It's baaaaaack! The gd GD! Anyone else? - Page 2 « Back to Group Discussions

[faithsstuff]

took my one hour today but I don't expect to find out the results until Monday.  TIme to hurry up and wait.

[tekcez]

leafylady--That's so nice that you can just monitor!  Will your doctor order extra ultrasounds to monitor the size of the baby.  I am so frustrated that I have to endure and PAY for so many us even though I've shown that my blood sugar is well controlled.  At least the perinatologist told me that I can go down to only testing one day out of the week. That seems like not enough to me, so I will probably test more, esp if I eat something different that I'm not sure how it will effect my sugar.  

faithstuff--good luck!!

[leafylady]

No, he won't order extra ultrasounds to monitor size.  I think he also knows that I'd refuse them.  He doesn't like to order unnecessary pricey procedures or tests.  

He's also very supportive of natural childbirth and the Bradley method approach.  

[fayebond]

Awww, I feel for y'all!  That test was a pain last time.  It takes forever and my results were only mediocere even though, at the time, I was eating super healthy.

I'm refusing the test this time.  Granted, I have this awesome MW who's all like, well, you can choose to do this, that, or nothing, and she's cool with all the above.  Her preferred test is to have a morning appointment before my breakfast, then I leave and eat something I would normally eat in the morning, then come back in an hour to test my blood sugar.   I think the reason OBs don't standardly do even that is because it requires even more time (two appointments), and, the patient basically has to be honest about what they normally eat in the morning (spinach wraps! , or, actually, um, white flour waffles and corn syrup flavored like berries).  I'm my healthiest eater self at dinner and lunch, when I do include veggies and protien, but breakfast is just not there anymore.  I like the idea of that diet but am enjoying convenince foods for breakfast too much to give them up, the rest of the day I go with that kind of food.  

[leafylady]

13 years ago the dietician said that the body was most insulin resistant in the mornings, so that was when I was supposed to eat lower carbs, 15-30g for breakfast and focus on protein.  All of the other meals were 30-45g carbs.

I figure I'll go eat an egg-y breakfast at IHOP after the fasting test and before I go back for the 2 hour postprandial.  It's pretty much the same test sequence that your MW recommended, except a 2 hour wait instead of 1.

[faithsstuff]

So it's official, I did not get the call of doom (I even gave them extra time) so I do not have GD.  Maybe this isn't where I shoudl be posting, but I am so happy!

[Bmorefarmgirl]

Yay! That's great! I had the 1hour test today. Not sure when to expect the results..

[tekcez]

Glad so many of your are dodging the GD bullet!! I've been using RRL tea brewed with cinnamon sticks and smoothies with chia seeds to help control my bg.  Dang, chia seeds are expensive! Things have been going well.  The midwives keep telling me to try to get some exercise, and I keep wanting to ask them whether or not they just heard me tell them that I am dragging daily due to the fact that ds wakes 7, yes 7, times at night at least 4 times per week.  I don't know how better to communicate the fact that I'm too exhausted to take one step more than necessary, much less enough to get my heart rate up.  Would I like to get some exercise?  Do I know that exercise might actually make me feel more energized?  Yes, and yes.  Is it going to happen?  No, certainly not often or consistently.  So no need to keep harping on it. 

The superfluous anatomy scan I got last week showed a strong and wiggly little girl in there.  She's bigger than ds was at 28 weeks, if you put any stock in the weight calculations they come up with this far along.  I wonder if she will be bigger than him in general.  He is a skinny little mini.  I have a theory that big fat babies sleep better.  While I don't necessarily want to birth a giant baby, I would gladly deal with some extra birthing and pp discomfort if it meant better sleep.  I'm rambling now...

[purposefuldoula]

Hey ladies! Popping over from the December DDC. 

I just wanted to share a little secret that the OP and anyone else with GD might find helpful. As the mama of a type 1 diabetic 5 year old, I have researched and researched the crap out of diabetes. GD and type 1 are very similar, and gd can even turn into type 1! What helped lower my daughters insulin usage was cutting out all dairy. There is a bovine protein in dairy that attacks the pancreas, resulting in damage, thus making a person more insulin resistant. After learning about that, I was very nervous- I mean for the love of cheese! but tried it anyways.  Within a week, she was on half as much insulin!  Her doctor pretty much shrugged it off as nothing though, since there isn't a whole lot of money to be made in diabetes prevention.  No surprises there. 

I hope someone finds this helpful! Good luck to you and anyone that is fighting this sucky disease. My heart is with you :)

[sere234]

Originally Posted by purposefuldoula 

Hey ladies! Popping over from the December DDC. 

I just wanted to share a little secret that the OP and anyone else with GD might find helpful. As the mama of a type 1 diabetic 5 year old, I have researched and researched the crap out of diabetes. GD and type 1 are very similar, and gd can even turn into type 1! What helped lower my daughters insulin usage was cutting out all dairy. There is a bovine protein in dairy that attacks the pancreas, resulting in damage, thus making a person more insulin resistant. After learning about that, I was very nervous- I mean for the love of cheese! but tried it anyways.  Within a week, she was on half as much insulin!  Her doctor pretty much shrugged it off as nothing though, since there isn't a whole lot of money to be made in diabetes prevention.  No surprises there. 

I hope someone finds this helpful! Good luck to you and anyone that is fighting this sucky disease. My heart is with you :)

Great to know! Thanks :):)

[tekcez]

Originally Posted by purposefuldoula 

Hey ladies! Popping over from the December DDC. 

I just wanted to share a little secret that the OP and anyone else with GD might find helpful. As the mama of a type 1 diabetic 5 year old, I have researched and researched the crap out of diabetes. GD and type 1 are very similar, and gd can even turn into type 1! What helped lower my daughters insulin usage was cutting out all dairy. There is a bovine protein in dairy that attacks the pancreas, resulting in damage, thus making a person more insulin resistant. After learning about that, I was very nervous- I mean for the love of cheese! but tried it anyways.  Within a week, she was on half as much insulin!  Her doctor pretty much shrugged it off as nothing though, since there isn't a whole lot of money to be made in diabetes prevention.  No surprises there. 

I hope someone finds this helpful! Good luck to you and anyone that is fighting this sucky disease. My heart is with you :)

I had no idea.  That is super interesting to me.  All of the sample gd diets you come across on the internet are very dairy heavy.  I'm wondering if I could give it up altogether. I've already cut out so much beloved food! If I start having trouble with my fasting levels, though, I know what to do.  Thanks!

[tekcez]

So a friend sent dh a birthday present from CA.  I didn't realize it was for him, so I opened it a found 4 bags of delicious chocolate covered toffee.  And I ate a piece.  And it was delightful. But now I feel slightly guilty.  But it was so yummy.  

[faithsstuff]

Originally Posted by tekcez 

So a friend sent dh a birthday present from CA.  I didn't realize it was for him, so I opened it a found 4 bags of delicious chocolate covered toffee.  And I ate a piece.  And it was delightful. But now I feel slightly guilty.  But it was so yummy.  

Don't feel guilty, enjoooooy it. I don't even like toffee, but even I would not mind some of that.

So I thought I passed my one hour....I was wrong.  I was 20 points over what they want, I was 160.  Last pregnancy I was 210 so I guess that's good.  I was supposed to schedule my two hour for this week, but I just needed some time to decompress. So I'll probably go in on Tues morning.  I don't expect to do well.  They'll take a fasting, one hour post drink and two hour.  If I haven't had anything to eat in 9 hours and am only giving that glucose stuff, I don't know how that's a realistic test.  I don't eat a candy bar for breakfast.  Ugh, this brings up so much unresolved *stuff* from last time.  On the up side, I got my first iphone and have already looked up diabetes apps.  That's the only up side I can come up with.  

[purposefuldoula]

Originally Posted by faithsstuff 

Don't feel guilty, enjoooooy it. I don't even like toffee, but even I would not mind some of that.

So I thought I passed my one hour....I was wrong.  I was 20 points over what they want, I was 160.  Last pregnancy I was 210 so I guess that's good.  I was supposed to schedule my two hour for this week, but I just needed some time to decompress. So I'll probably go in on Tues morning.  I don't expect to do well.  They'll take a fasting, one hour post drink and two hour.  If I haven't had anything to eat in 9 hours and am only giving that glucose stuff, I don't know how that's a realistic test.  I don't eat a candy bar for breakfast.  Ugh, this brings up so much unresolved *stuff* from last time.  On the up side, I got my first iphone and have already looked up diabetes apps.  That's the only up side I can come up with.  

Yeah, that doesn't sound like a realistic test to me either. Every endocrinologist that I've ever talked to about what a non diabetic's bs should be after eating has always said under 200. After an hour of eating pure sugar, a normal persons bs should go higher!  Do you have a meter you could test with outside of the drs? Checking an hour and two hours after you eat a real meal would better gauge how you are doing than the one time test mamas do at the dr.s.

[katelove]

A home glucose monitor is not sensitive enough to detect GDM. The whole point of the high sugar load of the GTT is to detect changes in our ability to manage glucose early enough in the process for it to be useful. As GDM is a progressive problem most people's BSLs will be fairly normal initially with a home monitor.

The only time home monitoring can replace GTT is if someone decides to behave as if they have GDM and test four times a day for the rest of their pregnancy.

[faithsstuff]

Originally Posted by katelove 

A home glucose monitor is not sensitive enough to detect GDM. The whole point of the high sugar load of the GTT is to detect changes in our ability to manage glucose early enough in the process for it to be useful. As GDM is a progressive problem most people's BSLs will be fairly normal initially with a home monitor.
The only time home monitoring can replace GTT is if someone decides to behave as if they have GDM and test four times a day for the rest of their pregnancy.

I guess I'd rather test 4 times a day then have the GTT and be a high risk pregnancy.  Does that makes sense?  Now I'm treated differantly at the hospital, lose labor options and am treated differantly.  I'd think I'd rather test several times a day and send my glucose levels into the peri (which is what I did last time) and have a more realistic view of what my body actually does with the food I actually put in it.  I don't know what this experiance would be like with GD, last time...it wasn't good.  THough I have asked some questions and know I'd be treated differantly.  Last time I was induced just b/c I had GD, was not allowed out of the bed to labor and after only twelve hours had a c-section b/c they didn't want the babies glucose levels to be affected.  With the practice/hospital I was at, I had no chance.  I'm not saying anyone else will have this happen, I should have advocated for myself, I should have done a lot of things, but it would really nice to not walk into the hospital as a GD pregnancy.  Sorry, I guess I'm mouthing off here.  Ignore me.

[katelove]

Not at all. And if you're prepared to make that commitment to testing for 10-12 weeks then I think it's a reasonable option but it is really the only alternative to GTT which will give comparable results.

My only suggestion would be to make sure your care providers won't see the absence of a GTT and say "GDM unless proven otherwise" and place all the same ridiculous restrictions on you again.

[tekcez]

katelove: I do think the GTT is legit the first time around.  For subsequent pregnancies after a GDM diagnosis, though, it makes more sense to start monitoring after meals at some point in the second tri and see when/if the levels start rising without carb restrictions.  To put a person who has already been diagnosed with GDM through a GTT seems like overkill.  

faithstuff: That said, I would assume that if the BG levels started rising, you would have to self report as having GDM, at which point you would then be subject to all the ridiculous restrictions anyway.  For me, the hoops I am jumping through with the perinatologist (the appointments, scans, reporting, dealing with all the extra bills before the deductible is officially met, waiting months for reimbursement from the office) are so that I don't have to go to a hospital and experience those restrictions.  My other option would be to continue to self monitor and find a midwife willing to do a home birth with a mama with GDM who is not being managed by a perinatologist.  I don't know how tough that would be, but it would not be covered by my insurance, so it's not really an option.   

[faithsstuff]

So I'm posting b/c I have an appt coming up on Thursday and I still haven't gone in for the two hour test.  I am going to be so embarassed on Thursday, when I have to face the midwife...ugh

[tekcez]

For shame, faithstuff!!!  Ha!  Well good luck with both your midwife and your eventual GTT.