So I had the big glucose tolerance test at my appointment on Thursday. This test is to see if my body is able to process glucose. Apparently when you’re pregnant, your hormones can slow down your insulin or something. If it can’t process glucose in a reasonable amount of time, then I have gestational diabetes and I’m limited to what I can eat or I run the risk of birthing a fat baby or a baby who will be susceptible to being fat.
The one-hour test on Thursday consisted of drinking a thick orange sweet drink (like flat orange pop or an unfrozen ice pop) then waiting an hour and having my blood drawn. Well I got my results on Friday. I failed my test! The normal glucose level is 130-140 and I scored 175. I’ve always been an over achiever, but I’ve never failed a test!
As soon as I got home, I whipped out all of my pregnancy books and looked on line. What did I do wrong to give myself gestational diabetes?!?! I was an absolute wreck and sobbed and sobbed thinking I had done something so horrible and now my baby and I were both at risk for something (though I wasn’t sure what). I knew I had a lifelong love of sweets. When other kids were sneaking into the cookie jar, I was sneaking into the sugar canister and would eat spoonfuls of sugar! And during my pregnancy, my sweet tooth has not been ignored!
Well it turns out there’s really no way to give yourself gestational diabetes or avoid them. Some girls just get them and some don’t.
So my next stop was the 3-hour (nightmare) test! I had to fast beginning at midnight last night (this morning?) and my appointment was at 8:00 this morning. I drank a glass of chocolate skim milk at 8:30 last night and that was the last thing I had. By the time I arrived at the lab, I was famished! They first drew a vial of blood then I had to drink more orange stuff. It actually wasn’t that bad since I was so hungry! Then I had to sit and wait for 1 hour and have my blood taken again. Wait 1 hour. Blood drawn. Repeat. So I was at the lab for a little over 3 hours. I was poked 5 times (missed a vein the first time!) and had 4 vials of blood taken. Needless to say, as soon as I got out of there, I made a beeline to Wendy’s for some nuggets and a Sprite. At one point in my restlessness, I almost just washed my hands of this stupid process and asked for the special diet!
So I should have my results tomorrow. I either have gestational diabetes and will be on a strict diet for the next 3 months or I won’t have it and will have just lost about 4 hours of my life being a lab rat.
Oh – and my hemoglobin levels were down a whole point so I have to take an iron supplement! This coming from the girl whose dad owns a cattle ranch and who has roasts, steaks and all sorts of red meat in a deep freezer! And the iron supplement can result in an unpleasant side effect (I’ll let you Google that one) so I have to take yet another pill for this! For someone who is a bit anti-medicine, I sure have to pop a lot of pills now! But since I had no morning sickness and no real issues so far, I’ll take these few unpleasantries. Now if the labor and delivery gods can be so kind…
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