Gestational Diabetes Test Update

Tuesday was a long day for me. I had to call the midwives right when their phone line opened (at 8:30am) and pray that they'd be able to order my glucose tolerance test right away. I called while I was on the way to the hospital (where their office and the lab are). Luckily they have a fantastic receptionist and she got things moving for me quickly.

I arrived at the lab and was happy to see that the same phlebotomists from my previous test were there again. I hoped they'd allow me to direct them and tell them how to take my blood rather than letting them figure it all out again. They were good! I had my first blood draw at 9:05....drank the NASTY orange drink and finished it by 9:15 which meant my 3 remaining blood draws would be every hour at a quarter after - for the next 3 hours.

Here's the nasty orange stuff:

It's twice as concentrated as the drink I had on Friday...joy. The first few times I was able to tolerate the drink fairly well....by this time, however, I was struggling. I wanted to gag more than once. During my waiting in the lobby I watched about 15 other girls come in and get their drink and I always had to look away from them drinking it because it made me want to hurl...seriously. The taste lingers in your mouth for hours and hours, no matter how much water you drink to get rid of it.

The main gal came to tell me that my first blood draw - my fasting one - indicated my blood sugar was a 59. That's a lot lower than the 77 I had back when I did this same test before. It's actually under the normal range...as normal is between 65 and 99.

So I did the 3 remaining blood draws and they went EXTREMELY smooth compared with the previous time. My hand veins cooperated thank goodness and I only had to get stabbed once per draw.

I was able to leave by 12:30 and I made it to work in time for my 1pm meeting :)

Around 2pm I logged online to see if my test results had possibly come in yet - man those guys are quick! They were there and here's what I got:

I love how their online information shows your current results as well as your previous results...it really helps with comparisons. 

So as you can see, my results were higher than they were previously....but still within normal range. They're on the higher end of normal though so that scares me just a bit. The midwives have not called to discuss the results with me so I'm confident they don't see a problem. However, I'm not letting myself out of the woods. I've decided that for the remainder of my pregnancy, and probably for the rest of my life, I need to remain on the gestational diabetes / low carb diet. The GD diet isn't necessarily low carb, but it does advocate controlling carb intake. I really believe my body reacts best to that type of a diet so I'm going to stick to it.

I have my next appointment with the midwives before the end of the month - or possibly the first week of March (I may have to push it back to then due to meetings at work) and so I'll bring up the topic with them when I see them.

For now, I think it's safe to say I'm NOT going to be "high risk" :)