals appropriate for me?
- Are there screening tests I'm due for?
- Is there anything in my CGM data that concerns you?
- What should I work on before my next appointment?
You don't need twenty questions.
If there are three things you really want to leave the appointment understanding, write those three things down.
You Don't Need Perfect Records
Preparing for an endocrinology appointment shouldn't become another diabetes chore you feel guilty about not doing perfectly.
You don't need months of flawless food logs.
You don't need to account for every high.
You don't need to explain every low.
And you certainly don't need to produce a color-coded spreadsheet unless that's something you genuinely enjoy doing.
What you want to capture are the things that are otherwise easy to forget:
What keeps happening?
What changed?
What isn't working?
What are you worried about?
What do you want help with?
Those are often the details that turn a collection of glucose numbers into a useful conversation.
Make It Easier to Bring the Whole Story
Your CGM can tell your care team what your glucose did.
It can't always tell them why it happened, what you tried, what changed, or what you need help with.
That's why we created the Type 1 Diabetes Self-Advocacy Planner.
Instead of trying to reconstruct months of information the night before an appointment, the planner gives you a place to keep the details that may matter to your care team as they happen.
It includes 16 reusable, fillable PDF forms, including:
- Appointment Prep Sheet
- CGM Summary & Time-in-Range Log
- Insulin Log & Dose Adjustment Record
- Hypoglycemia Episode Log
- Hyperglycemia Episode Log
- DKA Warning Signs & History Log
- A1C & Labs Tracker
- Pump & Device Settings Record
- Exercise & Activity Log
- Mental Health & Diabetes Distress Check-In
- Medical History and other T1D-specific records
Use the forms that are useful to you and skip the ones that aren't.
The goal isn't to give you more diabetes homework.
It's to help you walk into your next appointment with the information you want your care team to see—and the questions you want answered.