Posts Tagged: Gestational Diabetes

Pregnancy — No Comments
29
Jan 08

Lowering Your Sugar Intake While Pregnant

Last week was a pretty terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad week for me as far as being pregnant goes.  Not only did I have the joys of the baby kicking the bazookers out of my poor intestines for the first time, but I also failed my first 1 hour gestational diabetes glucose tolerance test.

Now, while the statistics say that only about 1/3 of the women who have to take the 3 hour glucose test will fail it, my hormonally induced fear factor devil keeps trying to whisper “You’re gonna faiiilll..nah nah na boo boo” into my sugar coated ears.  Yes, everyone has tried to comfort me with statistics and “You’ll be fine!” pats on the backs.  Yet, while I truly do appreciate their love and support, right now every glass of sweet tea, every can of pepsi, and every 3rd helping of creamy mashed potatoes I’ve had since becoming pregnant flashes through my eyes whenever my tummy tries to tell me I’m hungry.  I just can’t help being a tad overwhelmingly worried.

For the first few days I was so worried that I barely ate anything.  Now I know that is not such a great idea to do, but I was scared.  Truly.  I don’t want to have this gestational diabetes.  My cousin, who’s dad is a bad diabetic, says that having diabetes during pregnancy also highly increases your chances of developing it when you are older.  Furthermore, if not controlled well enough, the baby can be harmed as well as pack on tons of fatty tissue while in the womb, creating a 12 pound baby at birth…and emergency C-Section birth.

So, for the first time in my life, I have begun to read nutrition labels. 

Did you know that one can of pepsi has 41 grams of sugar in it?  A can of CocaCola has 39 grams.  Before I was pregnant I rarely ever drank cola (pop, soda..whatever you call it), but somewhere along in my 3rd month I started craving them.  And what did my silly self do?  I gave in!  Over the past few months I remember chunking down 3 at a time sometimes.  And I prefer Pepsi cans.  That’s 123 grams of sugar right there.  No wonder I failed this test, huh?

Ok, so those are out.  Kaput…in a no-more-shall-I-partake-of-them-while-pregnant kinda way. 

I also learned from Aunt Mae and my cousin Carrie that these foods are also off limits when it comes to controling high levels of sugar:

  • White / Bleached / Enriched Flour
  • French Bread
  • Pasta / Speghetti
  • Macaroni & Cheese
  • Orange Juice
  • White Bread
  • White Potatoes
  • Mayonaise
  • Most Candy
  • Saltine Crackers
  • Sugary Fruit Juices
  • Regular Soda
  • High Fructose Corn Syrup
  • Artificial Sweeteners
  • Whole Milk

….it may not look like a lot, but when it boils down to it those are things I typically eat every day without thinking about it.  Homemade french bread is one of our favorite foods in our home – it’s made from white flour.  Mashed Potatoes?  Check.  We love ‘em.  Pasta?  Speghetti?  Macaroni?  Check, Check, Check.  All foods that are easiest to cook for new housewifes.  White bread?  Nothing beats a good sandwhich.  Orange Juice?  I could drink a gallon in 20 minutes.  I love the stuff!  Saltine crackers?  Who doesn’t put crackers in their soup??

So I’ve had to rearrange my whole way of thinking about foods for the past few days. 

I have learned that whole wheat bread is fine.  But I have yet to tackle making whole wheat bread in my little bread machine.  It just seems too daunting.  Whole wheat pasta, bare-bones salads, and most fruits and vegetables are A-OK too.  But where does that leave my Taco Bell cravings?  I have yet to see a whole wheat cheesy bean burrito.  *sigh*

On a slightly better note, my husband came in the other day with a fabulous find.  Grinning at me, he whips out this amazing looking, tall, cold bottle of new-never-before-seen-by-my-eyes Jazz “Black Cherry & Vanilla” Diet Coke.

DIET? I hate diet drinks!  They all taste like stale, month old crackers to me.

“Just taste it” he says.  So I tentively took a sip.  Yummy!  This stuff tasted knockyoursocksofffabulouso!

The best part came when I read the nutrition label – 0 grams of sugar.  Yes, folks, I said zero.  I had no clue that diet drinks are zero sugar because…well.. I hate diet drinks.  All the other fanciful information on the nutrition label looked great too.  Plus, no high fructose corn syrup either. 

My hubby is just the greatest man in the universe.  :-D

Pregnancy — No Comments
24
Jan 08

“I Failed the Glucose Test” Pre-natal visit #6 (25 Weeks)

 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.

Pregnancy — No Comments
21
Jan 08

The Infamous Pregnancy Glucose Test

According to statistics, between 2 to 5 percent of expectant mothers develop “gestational diabetes” (a blood sugar condition).   KidsHealth.org says that having GD can cause problems in newborns and also increases the chance of a C-Section due to abnormally large growth in the baby.  Because of this, between the 24th and 28th week of pregnancy, there is a screening done on all mothers.  This screening is the “Glucose Test”, or also called a glucose challenge test or GCT. 

For this first test, there really is no definitive results.  You either “pass” or “fail”.  Testing “high”  doesn’t mean you have gestational diabetes – it just means you “failed” the first test.   An article I read at babycenter.com says that only about 1/3 of women who test high on the first test have diabetes (that’s great to know!).  If you do ”fail” the first one however, you have to undergo a longer (3 hours or so), more definitive exam called a glucose tolerance test (GTT) at a hospital like my friend Jill had to take.

I just realized yesterday that it’s already nearing the end of January – which means that my next doctor’s appointment is this coming Thursday, January 24.   EEK!   It is at that appointment that I will be having my own glucose test done (I’ll be 25 weeks along). 

If you know anything about me, you know how deathly scared I am of shots (fine thing to be with a baby comin’, huh).  When they were explaining my proceedures, they said “prick your finger” – but with all the reading I’ve done it appears that this is going to be another vein drawn blood tap.  :(   I’m also apprehensive about drinking all that sugary stuff….I don’t wanna get doubly nauseated!  And Baby Center doesn’t help by saying this…

Will this test make me feel sick?
Some moms-to-be feel nauseated after drinking the glucose solution, and a few even throw up. It sometimes helps to have eaten something a few hours before the screening test. If you vomit soon after you’ve gotten the drink down, you’ll have to come back another day and repeat the test. But most women get through it just fine. It’s actually more common for women to feel sick during the three-hour glucose tolerance test, because the solution for that test may be twice as sweet or twice as much liquid as the one for the screening test and you have to drink it after fasting.

As for the test, I’ve been instructed to not eat or drink anything starting at midnight on Wednesday.  My appointment at the OBGYN is at 8 am Thursday morning (bleh!).   When I arrive, they’ll give me a really sugary sweet drink, and then I’ll wait about an hour (they said til 9 am).  Apparantly it has 50 grams of glucose in it and tastes like a very sweet soda pop (it comes in different flavors according to my doctor), and you have to get all of it down in five minutes.   After the hour is up, they’ll draw my blood for the test – and I’m dreading it completely.  What’s worse is that results will take a few days! 

Here is what Baby Center had to say about what the results should be like…

What is an abnormal blood glucose level?
Different practitioners use different standards for determining whether your level is too high. Some will say that if your one-hour blood sugar level is 140 milligrams of glucose per deciliter of blood plasma (mg/dL) or more, you need to have the glucose tolerance test. Others put the cut-off at 130 mg/dL to catch more women who may have gestational diabetes, even though there are likely to be more false positives this way.

If your blood glucose level for this test is higher than 200 mg/dL, most practitioners will consider you diabetic and you won’t be required to take the glucose tolerance test. But any score between 140 and 200 means that you’ll have to take the three-hour glucose tolerance test for a definite diagnosis.

Let’s hope I pass this thing so I don’t have to go through that 3 hour ordeal at the hospital like Jill did!