Sunday, June 24, 2012

A three hour tour

I decided the title to this was more friendly than my original choice, which was "They made me do the GD glucose tolerance test."
That's right.  I got to kick it at Kaiser Lincoln for three hours, drink what tasted like pure sugar and have have my blood drawn four times in a three-hour period.
(I say this like I'm the only woman who's ever had to do this.  I know I'm not, but it still sucks.)
The thing that got me about this test is that it went against everything I've been told to do during pregnancy. 
Eat a snack before bed.  I recall the lady at the late pregnancy class telling us not to eat close to bed time because heartburn is sure to follow.  But me being a sucker for following the rules, I downed my half peanut butter and jelly and glass of milk at 10 p.m.  Quite a tasty combination.  Never been much of a milk drinker, but I am now.
Not eat for 12+ hours.  Even before this baby, I've always been big about eating something first thing when I get up, and it's usually a banana.  Not eating anything was torture, but I was glad I could drink water up until I drank the glucose beverage.  By the time I got done, I wasn't shaky, but I'm pretty sure my stomach had started eating itself.  I felt bad for the baby, cuz she didn't do anything wrong.
Not drink water for three hours.  I think that was the most difficult thing.  Anyone who knows me knows that I always have a bottle of water in my purse and a huge glass of water on my desk at work at all times.  My grandpa used to tease me when I was little and say we needed to bring Gunga Din with us on outings so someone could carry my water.  I've been told to make sure and drink plenty of water throughout the day not only to hydrate but to ward off Braxton Hicks.  Also, the less hydrated I am, the harder my veins are to find, and they're already really difficult to locate.  Props to the phlebotomists at Kaiser, they rock.
Stay seated.  I was told if I walked around too much or even slept it could throw off the test due to burning calories.  I've been told to stay active, and I would have loved to walk to the library during one hour of the test since they were open that day and right across the street.  I wouldn't have minded the stay seated thing as much if Kaiser had wi-fi at that particular clinic, which they don't and my phone would barely pick up a signal unless I was right next to a window.  So I pretty much set up camp in a corner next to the window and watched Netflix and read magazines.  Something I generally love doing, but the no food and water thing kinda put a damper on that.  It was nice running into friends during the first hour, that was nice.

I don't have the results to the test yet.  I'm hoping the one-hour results were just a fluke and I don't have gestational diabetes.  But if I do, I'll do everything I can to keep it under control.  It's funny, because they say you sacrifice a lot when you become a mom, but it starts way before the child is born.  I don't mind it though.  I'm really proud to be able to have taken care of her so well so far, and that we've made it this far, so I think I would do a six hour glucose test if it meant she'd be born healthy.

2 comments:

ChristyLove said...

Oh shoot, that was the first hour? Haha, and you were already antsy.

Stephanie Dumm said...

LOL yup, that was the first hour!!!! I'm not one to do well with being told to sit and not get up and fiddle with stuff.