When you have tried to get pregnant for so long, you never once really stop to think what being pregnant would be like. I guess I had just assumed that it would be at happy-go-lucky time of pure pregnancy bliss. By all means, I cannot complain about being pregnant. I have had a very easy going pregnancy, with virtually no issues. I am very thankful for that and not one day goes by that I don’t think about what a blessing that is. In fact, I really enjoy being pregnant. I love feeling our little bean move around. I love talking to him, and I love taking him to work with me every day!
On the flipside however, I have some major complaints with the medical community as far as pregnancy goes. I don’t know how other pregnant women feel about this in general, but every time I go to the Doctor I feel they are desperately trying to find something wrong. I am absolutely astounded at how many tests are run on pregnant women. Craig and I have elected to forgo several tests. Our rule of thumb has been if there is nothing that can be done with the results other than to just “know” we will not take part in it. I have a friend who took one of these “just to know” tests and she spent her entire pregnancy thinking she had a 60% chance that her baby would be stillborn. Can you imagine? I must note that her baby is alive, healthy and as cute as a button! There is nothing the doctors could do other than just “know” and of course provide months of worry to an expecting mommy.
My latest test "run-in" came with a gestational diabetes test (sigh). I knew something wasn’t right when they told me to eat just like normal, no fasting prior to the test. This didn’t make a bit of sense but I complied. So I had my 1 hour glucose test right after lunch. I was coming from work and ate a huge bowl of pasta ½ hour before I drank the over-loaded glucose drink. They told me to eat at my normal time, so I did. I had no plans to “fool” the test. Well, two days later I got a call saying I did not pass the test by 2 points. Yep, two points. No worry though, this just meant I had to do more tests (sigh). So then came the three hour glucose test. Now if you have never had the pleasure of doing this test, it goes as follows. You go to the lab, and they hand you a glucose drink. Don’t be fooled however, since this drink has twice the glucose as the 1 hour glucose test. You have 5 minutes to drink it. It is equivalent in sugar to 4 sodas. So, in other words it is a 5 minute sugar intake of 4 sodas. It is intense, and you have an empty stomach. Many women get violently ill and some even pass out. So, they tell you this information after you drank this horrible drink. You are then instructed to sit down and not move. Of course, I sat there and worried. I was worried I was going to throw up, I was worried I was going pass out, I was worried that my precious baby was going to spin out of my womb since I was on such a sugar high. So in effect, I was a stressed out mess. So the test completes (4 blood draws later) and a few days later, diagnosis – gestational diabetes. Great, here we go. Once again, no worries though, this just meant I was all of sudden labeled “high risk” , I had to see a “special” OBGYN, I had to consult with a dietician, and of course have more testing on both myself and on my precious baby. Part of me wanted to run for the hills and deliver my baby in a hut with no doctors around and the other part of me felt that maybe they were right, maybe I had gestational diabetes. Okay, so I didn’t run to the hills (Craig talked me out of it) and we attended our first high risk OBGYN appt. The first thing they did was run a kajillion measurements on our little guy via ultrasound. This was nice however, because any day I can lay eyes on my little guy I’m a happy mommy. Every measurement they took – perfect. He was right on target and as healthy as a horse. So then the special OBGYN comes in the room and starts spouting off how risky it is to my baby to have gestational diabetes. I didn’t hear full sentences, just the threatening words that came out. I heard “stillborn, I heard “not carry to term,” I heard “severely ill”, I heard “grotesquely large”, I heard “amniocentesis”, I heard “non-stress test”, I heard “forced delivery”, I heard “C-section”, I heard “daily blood pricks”, I heard “insulin shots”, and of course “medication.” Truly the list goes on and basically I felt like my own body was killing my baby. Guilt and worry flooded my body. With every word my heart dropped. I knew at this point…the hut would have been the best option.
So then came the appointment with my dietician. Great. An hour lecture later, I learned that I had to go buy a little tool called a glucometer that had a needle in it. I was to prick myself 4 times a day and test my blood sugar. I had to do this exactly 2 hours after I ate, and I could only eat 3 snacks in between meals. I was not to dare touch a morsel of food in between my scheduled eating times. Oh…and lets not forget I had to count every single carb I ate not to exceed very specific amounts. Let the fun begin. Thank God for my precious husband. I have no idea how in the world I would get through this without him. He committed to following the diet with me, and the first thing he did when he got home…he built me the best gestational diabetes spreadsheet known to man-kind. It was where I could record my daily blood sugar results, keep track of what I ate (how many carbs, how much protein), and where I could store lists of foods and their nutritional content. So here we are 7 weeks into my gestational diabetes adventure. The rules are that I cannot exceed a morning blood prick of 90 and an after meal blood prick above 120. I have not come close (my morning scores are usually in the 70/80’s and my after meal scores are in the 80/90’s). The other night I even ate an entire Hershey bar (just to see what it would do to my blood sugar) and my sugar score still did not go above 120. I send my blood results to my doctor weekly. Every week she calls and tells me how great I’m doing and how she can’t believe my numbers are so low. It confuses her. It confuses her that someone with “gestational diabetes” has such low scores. I even asked her if my scores were too low for the baby. She said they were normal and just fine. The good news, no insulin shots for me and only one more ultrasound. The second ultrasound they performed the same measurements on the baby. It turns out he has flipped, the little guy is head down, and sitting nice and low. He measured right at 51%. He couldn’t be any more perfect. This perplexes the doctors. How could this be? Am I really that good at monitoring my diet? They have even asked if they could give my super spreadsheet (made by my dear husband) to their other patients. Certainly it is the spreadsheet that is making my sugars so low. Then I did some research. Lots of research. I know I’m not that good at controlling my diet, I even eat double the carbs they tell me to sometimes because well…I’m pregnant, I’m hungry, and I’m very active, and I’m scared to death my sugars are too low. Doesn’t matter what I eat anyway, my blood sugars are always the same. So my research led me understand that the gestational diabetes test they run is completely controversial in the medical community…for several very good reasons:
1) The test can very rarely be done twice with the same results. If you know anything about science, you know that results that cannot be repeated cannot be trusted. There are too many factors. One for example is stress. If a patient is stressed out, their blood sugar will be higher naturally. As I mentioned before, I was STRESSED out during the test. No doubt this played a role.
2) Doctors are using different blood sugar cut-off scores. With this said, my blood sugar would have been considered just fine in another Dr.’s office.
3) Some Doctors tell patients to fast at least 4 hours prior to the 1 hour glucose test, others do not. Mine did not. I ate a bowl of pasta right before my test. Hmmm….pasta…sugars…I think this might have played a role in a higher blood sugar result than if I hadn’t eaten in 4 hours.
4) For the 3 hour glucose test, some doctors tell their patients to do 3 days of carb loading. This is so when you drink this horrible glucose drink, if your body is capable, it will have built up enough insulin to take care of the sugars in the drink. I was not told to do this however. I was told to have at least one carb a day ( a piece of bread, or a ½ a bagel). What did I do before this test? I didn’t want to make the same mistake with the pasta situation I did the first time around, so I literally only ate 1 carb a day (i.e. a piece of bread). Nothing more…not at all, I put myself on a protein only diet. Through my research, I found this is one of the first ways to be misdiagnosed. Your body has not had to produce insulin for 3 days prior to you taking this drink. So when you do drink it, you don’t have the insulin to take care of it quick enough, and boom, you’ll fail the test. Wow, this would have been nice to know, but per my Dr.’s protocol this was not what I was supposed to do…1 carb a day…that is all I needed. Right.
The fact is, this is yet another pregnancy test that has some major issues. Some women, who have severe gestational diabetes, can greatly benefit from this test, I have no doubts, but others of us, are subjected to a far from perfect test that causes tremendous amounts of stress and worry, and possibly negative results (unnecessary interventions, unnecessary medications, and damaging stress levels). I have absolutely shed my fair share of tears through this process. I feel my heart pounding out of my chest each time I wait for my blood sugar results to come up. I’m constantly worried that I’m eating either too much or too little. I just don’t know.
At the end of the day, I’m healthy, our precious son is healthy, and God is taking good care of us. I also know that doctors are doing their best and many tests that are ran save a lot of babies’ lives. I know this, and I’m so thankful for that. I just wish, that there was more consideration as to what tests are necessary, what can be done with the results, and are the results really telling us what we need to know? Such an imperfect gestational diabetes test could very easily produce a false negative, which could have detrimental results for a baby. That is frightening. Medical perfection is impossible, this I know, so in the end, our health is truly in our hands. With that said….I’m off to do my after breakfast blood test. Wish me luck!
Welcome to Dawson's Room!
The big teddy bear in the corner...first purchase, Craig insisted every little boy needs to have a HUGE stuffed animal. I think he is right!
Dawson's rocking chair. Comfort is key! I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time sitting here!
Changing station, with books and toys!
Lots of books! He's got to start learning his calculus pretty soon ;)
This picture of the little bike was hand drawn by one of my co-workers. She is so talented and it is such a special gift we will keep forever.
Chalkboard with our family "portrait"
Night light, picture of our baby, and more books!
I wanted a unique looking mobile so I made this one a few months back.
Won't be long until you can find a Dawson sleeping away in here!
The bathroom. Craig did a lot of work in here. When we moved in...there was a lot of pink. Now...all boy.
I can't wait for bath time!
