Week #9 Update

This week was pretty dramatic if I have to be honest. Since I failed my 1-hour glucose test last week I knew I had to do the 3-hour test and I wasn't looking forward to it.  But, I went on Friday morning and did it! Here's how it went:

• 9:00am: Got to the hospital and went to the lab. They took me back to the room to draw my fasting glucose before they'd let me take the drink. I hadn't eaten since 8pm the night before so I was confident I'd pass that. However, it took an extremely long time for them to even draw my blood because the first lady couldn't hit the vein in either my elbow or wrist on my left side. The head phlebotomist lady came back and found my small vein in my right elbow - thank goodness!
• 9:35am: Because it took so long to actually take my blood, I didn't actually get to drink the stuff until 9:30am! I knew I'd end up being there until at least 12:30pm at that point. I took a nice picture of my drink, along with the bandage of my left wrist. The glucose drink they give you for the 3-hour test is twice the concentration of the 1-hour test. The 1-hour was 50 and this one was 100 - as you can see from the bottle. I tolerated the 1-hour like it was no big deal. The 3-hour was a little harder to down, especially since I rarely drink anything but water!

• 10:41, 11:41 and 12:41: They drew my blood at the same time each hour after I finished the drink. The main lady took my blood twice and then the original one took it the final time. By then we'd learned the tricks to getting my veins just right.
• 1:00pm: I was feeling good by the time I left the hospital however I knew I had to eat. I'd planned to stop at Harmon's on the way home and then eat lunch at home. I made it through Harmon's just fine, however, the moment I got back in the car to start driving home I knew something was wrong. I started getting extremely shaky and I tried to tell myself to just keep driving cause I was almost home. Thank goodness I had some of my mom's high protein bars in the car so I scarffed down two of them in about 5 minutes with the little water I had left in my bottle. But, I had gotten to about 5400 South in the Kearns area and just knew I had to pull over. I started having vision problems and I just wanted to lie down. I pulled into the parking lot of the Kearns Rec Center and immediately put my seat back to lay down. I knew I was having a hypoglycemic episode, the worst one I'd ever experienced. At Harmon's I'd bought a large pack of Oreos and I opened them and started downing those too because I knew I needed sugar immediately. I laid there for about 20 minutes just waiting to start feeling better. It wasn't happening. So I called my mom, sounding very incoherent, and told her my problem (she knows I experience this a lot). She called Ramin and he drove out to find out. It was about 1:45 by the time he got to me and I was tired and weak. He knew I needed protein and so he went to go get my a chili from Wendy's. By then I'd finally started to feel better, good enough to drive back home even. So I made it home and immediately went to bed. Ramin got home and I downed the chili as fast as I could (which wasn't fast because of my pregnancy tummy). After that I passed out for the next 3 hours. 
• After discussing the incident with Ramin we agreed that the glucose drink was such a shock to my system and because I hadn't had any Metformin to control the release of insulin to counteract the sugar, my body overloaded on the insulin and my blood sugar plummeted extremely quickly. The lesson to myself is that if I need to do another glucose test during this pregnancy I need to make sure and stay at the hospital and eat some good protein before I start driving again. Things could have turned out a lot worse than they did. 
• BUT! There's good news at the end of this story! Here are the results of the 3-hour test. According to the ranges listed here, I am normal!!! I still have to hear back from the midwives on the results, but I'm hopeful.

How far along: 9 weeks, 7 days

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Maintaining

Maternity clothes: Not really

Major Symptoms: Had a nice bloody nose the morning of the glucose test. My tummy has been having some troubles too, fluctuating between constipation and diarrhea - sorry TMI!
Stretch marks: Nope
Sleep: Had a rough week. Each night after I get up to pee (usually 4 or 5 am), I cannot fall back asleep. I think my thoughts of work are getting in the way - so I'm going to try and correct that.
Best moment last week: Passing that darned glucose test!
Movement: Not yet
Food cravings/aversions: Still avoiding bacon. I'm totally LOVING banana creamies - who woulda thought?
Belly button - in or out? In
Labor signs: Not yet
What I miss: Good solid sleep (parents will inevitably tell me I need to get used to it) - this I already know.
What I am looking forward to: The next appointment with the midwives on the 23rd!
Milestones: Passing the 3-hour glucose test!