I passed. That’s what matters. But as I read about this glucose tolerance test, I learned that it is a bit controversial. It’s not a nice way to treat a six month pregnant body. And now that I’ve experienced it, I must agree!
I had myself a snack at 9 last night. A bowl of ice cream out of fear that it may be my last for three months. Then I was on a fast. I went straight to the lab when I woke up this morning, but I wake up hungry, so that wasn’t easy. I had a blood draw to find my fasting blood sugar level. Then I had to drink glucola — containing 100 mg of glucose! G-R-O-S-S! It got worse the closer to the bottom I got. After that, I waited. I had a blood draw every hour for the next three hours. So, figure in getting myself and Caroline dressed and commute time, and that was about 15 hours with no food. Remember, I’m pregnant. And I like regularly scheduled meals even when I’m NOT pregnant.
I hit a drive through on the way home. But by the time I got home, though, I was shaking. I had trouble walking up the steps from the garage. When I tried to lift my fries to my mouth, my hands were shaking crazy bad. After my borderline results Monday from the one-hour-test, I got a monitor (free) at Walgreens. They make their moula on the test strips. I tested my blood and my blood sugar was 49. Anything below 70 is considered hypoglycemic. I was scared, so I called and told my sweet husband in case I needed him to get Caroline from school. He told me to call my doctor. I left the nurse a message and ate some more and rested. I was better within a few minutes and was totally fine by the time the nurse called back. Did I mention that snack was a piece of cake — I had to get my blood sugar back up somehow, right? It was all for my health. 🙂
My nurse called later with my results and asked again how I was feeling. I told her I was just fine then. That it was just a weird feeling to experience. She told me my numbers. All were fine, but she did say that my last blood draw, just before I left the office, was 56. “That’s really low,” she said. Yeah, I could *feel* that!
You’d think they’d do a quick reading or something on that before they send a pregnant woman who hasn’t eaten in 15 hours home in a car.
But, all is well! I blame the borderline reading from Monday on a weekend of donuts, Costco cake, and ice cream.