November 11, 2004
Gestational Diabetes Class
Today's 'class' was interesting. Dale and I did learn more about gestational diabetes than we'd known, which is useful. We were given booklets and printouts and sample meal plans. Basically, I can't have any more sugar or sweets (cake, candy, honey) or fruit juice or soda. But I can eat all the non-starchy vegetables, meats, and fats that I want. It's almost like a controlled Atkins diet. My carbohydrate intake has to be very carefully restricted and monitored. I have to keep a food journal and take it with me to my appointments with the doctor or his nurse. I also have to check for ketones in my urine three times a week and check my glucose level four times a day and report my results to my doctor's office once a week.
Checking for ketones is simple. I have a prescription for a small pack of strips. I just pee on one M W F after I get out of bed.
The glucose testing involves a little more work but is pretty simple too. I was given a little kit that contains a digital analyzer and a lancer tool. Separately, I got disposable lancer needles and the test strips. To do a test, I have to load a test strip in the analyzer, make sure my hands are clean, use the lancer to prick a finger, squeeze up a drop of blood, and apply the blood to the test strip. In 15 seconds, the analyzer shows my current blood glucose level.
There were three women in the class, two of us with our husbands. The three of us all got to do a test there so we could see how it was done. I had eaten a large bowl of cereal at 7:15am, and my glucose level three hours later was at 140. Ideally, it would have been under 120 one hour after eating, so it was pretty high. And I was already hungry again. But I didn't feel quite as guilty when the healthy-eating Indian's woman's level was 135. And the other woman, who'd gotten her test kit yesterday, showed that her first reading (after dinner last night) was a whopping 193.
After we got home, I fixed myself a suggested 'snack' - two pieces of bread with peanut butter. Later, I had a cheese and salami sandwich and a 1/2 cup of canned pineapple with cottage cheese, all carb amounts within my new dietary limitations. I was supposed to check my glucose level an hour after lunch but lost track of the time, so it was closer to 1 1/2 hrs later. It read 143, still too high.
If I have three out of bounds readings in a row, I'm supposed to call my doctor. They'll decide whether to adjust my diet or start me on insulin. The first test today doesn't count, since it was prior to starting the new diet, so I'm hoping my glucose level will come down in the next two tests (after dinner and tomorrow morning before breakfast).
I'm rather bummed about this. If the gestational diabetes had been detected just one week later, I could have pigged out on the cake Genevieve's making for my baby shower on Saturday. As it is, I shouldn't have any, but I do plan to have a small piece. A very small piece, honest.