GD appointments

28 weeks, 5 days

For what it's worth, GD means gestational diabetes....Not the OTHER GD. Get it together, readers.

I had the pleasure of another doctor appointment today! I, honestly, don't know how people who are sick all the time and have to visit the doctor deal with it. It's like a full time job! My first visit was scheduled with the endocrinologist. The nurse called me back and we did a quick check up. She took my weight (2 lbs down from Thursday's appt...huh?) and then it was onto the finger pricks. She measured my glucose as well as my A1C. The A1C is a reading of my average blood glucose from the past 2-3 months. Why is this relevant? Well, now that I've been diagnosed with GD, I'm more susceptible to getting diabetes down the road. (I'm more likely to have it in subsequent pregnancies, but I'm also more prone to getting it permanently.) My A1C level reading was a 5.6. The highest number considered "normal" is 5.8 which means I'm wavering towards that high number. Not a huge deal but a 5.6 could be better so it's something to be aware of. They will test my A1C again after I deliver so hopefully I see an improvement.

Next up, I was sent to the nurse practitioner and it was, honestly, a waste of time. She was really nice and friendly but we spent 30 minutes basically discussing what gestational diabetes is. I can understand that some patients are not as "research" obsessive like I am, but we could have had a phone conference or something. I did learn all that A1C business from her though so I guess it wasn't a complete bust.

After a quick stop at the waiting room, I was called back into a seminar room with three other mother's to be. First, we had Allison who was 25 weeks along and after spending 2 hours with her, she was the normal one. We, also, had Tonya, who was a mother of 2 and already diabetic. She was also 400 pounds. (I wish I were exaggerating.) She was unfortunate to deal with pre-eclampsia in both previous pregnancies and had a severe case of hypothyroidism. Why do I know this? Because she felt the need to tell us all. No one asked. Lastly, we have Tiffany. I wish I had made up that name for her but it is her real name. Nothing against Tiffany's but she was SO a Tiffany. Long blond hair that she obviously curled and fussed with for hours. She had on a turquoise strapless MINI dress and 4 inch stilettos. SERIOUSLY?!? She dressed up for a consult with the doctor. I don't want to know what she looks like when she goes to an event that actually calls for dressing up.

(Gosh, I'm such a judgmental B.)

Moving on to the important stuff, we met with dietitian, Diane. Our first assignment was to fill out a survey of an average day in meals. Luckily, I eat about the same thing every week day so I was able to fill this out pretty easily. This survey also asked for our height and pre-pregnancy weight. From this information, Diane gave us each our individual carbohydrate count. She assigned us to eat 6 meals a day. Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. My goal carbohydrates are as follows...

Breakfast
40-50g

Snack
10-20g

Lunch
55-65g

Snack
10-20g

Dinner
55-65g

Snack
10-20g


It's pretty simple to follow. I just read the label and eat what is within those parameters for each meal. I went grocery shopping tonight for our weeks worth of meals and it was very different to look at every label before placing it in my cart. I'm not used to that. Breakfast will be the biggest challenge for me because I'm usually running late and just grab something quick. My normal carb count for breakfast is within the snack range so I need to make it more of a priority. The biggest eye opening part with this whole segment of treatment is the serving sizes. I do not eat one serving. I thought I ate pretty close to the recommended size. Uh, yeah, no. Let's take 1 can of corn for example. That 1 can is 3.5 servings. I figured it was probably 2 servings. ::gulp:: I think if anything is to help me, reading the labels will be the most.

After that interesting segment with the dietitian, we met with the diabetes specialist, Kathy, to learn how to actually take our blood glucose. She, first, explained that we would be getting a blood sample 4 times a day for the remainder of the pregnancy. Before breakfast, 1 hour after breakfast, 1 hour after lunch, and 1 hour after dinner. My goal readings are....

Before breakfast
less than 90

After breakfast
less than 130

After lunch
less than 130

After dinner
less than 130

Each time I test on the monitor, I need to have readings that are under these goals. If they are over for a significant number of times, I will have to then be put on insulin. At this point, my GD will be monitored strictly through diet.

Now, here's where my competitive, compulsive side comes out. I'm one day in to this whole data processing thing and I have already found myself obsessing over these numbers. We aren't supposed to test after each snack but I'm very curious as to what the number is that I almost want to poke myself even more with a needle. Obviously, I won't waste the lancets and test strips if I don't have to (cheesy peets, they are expensive!) but it has crossed my mind.

Then, we got to the good stuff and busted out the glucose monitors. She went over how to insert the tester strips and how to take on and off the lancets (needles) and how to get the gun ready to inject. It seems like a daunting task to get it all together but it really takes like 30 seconds and is very easy. Once we were all familiar, she asks us to do a tester. Now, by this time it's about 11:30am and I hadn't ate since breakfast at about 7:30. I was huuungry. I'm sure you can guess, but my blood glucose was measured at 65. This is LOW. Kathy had just finished explaining that if we ever felt shakey or sick that we need to take our blood glucose and anything under 70 meant we were having a hypoglycemic attack. So, yeah. I'm one prick into this process and I'm already having issues. I really felt fine but Diane (the dietitian) was insistent on getting me some juice. It was a good real-life example of what to do in that situation though, I guess!

Lastly, Diane busted out the insulin guns so we could practice preparing those if we were to need them. She didn't give us any samples because we will only be using those on an as-needed basis. My goal is to avoid them anyway so we'll see. Ironically, pricking my finger 4 times a day is way more appealing than stabbing my thigh or stomach every so often.

All in all a pretty simple process. The readings are the easy part. Now, I just need to work on the diet aspect. In the end, I think it will be a great learning experience and help me to improve my eating habits in general.

And you guessed it, the first thing I did after getting finished with my appointment was create a spreadsheet so that I can take even extra data for my endo to see when we meet. (I was so giddy to run to Walgreens and get a binder and some dividers to organize it all!) You will now catch me tracking my meals, times of each meal, carb grams, and also the required data, my glucose readings. It's like I'm back in school again!




You thought I was done, didn't you? I can't finish this without a picture montage of my new equipment. If you eat meals with me, expect to see this stuff quite often.

My container case which holds all my testing supplies.


The gun with the lancets is on the far left, my glucose monitor in the middle, and the testing strip on the right.


After you insert the paper test strip into the meter, you click the gun and squeeze out a little blood. (Hope no one needed warning about the blood ;) )


Then check the meter number and record. (This was my after dinner reading and very good! Remember I want to be under 130.)


So, there you have it. 1 day down, about 336 finger pricks to go!