Thursday, October 12, 2006

Sugar rush

I was warned that the glucose tolerance test wasn't fun. Most of my friends complained about the sweet drink that they were required to drink. No one, though, thought to warn me about the sugar high you can get from gulping down 50 grams of glucose in about 2 minutes. More specifically, they didn't warn me about how it feels to have all that sugar wear off 45 minutes later.

So the routine test for gestational diabetes at my prenatal appointment on Tuesday was a bit of a surprise. I actually liked the drink: it just tasted like flat orange pop...or flat orange pop with a couple extra teaspoons of sugar mixed in. Then I had to wait for an hour to have my blood drawn. The first part of the hour went quickly because I was called upstairs for my check-up. But when I returned to the waiting room to sit, I realized I couldn't concentrate on my book at all. I was tired, hungry, queasy, dizzy. At least I got to make the office staff laugh by being (apparently) the only woman in the history of the practice to ask for another glucose drink. (I was sure that more sugar was the only thing that would make me feel better ever again.) They denied me, but the PBJ I'd brought along with me for after the blood draw did the trick.

Other than that, the appointment was good and easy. I am measuring about 29 weeks, which at 28 weeks is just fine with me. Sticky apparently had an early growth spurt, because at 22 weeks I was measuring 26 weeks. She's leveled off since then:at 24 weeks I was at 28. I guess we're leveling off now, and I'm not actually going to have an 18-pound baby. My blood pressure is lower than it was when I first got pregnant and I've gained less weight than I thought (when I started outgrowing some of my maternity clothes, I was worried), but still a healthy amount. As of now, I will have visits every two weeks instead of every four. That will be reassuring: I like to go in as often as possible to hear the fast little heartbeat.

3 comments:

eva said...

Does living in Virginia make you say things like "pop"? If so, I'm moving.

Glad to hear Sticky (and you) are doing well!

Christie said...

When I first read 'pop' I thought you were talking about a melted popsicle. I thought you were only allowed to say pop for soda/cola when you live just outside Chicago. Or maybe Wisconsin (hey, don't you have relatives there?)

And that glucose test sounds horrible, especially if you are not used to much sugar anyhow. Ick.

Elizabeth said...

I said pop before I lived in Virginia, so you should be safe. I don't know when I adopted it. Maybe it was back visiting relatives in Wisconsin as Christie points out. At any rate, I'm sure there are other things that we should be wary of happening to us in Virginia, but hey, at least our governor's not a Republican.

And I can't imagine what that glucose test is like if you aren't used to sugar. I drink a massive glass of OJ every morning, probably getting 30-40 grams of sugar at once, so you'd think that the drink wouldn't have been that much of a shock.