Gestational Diabetes

Just writing the title sounds ominous. Now, I haven’t been diagnosed with GD yet… but I might. Yesterday I had to take my glucose challenge test to see how my body handles an influx of sugar. Basically, I go to the lab, drink an insanely sugary orange drink with 50 g of glucose in it, then wait around for an hour until my blood is drawn to look at my sugar levels. Normal (or screening out) is a level under 130-140. What was mine you ask? 164! Yup, that’s a pretty high blood sugar level. I totally failed the test.

Here’s a quick rundown of GD. Basically, the hormones of pregnancy, mainly progesterone and cortisol but there are a few others like HPL that play a role, cause the mother to need to increase insulin production because the body is basically trying to keep the sugar in the bloodstream so that it can be passed to the baby. Well, in mom’s with GD, the pancreas doesn’t increase the insulin level enough and all that sugar stays in the bloodstream and goes into the baby where the baby then has to create more insulin to process it. That can make the baby a lot bigger (can we say 9 lb baby?) and it can also cause the baby to go into hypoglycemic shock after it’s born when that constant sugar supply through the umbilical cord is cut. It also puts both mom and baby at risk of having diabetes in the future. Basically, this is just not a good situation all around.

So what do I do now? Well I have to take another glucose tolerance test, but this time it’s worse. I have to fast for 14 hours and then come in and get my blood drawn for a fasting blood sugar level. Then I have to drink the ultra sugary crap only this time it’s 100 g instead of just 50 g. Blech! Then I will get my blood drawn once per hour to see how well my body is producing insulin to get that sugar out of my blood stream. If the results from two of the four draws is considered above the required range, then I’ll be diagnosed with GD. That will mean changing my diet and making sure that I eat at specific times during the day, upping my exercise to at least twice a week and checking my blood sugar several times a day. And that’s if I don’t end up needing insulin. I don’t even want to think about having to stab myself with a needle a few times a day… Let’s just hope that the next test yields positive results and I get to be done with this before it starts!