I left this morning for my 8 am appointment a little apprehensive. I wasn’t looking forward to today’s gestational diabetes glucose test at all! I have heard horror stories about it before and I had also read online that it involves vein drawn blood from your arm (and if you know me, you know how much I hate needles!).
My mom and I arrived at the OBGYN about 7:58 am. Good so far.
I signed in and went to the waiting room. Still good.
Then the nurse came to the waiting room with the bottle of 10 oz. EASYDEX orange drink that you see pictured here (although, of course, at that time it was full!). Unfortunately I wasn’t given a choice of flavor. Fortunately, it wasn’t all that bad. The orangey sugar syrup, which has 50 grams of “Dextrose” (D-Glucose) in it tasted like your typical orange drink, minus the caffeine rush. It was 8:05 and she said I had until 8:15 to drink it all….then I was to return and pick up my timer.
So I took the cap off and began drinking. It was quite tasty actually, although it wouldn’t be my normal drink of choice. It didn’t taste nasty or “bad” or anything (nothing like that chalky white stuff you have to drink when you have XRays done). I was quite thirsty, having not been allowed to drink anything since before midnight last night – so I had the drink completed within 5 minutes or so. The sugar effect started to kick in about halfway through, and it affected the baby first.
Bam! Bam! He started justa kickin’ me. Right under my ribs.
Good morning to you too. 
(I told him).
After finishing it I went up front and got my little timer. It was set to a 60 minute countdown.
Back in the waiting room I picked the bottle back up and started reading it (see, told you, I love to read…curiosity got the best of me).
Oral Glucose Tolerance Beverage: Orange, 50 grams.
- Caffeine Free
- Non-Carbonated
- For prescription use only
- For oral consumption only [Where the heck do they THINK I'd put it??]
Ingredients: Water, 50g dextrose (D-Glucose) (Source of dextrose: Corn), Citric Acid, Natural Flavoring, FD&C Yellow #6, Sodium Hexametraphosphate [try saying that 10 times fast!], and .10% Sodium Benzoate as a preservative.
Shake before serving and refrigerate after opening [they make it sound like a high class beverage...hehe].
Indications and Usage: Accessory to an In Vitro Diagnostic Glucose Tolerance Test in the evaluation of diabetes mellitus and related disease conditions. Oral consumption only [there they go again].
Adverse Reactions / Warnings: Some patients may experience one or more of the following problems: Nausea, Vomiting, Diarrhea, Fainting.
Diabetics take only under the direction of a physician.
Dosage and Administration: Nonpregnant adults – 15 oz, Pregnant women – 10 oz. Children – .35 oz. …. …. Recommended serving chilled. Advise patient to fast for 12 hours before test and avoid smoking, drinking coffee, or strenuous exercise prior to and during the test [who is going to exercise during this test??]. Administer test in the morning, when possible, and advise patient to remain quiet for the duration of the test [I found out it's impossible to remain quiet during a huge sugar rush!]. Take blood samples prior to administration [they didn't] and at set intervals depending upon patient type after…. [...blah blah blah...]
….By the time I got to that point, the sugar rush was hitting me square in the face, whereas the baby was still kicking me square in the ribs. It was great fun, letmetellyou.
About 30 minutes into my waiting, the nurse came and got me to prep for the other routine visit aspects. My blood pressure was up…finally….to 100 over 60. I’ve been running 70 over 50 throughout the pregnancy! My weight was 148. That means I’ve gained one pound since my last appointment and about 6 pounds from my starting weight. At least I’m not losing weight like I was at the beginning, so that’s good. Then there was the unmentionalblepeeinacuptest. (I guess it went fine too).
I was then taken to a room to wait about 20 minutes for my doctor (who is female). By the time she arrived in the room I wanted to talk so bad (from the sugar rush) that I bombarded her as soon as she came in….and almost fell off the table. She measured me (I’m measuring right on at 25 weeks). I then sat up to talk some more and she had to tell me to lay back down because she wasn’t through….haha. Then she listened to the heartbeat (152 bpm). THEN I got to talk. (Yay!)
After a few minutes of discussion about concerns (primarily about the pain I had Tuesday), my little timer went off and it was time for my blood work.
So down the hall I go. (I tripped over myself about 3 times…sugar must do something with your balance!)
I was exstatic to learn they would be doing a finger prick for the blood work. WHY? I had read that a vein in the arm would be needed. Well, it turns out that I have B positive blood. Typically, women with a positive blood type can have their fingers pricked. Women with negative blood types have to have a vein drawn.
That was the first time I had ever been proud of my blood type.
Then….She pricked my finger (little ouch..not that bad). Then, 3 minutes later, “Well, you failed the test”.
Oh no. 
She says I only failed it by a couple of points….my level was 144.
So. Now I have my 3 hour test set up (at my same OB office….no hospital like the articles I read had said would happen) on next Thursday morning at 8 am to 11 am. I’ve never paid much attention to “nutrition” before or specific ingredients….I just always avoided junk food, too much meats, and loved my veggies. I guess that’s not enough. This week I’m going to be on a crash course on “How to avoid sugars” because I do NOT want to end up with diabetes – or giving birth to an unhealthy (and unfortunate) 13 pound son due to diabetes complications. Eek.
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Tags: Dr's Visits, Gestational Diabetes, pregnancy, prenatal care
