I dont' know who you think you are, but in my experience your advice is crap. You can't 'fudge' a glucose tolerance test by avoiding sugar beforehand, and you certainly can't 'treat' gestational diabetes by avoiding carbohydrates altogether. A pregnant lady needs to have a healthy normal diet, not a severely restricted one...
GD can often be controlled with diet, so your advice to run for 'insulin' is also untimely, and insulin is not something to be messed around with - a very severe low blood sugar caused by overdosing on insulin is far more dangerous in the short term than even uncontrolled gestational diabetes.
For the OP - if you haven't already done one, the doctor/specialist/diabetes nurse will probably do an 'HbA1C' which gives an indication of your blood sugar control over a period of months. In Switzerland they use different a different numbering system to the USA - with your blood sugar level, something between 4 - 8 is 'normal'. A normal healthy person will never go over 8 with their blood sugar. Even if I ate a massive amount of sugar, I'd probably feel sick in my stomach long before my body stopped processing the sugar and my blood sugar started to go out of sync.
An uncontrolled type 1 diabetic (which is different to Gestational Diabetes) will have blood sugars very high at diagnosis - 25 plus!. A blood sugar meter that you get from the doctor or pharmacy usually cuts out at about 25 and gives a 'high' reason. Even with uncontrolled Gestational diabetes I'd expect you'll not be that high. I'd expect numbers on the 'high' side of normal 7-8-9 and up to maybe 15...
I can highly recommend seeing a diabetes dietician and then reading up on 'glycaemic index'. GI has a big influence on blood sugar control - you can substitute lower GI foods - our biggest one is using only Basmati (Indian) Rice instead of Jasmine (Thai/Chinese) Rice - and Sushi is the worst! Also, trying for wholemeal breads instead of white breads, and drinking only water is a good way to reduce your sugar intake with minimal fuss.
Once you start blood sugar testing, you will become more aware of the foods that send your sugar levels crazy...
Best of luck. For most people the gestational diabetes is going to 'miraculously' resolve after the pregnancy, it can be treated with diet and/or medication, and if you can keep to the protocol, you may be able to avoid needing insulin injections...
Sweatpea's post is exactly right.
Had my tests this morning and everything came back normal!! Thanks all for the support
does the insurance cover this visit??
Just found out today that i have GD and she made me an appointment with diabetologist. I have the glucosa screening test all together.
I was told to fasting(8h) and then come in the morning for blood test, then drink the sugar fluid. Come back in 1 hr to another blood test and the nest hour. Apparently i passed the first and second test. Failed the third one, it's in borderline.
I wasn't sure whether to start a new thread...
I failed my fasting blood glucose test but it's not quite at the gestational diabetes range. My doctor is checking it again at my next appointment but didn't provide any additional information. Can anyone share what modifications they made?
I was in the same situation but after cutting out the sugary stuff - I was hammering it through cravings, I went back to normal at the next check up.
I'm not sure which test they administer here, but for both pregnancies with my girls (in Aus) I failed the first test, but then passed the second one a week later.
The first test was drink the glucose drink, then blood test after 1 hour. Which I failed both times.
The second test a week later was blood test, drink glucose drink, blood test after an hour, then another blood test after another hour. Which I passed both times.
So possibly next visit your doctor might do a more in depth test to get a better reading?
I wish but I'm only getting another fasting test and it's at my request. She said that since I'm not overweight, the doctor isn't concerned despite being well over the normal range and almost into the gestational diabetes one. This is one situation in particular where I felt I needed to do some of my own research and not take any chances though.
I wanted to update the thread with some new info on my situation..hopefully it helps others who have gestational diabetes or are near it/over normal.
The cut-off point is 4.8 and my last reading was around 5.2. I forget the gestational point. I think it was 5.4. Well with five weeks between appointments, I spent the first two making some small tweaks and eating less sweet stuff. For the last three, I fully cut out all junk food/desserts. I even swapped up certain fruits for ones less sweet. My recent test put me at 4.3 - a significant change over a short period of time.
I'm going to keep it up but will enjoy a few odd treats now. I'm still eating like a horse but just making sure it's not stuff that will mess up my blood sugar too much.
I just wanted to chime in and point out that it's possible to get gestational diabetes and be quite thin and fit/active. Sometimes it's just down to bad luck!
I highly recommend that you look up some basic information about 'glycaemic Index'. This is straight science about what foods are digested quickly and become glucose in the bloodstream fast, and what foods are more slowly converted.
As mentioned above, some basic ones are:
- Basmati rice is lower GI than Jasmine or Risotto rice (and Sushi rice is the worst!).
- wholemeal bread is more slowly processed (and usually less sugar added) than white bread.
- water is a good drink
- adding a dairy food such as a glass of milk, some plain yoghurt or cheese has an extra effect of slowing down the sugar rush - I'm not sure if they know why, but it is definitely proven in the laboratory.
- overall carbohydrate content is also important (of course!) - and of course straight sugar - icecream is a better choice than gelati or water-ice-sugar-flavour combinations.
You can make some choices about foods based on overall carb/sugar content (carbohydrate includes starches and sugars), and on GI.
Here's a list of 100 basic foods to get you started.... the great thing is that lower GI foods also tend to be the less processed foods too...
http://www.health.harvard.edu/newswe..._100_foods.htm
Porridge (made with oats) is really good. It's a good low GI food and it has the additional benefit of alleviating a sluggish digestive system if you are having... ahem... bathroom problems.
Even though I was close to gestational diabetes, I still allowed myself a small squirt of honey in the porridge, which my doctor said wouldn't make any difference. She mainly wanted me to cut out the doughnuts and biscuits...
Do they do this test to every pregnant woman?
They give every pregnant woman the fasting glucose test (no food or drink except water in the morning, you go into the doctor's office and drink the sweet liquid-mine was lemon flavored-then wait one hour and have blood drawn) at 26-28 weeks. They do it earlier if the woman has any risk indicators or if GD is otherwise suspected.
Well said. In fact, I was underweight going into my pregnancy.
Mine does only a fasting one and it's 5-6 weeks earlier than yours as a standard. Also, what you're describing is not a fasting glucose test. That's a postprandial one.
Yes, sorry, it is the standard gestational diabetes screen. You are supposed to fast overnight.
I wont start a new thread as this is a useful thread already.
I am wondering if anyone has had GD and was expecting twins? I am 23 weeks pregnant with twins and a high risk pregancy.
I had my first testing at 20 weeks as my sugar levels were too high. I failed the test and have had to monitor my levels daily before breakfast and 1 or 2 hrs after meals and cut out carbs of the evening. I still continue to report high sugar levels especially after 1 hr after eating - 2 hrs is fine. Has anyone else had any experience of this?
I am waiting for an appointment to see the GD specialist which I am hoping is this week. Thank you in advance.
In this case, the best thing is to get to the specialist as quickly as possible so you can get a good plan organised.
Have a read a out 'glycaemic index' this is the speed that carbohydrates consumed are metabolized to become glucose up the blood. Eating lower GI foods in smaller quantities will help to even out the blood sugars.
What sort of blood sugar numbers are you getting 2 hours after meals? How often are you testing ?
I have the appointment with the specialist this evening. I have looked at the glycaemic index but I am ma little confused, I have some questions for the specialist which I think will help me understand it more.
I test every day before breakfast and after all meals. In Switzerland, they recommend blood sugar levels should be:
less that 5.3 mmol/L before breakfast
less than 8.0 mmol/L 1 hour after eating
less than 7.0 mmol/L 2 hours after eating
Generally my before breakfast is fine - on two occassions it has been high but I had no idea why.
80% of the time I am reporting high levels 1 hour after eating normally ranging from 8.5 mmol/L to 10.5 mmol/L
2 hours after eating my levels are less than the recommeded 7.0 mmol/L therefore back to normal.
Hopefully the specialist can help me understand why the 1 hour is a problem as that seems to be what is concerning my GYNO.
Good luck with everything.They are pretty strict here. I had like 6 "high" mornings, 5.4 5.6 that kind of thing, out if 43 mornings and they made me take insulin. I wasn't happy but it is what it is.
Take a look at what you are eating for it to be high, your plate should be 1/3 of each protein, carb and salad. And almost any sort of cold drink beyond water and coke zero will raise your levels. You could try taking a 20 min walk after eating, that will help with your levels but depending on your life (work, kids etc) that may not be feasible.
One thing you could consider is consuming 1-2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar (raw, unfiltered) each day, this can help regulate your sugar levels.
Lastly, please don't let them scare you with the size of your baby and stuff. They told me my baby was HUGE throughout my entire pregnancy, and they started talking about induction and a C section when I was 13 weeks!!! It was crazy, I told off the diabetic nurse and said she shouldn't be saying sh!t like that to first time moms. I ended up changing hospitals at week 34 and have birth naturally to a 3.4 kilo baby girl, long and very skinny. Ultrasounds are notoriously unreliable. Have decided if we have a third kid I am only doing the 20 week one and that's it.
Keep us posted with how you get on!