The Dreaded Glucose Test

As most pregnant women know there comes a time around the 28th week where the doctor or midwife asks you to take a glucose test to check for gestational diabetes. The normal test consists of drinking a wretchedly sugar filled neon colored drink (in five minutes or less, yes this is a requirement) and then having your blood drawn exactly one hour later. This test is designed to examine how your body is processing sugar while pregnant because some pregnant women (about 7-10%) contract a temporary form of diabetes that screws with their insulin levels.

From what I have learned, gestational diabetes is not as scary as it sounds. First of all it is temporary and will go away once the baby is born. Secondly, to keep it at bay you mostly need to change your diet (less sugar etc.), monitor your blood sugar throughout the day and in some cases, give yourself a shot of insulin when needed.

I went in for my glucose test about a week ago and unfortunately I failed. Apparently my blood sugar levels were higher than they should have been but not quite high enough to be conclusive so……I had to take another test…a three hour test.

The second glucose test is one that I do not wish on my worst enemy as it was (for me at least) awful. First they made me fast for 12 hours….do they know that I am seven months pregnant and generally a lover of food!!???? Then when I got to the hospital I was taken to a room with a nice but somewhat hard to understand eastern European woman who took a vial of blood. After the first blood drawing (oh yes, there were more) I was given another bottle of the sugary drink however this time I was told that it was a stronger version (aka more sugar) from the one before and this one was fruit punch flavored….I will never drink Hawaiian Punch again. Imagine drinking a melted fruit punch flavored otter pop and then multiply that by 20. Yuck!

I can’t really explain the way that I felt after guzzling down the mock Hawaiian Punch except to say that my empty stomach knew that this was not natural and immediately told me to purge whatever it was that had just entered my system. The problem was however that in order to complete the test I had to stay at the hospital and have them draw blood once an hour for three more hours (to see how the sugar was being processed through my system) which meant that I had to keep the stuff down.

As some of you know, I have a bit of a sensitive stomach as it is so when the first thing to enter my system in 12 hours was this horrible concoction my body was immediately thrown into super freak out mode. I knew I couldn’t throw up, because that would nullify the test, so the next two hours were filled with lots of prayer, a few trips to the bathroom to talk myself out of purging (literally out loud, I hope no one was listening at the door) and two more trips with the nice eastern European lady to be poked and prodded.

By the third blood donation I did feel much better, especially since I knew that I was almost free from the prison like room that they had me sequestered in with another poor pregnant soul, and I had learned which of my arms has a better vein….it’s my right.

At the end of the day I was ready for a large hamburger and a long nap, both of which I found quickly.

All in all it was a not so fun experience but I got my results back yesterday and it turns out that I do not have gestational diabetes. Good news for both me and my little man. I suppose this is just the beginning of the sacrifices that a mother, or parent for that matter, has to make for their child and of course it is all worth it.