Gestational Diabetes Support Group - Page 9

[gabysmom617]

Ugh!!! :::

So here I am. I fought tooth and nail to try to avoid this crap this time around, but here I am. I took the 2 tests in the beginning of my pregnancy to determine if I was coming into the pregnancy with diabetes because I was spillling sugar, but I passed those.

Then I had to take those same two tests again LATER in the pregnancy to determine if I developed it or not. I fought tooth and nail and held off and held off on those tests, because the more I read up on it the more doubts I had. I'm such a dang pushover that I finally caved in and took the two tests again and of course, GEE GOLLY GOSH DARN AMERICAN, wouldnt ya know that that gee golly, when they pump up a pregnant woman's system full of glucola first thing in the morning, she'll have high sugars?????? Amazing!

Ugh.

I feel extremely resentful at having to have to report to them every. freaking. thing. I put into my mouth and freaking prick my fingers fifty-eleven times a day!!!! Ugh! It's not fair.

[brandyk]

hi all - i would like to report that i have seemed to fix my day BSs by.... eating more. but my fasting is creeping up still. however, i feel better now than i did a week or so ago. the crazy high BS feeling in the morning has greatly diminished. did that happen to anyone else? am i just getting used to it?

gaby's mom - sorry you have to join us, but welcome! i don't write down my food any more. if i have a high # and i know they will ask i make a note of it.

by now i have discovered the best breakfast for me (breakfast is the hardest). it consists of a giant chicken sausage (aidells, gruyere & garlic from costco), 1 whole wheat mini bagel, and more cream cheese than you ever thought possible to stick on the bagel. the fat REALLY does help. ignore the nutritionist if they try to get you to eat low fat for some reason. or at least question them very closely. i am getting a ton of calories through fat and in 5 weeks i have gained 0 lbs. it helps you digest the carbs and make breakfast last longer.

overall it is getting better even though the end of last week really did suck (sorry, not a sugar coater). you can do it! and you really don't have long to go! everyone here has great suggestions and i would be totally lost without them. so just ask what you need.

[avivaelona]

I feel extremely resentful at having to have to report to them every. freaking. thing. I put into my mouth and freaking prick my fingers fifty-eleven times a day!!!!

So don't. I would to, I can figure it out myself at this point and don't need to feel "watched" Don't ignore it either test and figure out what works for you, GD can be serious but if you don't want to report, than don't.

I'm not even taking my sugar levels today. I have a cold, that sucks badly enough, I am sure that whatever my sugar is today won't have much impact overall, and I just want to eat whatever will actually go down my swollen throat.

[lifeguard]

gabysmom - I commiserate. I am hating this & resenting it & feeling very betrayed by my body.

I had an appointment with the ob today. He wants me to go do two more blood sugar tests - one fasting & one post meal to compare to the #'s I'm getting on my meter. He also wants me to start weekly nst's. On top of the dietician appointment & endocrinologist appointment that is 4 appointments next week. Thank goodness I'm not working - it would be pretty difficult!

[gabysmom617]

I had to do this at the end of the my last pregnancy, and it really sucks to have those extra super hard cravings and not be able to do anything about it. It's like torture. I wanted a brownie SO BAD. My midwife tsked me everytime I caved to one indulgence and I recorded that my sugar was a tad bit elevated. I felt like a child. I couldn't even so much as have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. All this stuff you have to eat to keep it down is so expensive.

[avivaelona]

Well goodness, have HALF a brownie and tell your midwife to stuff it. Seriously eat well for the rest of the day, one small sugar spike isn't going to make your baby balloon to 14 pounds, just be sensible about it. I don't let anyone treat me like a child! Its my body, and my baby, not theirs.

[lifeguard]

Well I spent almost all of Friday crying after my OB's appointment. My dh was totally at a loss 'cause he thought the appointment went well but I was just so overwelmed at all the testing & referrals he gave me - I feel so guilty about having developed the gd. I totally feel like it's my fault.

Anyway, today I did my first nst (he wants me to do one a week from now on) & it was PERFECT! Kind of nice to listen to his heartbeat for so long but I definitely need to bring a book next time.

I also had my first appointment with endocrinologist. He put me on insulin - which I expected although I had hoped to avoid it. But I really liked him. He was so reassuring & grandfathery. We also tested my monitor against the one he had & mine seems to be reading too high. I am going later this week for fasting & postmeal blood test just to test for sure if my monitor is off.

Anyway, I feel a lot more positive about the situation.

[JamieBrewHa]

Hi ladies... I posted a week ago about my sister getting diagnosed. I have a few questions..

what does your doctor want your fasting blood sugar to be?

do you count calories?

is anyone on insulin? if so, what you were #s like when you get put on it? DId you try to control with diet first and were unsuccessful or what was your story??

Thanks so much for your help! And I'm sorry you're all dealing with this... but am so glad you're here for me to read your stories!

[brandyk]

i didn't do any tests to see if my monitor was off. i love testing the control strips. they are all over the place (although within the 35 pt tolerance). it amuses me.

my fasting BS should be below 95. but the nurses actually calculate your mean blood glucose for determining how much medication you are on (at least mine do).

i don't count calories at all. as i have said a couple times i totally overload on the fat (helps a ton with the carb digestion) and i have (still) gained nothing since 24 weeks (i'm 29.5 w now).

i'm on glyburide, not insulin. i had my nurse call yesterday and they wanted to put me at 2 pills/day (i was at 1). told em i'd try 1.5 first thanksverymuch. i didn't figure there was any need to be so aggressive since my numbers were only inching up slightly over their threshold.

and please everyone. eat the brownie. you are pregnant. one brownie isn't going to cause your baby to balloon to elephantine proportion. i suggest getting good dark chocolate to eat at night (carbs are easier at night for me anyways) to stave off the cravings. costco has kirkland brand french dark chocolate in individually wrapped squares right now. they are tasteeee.

[JamieBrewHa]

Thanks for the info Brandy....

Ok so here's my sister's situation. Failed her 1 hour test (with a 227). Went on the diet for a week... her #s came down really well. Almost all of her #s after eating were in the range (except for one or two taht she knew exactly what she'd eaten and why it was high). Her fasting #s were mostly in range. Her doc wants them 95 or under... her first day (before starting the diet changes) it was 105 (so if you want to count that day). Otherwise the numbers were between 85 and 94 most other days except 2 - one of which was 96, the other 97.

She went to the doctor today who said she needed to start insulin immediately... and do a barrage of ultrasounds, NSTs etc etc.

She was a little surprised/overwhelmed because her numbers were really fairly good... and she only had 1 week to figure out what works/doesn't work. Does this seem a little overkill to anyone else? I kind of thought that she should at least do one more week of monitoring to see if she can get them fully in range everyday before jumping to insulin? Thoughts? Anyone else had similar experience?

[brandyk]

My fastings dropped a lot as I got better at the diet. (including eating more at night). they are really only going up now because the PG is advancing, i think.

how many weeks is she? they might be thinking that she is going to need it anyways, but i think if you CAN control it through diet, you SHOULD. unless the numbers are out of control, 1 week doesn't seem that much time. i am still finding things that seem to set my BS off.

I'm supposed to do 2x/week NSTs starting at 32 weeks. I have a measuring US scheduled @ 31 weeks and I think one more to be scheduled after 36 weeks. I have Kaiser which is an HMO so they do try to keep unnecessary costs down.

[JamieBrewHa]

she's almost 31 weeks.

[gabysmom617]

Ok, so I got my glucose monitor today. It sucks how much this crap costs. We are working on an extremely tight budget right now, and my insurance copay is $30 for test strips. I got the CVS brand glucose monitor because I could get it for free with the purchase of the test strips, which were something like $27 for a box of $50. My gd specialist lady told me to take the test strips back and try to get a box of more strips if possible, and then run it through the insurance so I'd only have to pay $30 for double the amount or more...and if that doesn't work to try somewhere else. She said she was trying to help me save $$. Sigh. I can't afford all of this.

She has me on 60g of carbs for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and a 30gram of carb snack.

I also need to drink the tons of juice I get through wic watered down.

Sigh.

I'm going to review this thread. What tasty things can I have?

During my 3hr test, my sugar spiked at 222 @1 hour, went to 164@ 2 hours and then went up to 167@ 3 hours. Why did it go back up?

I understand most of what I have to eat and how I have to eat (high fiber stuff helps the sugar slow down from spiking, eat fruits with skins, etc etc etc), but I just have 0 imagination when it comes to food and meals, and my husband (the cook for the family) is sugar/salt happy. I suck and planning stuff, especially stuff I find boring, of which cooking and food are at the top of the list.

Somebody make a meal plan for me. Help.

[lifeguard]

JamieBrewHa - My doctor wants my fasting blood glucose under 90.

I had posted the other day that after seeing the endo I was feeling a lot more positive but quite frankly I have deflated since then.

Yesterday I saw a nutritionist (a woman who was MUCH too enthusiastic about a piece of lime in a glass of water!). It's funny how different the recommendations seem to be from one person to another. Gabysmom mentioned 60g of carbs at a meal - the highest I'm allowed at any meal is 45! I'm finding it incredibly restrictive (& I was already following what I thought was a pretty restrictive diet) & so far have not seen my readings improve. Sigh - I'm so frustrated with all this.

Gabysmom - I agree this is expensive. We get reimbursed our costs - eventually but in the meantime it is getting ridiculously expensive with all these appointments & tests (this week I had the endo appt., the nutritionist appt., the nst test, the new insulin prescription including alcohol & needles, & 4 bloodtests - all which cost money). My strips (which I bought in Canada) were much more expensive though - almost $1 a strip!

[NicaG]

Originally Posted by gabysmom617

Ok, so I got my glucose monitor today. It sucks how much this crap costs. We are working on an extremely tight budget right now, and my insurance copay is $30 for test strips. I got the CVS brand glucose monitor because I could get it for free with the purchase of the test strips, which were something like $27 for a box of $50. My gd specialist lady told me to take the test strips back and try to get a box of more strips if possible, and then run it through the insurance so I'd only have to pay $30 for double the amount or more...and if that doesn't work to try somewhere else. She said she was trying to help me save $$. Sigh. I can't afford all of this.

She has me on 60g of carbs for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and a 30gram of carb snack.

I also need to drink the tons of juice I get through wic watered down.

Sigh.

I'm going to review this thread. What tasty things can I have?

During my 3hr test, my sugar spiked at 222 @1 hour, went to 164@ 2 hours and then went up to 167@ 3 hours. Why did it go back up?

I understand most of what I have to eat and how I have to eat (high fiber stuff helps the sugar slow down from spiking, eat fruits with skins, etc etc etc), but I just have 0 imagination when it comes to food and meals, and my husband (the cook for the family) is sugar/salt happy. I suck and planning stuff, especially stuff I find boring, of which cooking and food are at the top of the list.

Somebody make a meal plan for me. Help.

I'm sorry you're going through this--I know how rough it is to get started, and it's no good to have the added pressure of having to pay for the test strips. Those things are so darned expensive! It makes me mad that everyone dealing with diabetes (gestational or otherwise) is being ripped off by the pharmaceutical companies for those things.

I'm a little surprised by your diet plan, with 60g of carbs at each meal--that seems really high. But if it works for you, stick with it. My limits are 30g at breakfast, 45-60 at lunch, and 45 at dinner, with 15-30 at snack times.

Is your dietician ok with the juice? I've been told I can't have any juice ever on this diet. I guess maybe there are some lower-carb options, like tomato juice?

It will get easier. I rotate through a few basic meals, that way I don't have to plan much, and I get predictable bs readings. For breakfast I usually have toast with ricotta cheese and sf jam, for lunch I usually have a couple of low-fat no-nitrite hot dogs, plus one bun, and some carrot sticks and fruit. For dinner I usually have a sandwich and a salad. Cottage cheese and string cheese are great for snacks, with some crackers or fruit. Peanut butter works great for a lot of people. You'll find some basic meals that work for you.

Hang in there!

[brandyk]

Jamie - others (on insulin) might have more insight, but fwiw, i think your sister should wait it out a few more days and see how controllable it is.

gabysmom - that sucks about how expensive your meter & supplies are!! mine are all free. makes it easy to test whenever i want. that's really disappointing for you. if you feel funny especially at first go ahead and test. the feedback will help you know what your BS probably is by the way you feel.

it looks though you are on a LOT of carbs. 60g carbs for breakfast is a LOT. i eat 2 carbs (30g) for bkfast, 3 at lunch, 3 at dinner. 1st snack (b/t brk & lunch) is 1 carb, 2d snack (post lunch) after lunch is 1 carb. 3d snack (before dinner) is 2 carbs. then once i get home (still before dinner) i nibble, eat dinner, and then have 2 snacks of about 2 carbs.

OK so i eat a lot of carbs too, it is just a lot more spread out. don't freak out if what they have doesn't work for you. first thing is to reduce carbs @ breakfast, and spread out the rest.

here are my daily things
1) chocolate (at night)
2) WW mini bagel w/ mega schmears of real cream cheese & chicken sausage (14g protein) for breakfast
i also have a lot of cottage cheese, fage yogurt (its high protein, lower carbs - i make smoothies out of it at night, also great topped with fruit & cinnamon), light fruit cups, string cheese, cheddar cheese, apples, SF cheesecake, high protein bars (kashi roll, balance gold), protein shakes (take to work, eat with lunch from work), NUTS! cashews, almonds, SF ice cream (someone on this thread said something about breyer's slow churn - i think it tastes like plastic. i very much prefer edy's SF). i also make SF pnut butter cookies and SF cheesecake (not for people who don't eat splenda). the whole thing does totally get old but i am able to get by because i can have lots of treats at night. when i cut back on the food at night my fastings went way up so it is also guilt free. oh hardboiled eggs, i do a bunch and eat those for lunches, sometimes make egg salad. i do eat tuna 1x/week too.

we are very boring at dinner. most nights it is half a steak or half a chicken breast, half a potato, and half a can of green beans. i have also created GD chicken "casserole" (appropriate portion of rice, chicken, cauliflower, then throw in cheese & sour cream). oh yeah i have been eating the potato with sr cream & spread. it helps. i feel most days like my dinner is straight out of the 50s. i also make 1 serving of high fiber/protein pasta + chicken + 1/2 jar of alfredo sauce + tabasco for a nice chicken dish. (split b/t 2 - i can only eat about 30g of dried pasta). switch the pasta for rice and add some cheese for a change. i read somewhere that uncle ben's converted is low glycemic and got some of that and it has been very helpful to me.

if you review the thread you will see that the nutritionist i saw wanted me to eat no fat cottage cheese, restrict nuts etc. probably because i'm overweight. but like i said i am eating gobs of this stuff and haven't gained any weight since i started the diet.

oh yeah, as for the fiber, except for HUGE salads fiber does virtually nothing for me. i think bottom line everyone is different and you have to see how your body works. except for juice. you should not be drinking juice. call your wic person and see if you can get it changed? otherwise try freezing it for after the baby comes. because it is just going to screw with your sugars like crazy.

lifeguard - what's up with the fasting under 90? mine has only dipped there a couple of times. that's very strict mgmt but i think some others do that too.

[NicaG]

My dietician also wanted me to go low-fat or no-fat, but I think that's really bad advice for gd. Probably good advice for real diabetes, but not gd. I'm not overweight, and I wasn't gaining at a particularly fast rate. The full-fat foods seem to be better for controlling my bs levels, and they're not really that much higher in calories.

[avivaelona]

Yeah lower fat is better for "real" diabetes because weight loss will help, and you don't want to get huge amounts of fat at any meal that is heavy in carbs too because fat+carbs will make blood sugar stay up longer and also in the long run a high fat diet does increase insulin resistance, but when you are burning food like crazy because you are building a baby and then you start restricting carbs you better be eating some fat or you are going to start dropping weight and that's not so good for the baby either and having some fat with a meal will help regulate the sugar spikes. So called "good" fats seem to work better somehow...avocado, nuts, etc for me than things like cheese. (but I still eat a lot of cheese mmmmm cheese)

Jamie, yes, your sister's doctor is hyper, at least with the insulin, she should ignore him and try to get the numbers down over at least one more week...one week isn't enough. However NST's and at least one "growth" scan are unfortunately pretty standard.

60 carbs at one meal would put me over the limit every time, even 45 can, I try to stick to 30 carbs a meal or less, but I have a lot of meals.

My doctor also wants fastings under 90 consistantly (one day of 92 and they don't freak, but in general under 90) I think its a bit much, and honestly even though they say that, last time around they didn't actually make me do anything different even when I was consistantly hitting 95 toward the end.

[happyhats]

I'm not sure if I have gd right now or not. I wasn't told to fast for the test, so I ate about a half an hour/hour before taking the test. The lab told me my results were a little high but didn't give me a number. They wanted to do a three hour test but I told them that wasn't really feasible with my hubby being my main transportation and his schedule being jam packed. Uh, it wasn't after trying and trying to get me to take a three hour they even asked me if I had fasted. WHA?


I take another on Tuesday. They've told me to fast after eight pm, so about twelve hours. To be honest, maybe I'll eat something low in sugar before bed though. Any suggestions?

I'm about thirty weeks right now, so after results are in I'll probably only have two months to deal with this.

[gabysmom617]

Thanks so much for the meal and snack suggestions everyone. I'm going to bookmark this page and come back to it for my next shopping list. I have developed a taste for cottage cheese recently and cream cheese with bagles sound lovely. I have to get my strips and start testing tomorrow. I had a bland dinner tonight and water to drink.

My gd specialist also suggested stevia. Anyone know much about it?