So I mentioned I'd blog about the highest of the highs and lowest of the lows in this pregnancy. Fortunately the lows have been few - once I got past the initial shock and weirdly dark place I was in when I first found out I was expecting, the lows really were nothing big. There was the doctor that sent us into a blind panic when he couldn't find the heartbeat at 12 weeks, sending us for an ultrasound and having everything be just fine. There was getting summoned for Jury Duty at the end of June and still being in the thick of my crazy hunger - but then not having to go in but one day and being released early. There was the day I slipped on some collapsed boxes in the baby's room and kind of fell - thankfully not hard. But for the most part, those are all pretty piddly things. The low that brought my world to a crashing halt came about two weeks ago.
It's pretty much routine now that every pregnant woman is screened for Gestational Diabetes around the 28th week of pregnancy. So I set my appointment up for the Tuesday of that week and while I wasn't looking forward to going in and drinking the 50g glucose drink because of horror stories I'd heard, I figured, I'll suck it up and do it and it's all going to turn out just fine. I was almost a little cocky about it because I thought, I have a pretty darn good diet, this is going to be no problem.
So I showed up at 7:00 am on the day of my appointment. I brought a straw at recommendations from others and they gave me the choice of orange or lemon/lime to drink. I chose the lemon/lime and it was not bad at all, kind of like flat Sprite or 7Up. I downed that sucker in about two minutes and then set about my 1 hour waiting time. The time went pretty fast, I played Candy Crush and read a little and then I was called back for my blood draw. After that was my routine OB appointment. I saw my nurse practitioner and she pulled up my results and said "unfortunately, your blood sugar was a little high, and it's either pass or fail, so we'll have to have you come in and do the three hour test." I was a little disappointed but after I got home I heard from so many people who were like "oh yeah, I failed the one hour, but passed the three hour" So I thought, ok, this can still turn out all right.
I managed to get an appointment that Thursday, so only two days later. In that amount of time I kind of did a sugar fast - which was really quite silly. I shouldn't have been trying to "cheat" that test. I was also a little more apprehensive about the next test, they double the amount of glucose you drink from 50g to 100g and you have to fast the night before - so you're doing it on a completely empty stomach. I knew more than one mom who reported getting sick from this test - and they still make you come back until you can keep it down. Not to mention - you have to sit there for three hours and have your blood drawn four times. We all know Beth does not do well with blood draws. Thankfully my lab techs are quite awesome at this clinic, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I packed my laptop, my book, some snacks to eat as soon as I was allowed and planned to just take the whole day off of work in case I needed to go home and crash. Once again I got to the clinic nice and early. They took my blood right away and had no problem. I was given my lovely drink once again. It took a little longer to get it down - much thicker in this concentration. But I downed the whole thing and the worst I ever felt was slightly lightheaded, but that was about it. I sat in the waiting room and watched Dancing with the Stars on my laptop, played some games, did some Facebook and the three hours went faster than I thought they would. I'm sure it helped that I had to go back to the lab once an hour for my blood draws. The lab techs really were good though, they only had trouble getting a vein once, I was quite impressed. At the last draw I asked if I would get my results via MyChart later in the day as I usually did - and the lab tech said "um, no, we'll have you wait in the waiting room and someone will be out to talk to you." That was the first sign something wasn't right.
I had to wait way too long for someone to come out, but they were pretty busy that day. Finally a nurse came and said "well unfortunately we do need to set you up with diabetic counseling." At this point I pretty much knew that was the news. She told me to wait and someone from scheduling would be right with me. So now I'm kind of just trying to keep it together - my mind is in overdrive and I just wanted to talk to Nate. I was able to meet with the scheduler who got me set up in the next available diabetic class, which sadly was a week away from that point. She even complemented me on how well I was handling the news - I'm like, Lady if you only knew what was going through my head right now.
I practically ran to my car at this point and got Nate on the phone and as soon as he answered I was full out sobbing. He couldn't understand me very well. I know I was babbling about things that seem so pointless now but was all I could think about right then - no cookies, no orange juice, no apple pie. He asked me to meet him for lunch so we could talk in person. He's a smart man that one. Of course after we talked he helped me see it was not my fault, it was nothing we couldn't handle and that it would only be for a couple of months. He's a rockstar.
We blindly started following the dietary guidelines we could find online for the next week until I got to go to my class. The nice diabetic educators were so awesome - again they stressed that while there are definite risk factors to getting GD, sometimes it's just that our hormones are wacky and don't know how to deal with the sugars from eating carbs. They broke the diet plan down into a very simple regiment - basically showing how to spread your carbs out throughout your day. They also taught us how to take our blood sugar which is not nearly as daunting as it sounds.
So, just one week in and I'm happy to report I'm doing very well. I had a follow up visit yesterday and they said "your numbers are wonderful, keep doing what you're doing and you'll have a healthy remainder of pregnancy and a healthy baby!" So I'm feeling good and confident and I know that I've got this. And there are only 10 weeks to go until this little guy shows up. It's totally manageable. And I think this new diet has actually helped me feel pretty darn good too.
Moral of the story - what turned out to be the lowest low has somehow turned around to be kind of a high. I'll take it.
