Warning, this is a long post. I hope it may be helpful to some. If you’re not interested in pregnancy posts, this is definitely one to skip.
Prior to being pregnant, I read glucose screen/tolerance posts pretty casually. I didn’t really understand the difference between regular and gestational diabetes, or the impact it has on the mother and baby. It wasn’t until after my initial glucose screen that I did due diligence.
Starting from the beginning, at my 20 week appointment my doctor gave me a glucose tolerance beverage to take home with me and drink 45-50 minutes before my next appointment in 4 weeks. He said that it didn’t have to be fasting and to eat normally. He also suggested that I put the drink in the fridge the day of, as it apparently tastes better cold. I thought little of it, and threw the drink in my purse.
Four weeks later, I was happy I was able to remember where I put the drink and also happy I remembered to put in my bag before work the day of my test. To give myself further props, I also remembered to transfer to my work fridge when I got to the office. Things were going so well!
It ended up being a super stressful day at work. I had a huge project wrapping up the next day and I was scrambling all day long. I had cottage cheese, lots of berries and a healthy handful of kashi go lean crunch for breakfast. Around 1:30, I realized I hadn’t eaten lunch yet, so I had some of the spaghetti squash, sautéed peppers, homemade tomato sauce and parmesan. I was hoping to leave the office by 3 and get on the train to my 4:00pm appointment. This way I’d be able to start my drink on the train at 3:15 and have a cushion in case there was any train traffic. At 3:17pm, I hightailed it out of the office and to the train. Given that I was behind schedule, I started my beverage at 3:23 on the train platform.
The first sip reminded me of the gatorade I had at rec soccer. It wasn’t so bad. Why do people make sure a big deal out of this? It’s like Hi-C. Two minutes in, I realized how quickly the sweetness becomes overwhelming–50 grams of glucose, woof. I managed to get the drink down within the alloted in 5 minutes, finishing at 3:27pm. I got on the train just after finishing and made it to my appointment by 4pm. I felt slightly queasy, and remember thinking, I hope I never have to do this again.
I checked in, had my vitals taken and hung around for a bit. At 4:25pm, they took my blood.
I chatted with the doctor for a few minutes, feeling pretty carefree. Then I went on my way.
The next morning, I was in a meeting when I saw my doctor was calling. After the meeting, I listened to his voicemail and was pretty shocked to learn that I had failed and needed to come in for the 3 hour tolerance test as soon as possible. I was feeling pretty sad, but tried not to get to worked up.
The 3-Hour Glucose Tolerance Test
I scheduled the 3 hour test for Friday morning (two days later). I was advised to fast (no food or water) after midnight on Thursday.
Thursday night, we went to dinner at the Smith. I got the steak salad with goat cheese, tomato, arugula and balsamic vinaigrette. I also had a few of Frank’s fries, okay quite a few. They actually brought us a complimentary apple tart dessert, which I did not try, but it looked delish.
I finished dinner around 8 and began fasting.
The next morning I arrived at the appointment around 7:50am. They took my blood and gave me a 100g glucose drink. I finished that within the allotted 5 minutes, around 8:02am. Honestly, it didn’t taste notably sweeter than the 50 g drink. I wouldn’t say I was feeling fantastic over the next hour, but I had my laptop, so I did work and the hour went by pretty quickly. At 9:02 I had my blood drawn again, new arm! I went back to the waiting room and worked for a bit, before calling my parents to chat.
10:02 rolled around and I went back to the lab for another drawing.
Only 1 hour to go. The waiting part was far less painful than I imagined. I did a little more work, read a book for a bit, and watched patients come and go until it was time for my fourth and final blood drawing. When I finished, the nurse said, I think you have one more, I assured her that was #4 and was quickly dismissed from the office.
I met Frank and Chopt for an early lunch. By this point, I was feeling a bit light-headed and my stomach felt like it was being stretched like a balloon–felt and looked!
Back at work, I didn’t feel great, but things got better as the day went on. I even made it to an evening Orange Theory class.
Unfortunately, it being Friday meant the earliest I would hear back with results was Monday. The weekend was super busy, so I didn’t have too much time to dwell, but I did learn more about gestational diabetes. I’m still not an expert by any means, so if any of the following info is inaccurate, please feel free to correct me.
Apparently, women who are over 35 (I’ll be 35 soon) are at higher risk for gestational diabetes. Even if you have no risk factors for GD, pregnancy hormones changes how your body processes sugar, which is probably why pretty much everyone does the glucose screen. For example, a pregnant women needs 3 times more insulin to regulate blood sugar than a non-pregnant woman.
Your body passes sugar through the placenta, but not insulin. If you’re body isn’t properly regulating your blood sugar, excess glucose/sugar is passed on to you baby. The baby has to make its own insulin to compensate for the extra energy and anything they aren’t able to process may be stored as fat. This commonly results in a big baby. Big babies can make giving birth more difficult for the baby and the mother. There are a number of other possible complications, such as respiratory disorders and preclamsia. In any event, the good news is that gestational diabetes can be managed through diet and medication during pregnancy.
Monday morning I received a call from my doctor with the results. Of course, I missed the call again. But his message said I passed the 3 hour test with flying colors, meaning my glucose level was within acceptable range after fasting and before the drink and 1 hour, 2 and 3 hours after the drink.
He did say that since I won’t be having my blood sugar monitored regularly and my first test results indicate I may have some issues regulating blood sugar, I was not off the hook completely. I found out after my second test that I seriously failed the first one. My reading was 159 and the cut off is 130 at my office.
My doctor suggested adopting a diet as if I did have gestational diabetes, for example, no refined flour or “bad carbs” and less carbs in general. This was his recommendation from the very start, so I guess I should have taken it seriously. I feel like a selfish jerk for not providing my baby only the most nutritious foods from the start.
I’ll be honest, while I had no problem giving up juices, smoothies and red meat almost completely, I have been going quite carb heavy and my portion sizes have been larger than necessary. While I try to always make whole wheat pasta at home, it’s not usually available when I’m dining out. I’ve also eaten a lot more pizza than I normally do, and our first and only homemade whole wheat pizza attempt was a total fail.
It’s time to buck up and finally get rid of refined flour in my diet, which is probably something I should have done a long time ago.
While I don’t eat much dessert, there are sugar sources in my diet that I can easily eliminate, such as:
- La Columbe Vanilla Draft Lattes (they have unsweetened versions, but I haven’t found them in stores)
- Greek yogurt with fruit (I only get this if the 0% plain isn’t easily available, but that’s no longer an excuse)
- Kashi Go Lean Crunch. Cereal has been a comfort food for me during pregnancy, but I can easily eliminate it or pick a no sugar option.
I really never expected to have any issues with sugar or felt as though I was sensitive to wheat or gluten, but I’ll definitely be adopting some healthy changes going forward.
If you have any advice on managing carb cravings (pregnancy-related or otherwise), I’d love to hear it.
