Adventures in GD, Part II

In the States I believe it is standard to have GTT (a 1 hour test) towards the end of 2nd tri/beginning of 3rd tri, but pretty much always by 28 weeks. Failing that, you are giving a Glucose Challenge, which involves a more concentrated drink, and is a 3 hour test with a fasting and then hourly blood draws to track the progression of blood sugar.

I was borderline on my GTT with #1 and #2, and was completely surprised as I have tended hypoglycemic my entire life (low blood sugar issues). With #3, I realized I had symptoms but only after failing the GTT, and waiting for the challenge. I was still very surprised when I failed the challenge. My symptoms were excessive thirst and debilitating fatigue after meals. Both of those are hard to distinguish from the increased thirst of pregnancy, and the increased fatigue!

This time around, I was fairly sure I would fail and that I was developing GD as I could tell the thirst was increasingly bad, fatigue was noticeably worse if I had high carb meals, and my mood swings seemed to correspond to the level of sugar I was consuming. I wouldn't have noticed any of that if I hadn't previously experienced GD though.

I would think GD is definitely a possibility for you, but even though they don't do the GTT by routine, they are doing urine checks each appointment, right? So if you had uncontrolled GD happening, presumably there would be sugar present in your urine too, and that could be a red flag. I just don't know enough about how things work there. Would they give you the test if you asked?
 
Completely trivial update, but I was very excited to note that I had Life cereal for breakfast 2 days in a row, and my numbers were acceptable. Well, right at the top of the range for me (129), which means in another week or so I'll have to eliminate it, but I LOVE cereal in the morning, and for some reason I'm off peanut butter (makes me totally nauseous atm), so glad I have a go-to meal :)
 
The dietician dropped my peanut butter from breakfast and I'm a bit disappointed. LOL! Switched the timing on my meds, need to add more calories and fat for dinner. I feel like it's such a ridiculous game of tetris and I can't make all the pieces fit at the same time. She DID say that over all my numbers were a little better, than when I first came in?!?! REALLY, smh. Since then I've added meds and increased them. LOL! I would hope they're a LITTLE better.

Not much longer. . .we can do this! (I would love to have some cereal!!) :)
 
Having your numbers improve even just a little is a big deal though, since left alone they would actually be actively getting worse. Just think of it like walking on a treadmill while cooking dinner, and someone keeps turning up the speed of the treadmill and the stove keeps getting hotter :D Any improvement at all now would have resulted in even lower numbers 2 weeks ago, and so on. At least that is what I have convinced myself of :D

Sorry to hear you dropped the peanut butter, but adding more fat into dinner sounds yummy ;) I'm a HUGE butter fan, so I suppose I should be thankful that we don't have to eliminate that too!
 
I had a FULL DAY of good numbers yesterday! I was so excited I nearly peed myself. :D I like butter as well. . .shocking right?!

Have your lunch numbers improved? :)
 
I wasn't able to test for lunch or dinner (ran out of strips in my case and the new pack wouldn't fit and I was out of the house from 8am until 11pm). I suspect my lunch number was good (steak salad!) but that my dinner number was crap (hubby ordered me a chicken wrap, thinking it would be good - but chicken wrap is on my avoid list; plus the chicken was breaded and fried instead of grilled, and it came with a pretty sweet southwestern sauce). I also felt kind of depressed most of yesterday, and indulged in significantly more 'goodies' than is good for me, probably even without the GD side of things.

So it wasn't all THAT surprising that my numbers were higher this morning. Fasting jumped up 10 points from the previous day, so I avoided cereal and went back to my bread & peanut butter routine. Still have a high-for-me breakfast reading at 115; my 'normal' peanut butter numbers are usually 100 or less.

It is going to be another adventure for lunch/dinner today. I have a bit of leftovers that I need to finish but no real veggie, so I'll need to supplement with a salad or something. And for dinner we're going to this pretty neat restaurant with DH's family. It is where they hosted our rehearsal dinner oh so many years ago, and while I love the gesture, it just makes me miss my MIL more. I'm feeling so sappy and sentimental :(
 
Huge hugs Mel!

My fasting is back up to 115 today, did a lower carb breakfast, even though they tell me I have to have more carbs half the time. They want me having a glass of milk 3 times a day, I don't DO milk, so have been eating greek yogurt at least half of one, 3 times. . .once I ate the yogurt and had an egg, I'm stuffed to the point of puking. I just can't get all the food in they want me to eat. Ultrasound Monday, wondering how the babe is doing and curious to see what the doc has planned, if anything. Still trying to dodge the insulin bullet.

I'm feeling sappy/sentimental over holidays as well. . .not spending them with any family is bumming me out, my husband is working a million hours a week at the moment so I'm just feeling alone and bored and trying not to feel sorry for myself.

The crap weather isn't helping. LOL! I feel whiny and crabby a lot of the time.

I hope today is a good day for you!!
 
Kellie, that is a bummer your morning keeps going up. This LO keeps playing yo-yo, so one meal I can stuff myself with a pretty normal sized meal, and then next a few bites fills me up. I'm having a wee bit of MS again it seems, so breakfast is incredibly hard, and my numbers are going up there too, even with a bare bones peanut butter on bread meal.

To fully embrace the sentimental you could do a movie marathon of all the sappy/heartfelt Christmas movies! My personal favorite to wallow in is Its a Wonderful Life. I know it is a bit cliche, but I bawl during Auld Lang Syne every single time. For me I typically get really sappy between Christmas and New Years, so its a common time for me to watch a ton of old movies, most in black and white, and embrace my inner sentimentality.

Hope you can find something you can really enjoy or at least get distracted by! :)
 
I LOVE old movies at Christmas! I'll be fine, just have my moments. :) I'm so thankful for all I have, I need to focus only on the positive. I'm very appreciative to not be doing this dumb GD stuff alone as well. :D
 
Just have to share my experiences from this past week. First Christmas went well - just one high number most likely due to chocolate cream pie that I had to eat. Cousin made it and it didn't really turn out great (too runny) and she felt bad. Plus I am the normal beneficiary of her baking and she already felt kinda bad because no one clamped for her to make cherry pie. Anyway... Friday I started feeling crummy and didn't really eat anything beyond some crackers. Apparently it's caught a tummy bug.

After 2 days of not eating I knew I was dehydrated. I made sure to have some jello and sugar free Popsicles on hand but the go - to for dehydration is always gatorade at my house. After my lowest number so far (58) I drank 16oz of the fruit punch flavor. It did the trick but holy moly my blood sugars were all over the place. When I finally had an almost proper meal, the shot up to 160. Took me 4 days to fully recover between the and and the blood sugar related weirdness and fatigue.

Hope Everyone stays healthy!!
 
Oh man. . .you can disregard the question about this on the other thread! LOL! So miserable! The diabetic nurse just told me the other day (since I've started insulin added to my oral meds) about not going overboard on a low. She said if I hit below 60 to eat 5 saltines or 4-6oz of milk, wait 15 minutes and test again, but not to have too much or you can have the rebound high. Dehydration can so screw you up. HUGS girl! (Not much longer)
 
Kellie - glad your nurse hooked you up with that info! I really had no idea what I was doing; since I had GD last pregnancy, I didn't go through the dietician appointments this time, but since I was diet controlled last time, they didn't really give me much info (or if they did I didn't pay attention) about lows.

I also discovered TODAY that they make sugar-free Gatorade. Wish I'd known that...

But yeah, beware dehydration + crazy sugar highs and lows! It was a complete roller-coaster. I dunno if it is related to that or if it was just because of the season, but the other night I turned to DH and said - honey, don't be alarmed, I'm starting to cry for absolutely no apparent reason and I can't stop. So don't worry - there isn't anything you need to do, I just have to sit here and cry for a bit. It was so bizarre - big shaking sobs, huge tears, about 10 minutes and then I was fine. This was the same day I was yo-yo'ing with the sugar and trying to recover from the dehydration, so maybe related to a crash after the Gatorade, but nothing like that has ever happened before! I at least usually KNOW why I'm crying like a ninny :D
 
Ahhhhh! I'm a hormonal wreck! I'm not sure if it is compounded by the sugar highs and lows! I just had a bowl of clam chowder with a few saltines, totally within my carb limits (lower than suggested) and I have my BEST numbers after lunch and dinner. . .68 tonight. BAH, it's enough to make me want to pull out my hair. LOL
 
Wow, 68 is lower than any number I've had after a meal. I'm lucky to be under 110.

In the past I've heard that eating at the same time of day is supposed to help, but I have a hard time being consistent lately. I keep getting upset tummy/nausea and it just throws me off. Or I can't sleep at night and then sleep a TON on the weekend and miss meals.

But, in happy news, even with a few spikes (over 160 twice), my OB has decided I should stay diet-controlled for now, since the morning numbers are still low, and that I will be on better food behavior now that the holidays have passed. LO is already a bit chunky though - 79% percentile according to the ultrasound we had today, and roughly 5 lbs and some change. Really hoping this one is super tall :D
 
I'm so happy for you! Awesome that you get to stay diet controlled. :) :)

LMAO. . sorry about the typo, that was a 168 after dinner, not a 68. Lordy. hahaha
I've since had a 183, that freaked me out big time. I switched over to all insulin today. Long acting at night, slow before breakfast and dinner and we'll see how it goes. I will need to have it regulated quite a bit apparently.

I actually eat regularly at the same time every day, just because I can. . .I really have not much else to do. LOL (I know, crazy).

I hope things continue to go well!
 
Hang in there Kellie! Just remember it isn't something you are doing wrong just that crazy placenta and obviously dh's fault.

You are the home stretch. Not too long now!
 
Food update:

While some Greek food seems to be just fine, I do not recommend letting yourself eat the rice. Pick rice or bread but don't do both! Also, loading up on the gyro meat is a great idea :)
 
Another food update. I had a yummy Pad Thai dish today, with chicken and tofu. But instead of the normal Thai noodles, I had glass noodles (technically bean threads). Pad Thai is fairly sweet, and I wasn't able to test *right* at an hour mark, but it was only 124!

So I immediately blew it by eating one of the last Christmas frosted sugar cookies from a local bakery. So delicious though, and it is serving as my snack for the afternoon. Unfortunately I am still hungry... I keep alternating from zero appetite (I've missed so many meals the past 3 weeks) to ravenous.
 
Last night I had a weird result.

So after my sugary snacks, I ended up working a bit late and having dinner a bit later than usual. Hubby had ordered pizza for the fam, including one of my favorites (Dominos Signature that has italian sausage and peppers). I ate most of the pizza. Actually I think I ate the entire pizza, possibly minus one piece. Within 20 minutes of finishing, I was EXHAUSTED. I figured I would have a seriously high number, but... when I tested at the 1 hr mark, I was at 98.

I clearly have no idea at all what is going on with me! I suppose I shouldn't complain at all about getting a lower number than expected, but I really was blown away.

This morning everything seemed back to normal. Normal fasting number for me, ate some cereal and couldn't test at the 1 hr (in the middle of morning commute) so did between 90 minutes and 2 hrs and ended up with a 99. Completely normal stuff.

However, I am STILL HUNGRY. I don't really know where the food is possibly going, because baby is putting so much pressure on me that if I eat a big meal (like the pizza last night) I end up with horrible heartburn and an uncomfortably full feeling for long stretches, but I get hungry while feeling full.

This pregnancy stuff is thoroughly crazy.
 

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