The Update I Have Been Avoiding…GD

Writing this out makes it seem real. It feels like I am at an AA meeting. “Hi, my name is Holly, and I have Gestational Diabetes.” The class on Friday was really long but really informative. I dragged my feet going but it’s a good thing I did. There were 5 women in varying stages of pregnancy in the class, taught by a Nurse that is pregnant and also has GD so that was nice… it came from personal experience. We learned all about what causes it (having a placenta) and what to do to manage it (diet and exercise) and if that doesn’t work (medication.) I didn’t fit in any of the common causes for GD so I asked about my case and she said that it’s most likely because I had my pregnancies back to back and the extra hormones never fully left my body. Because I have it now I am way more likely to have it in every pregnancy and possibly get type II later in life. Joy. We learned about all the possible complications for the baby from having GD and they were pretty sobering. Luckily I am already seeing a perinatal doctor for this pregnancy who knows all this stuff, I even have the same dr the nurse teaching has. The other women have to supplement seeing a perinatal with their regular checkups. I felt like that scene in Mean Girls where the coach is teaching Sex Ed and says “Don't have sex, because you will get pregnant and die.” It was more like “Don’t eat this, or the baby may have insert terrible symptom here. At the end of the class the nurse handed out our test kits that will be our companions for the rest of our pregnancies. I do not have courage. I do not like needles. I do not like them at all. I have to use a lancet to prick my finger four times a day for the next 30 weeks after meals to measure the sugar levels in the blood it draws. I have to take a spring loaded needle and press the button that shoots it into my finger. My saintly husband will do it for me on the days and times he is home because I start sweating and my heartbeat goes through the roof the closer it gets to “T Time.” Even as I write this I have one eye on the clock because one hour after my first bite of breakfast I have to do the test all by myself. I have 20 minutes left. It doesn’t hurt so much, it stings after but it’s the needle projectile I hate. So my diet is now strict. There is a list a mile long on things I can’t even look twice at. Jam, Bagels, pasta sauce, ketchup, pizza, Chinese food, fruit with meals, dairy with breakfast, candy, pie, cake, syrup, pudding, ice-cream, cereal, coffee creamer, honey, muffins, and fruit juice are all off limits for 30 weeks. Instead I can have 30 carbs per meal made up of small portions of mostly veggies and protein. I'm whining, I know. But I really hate this. It’s going to be really hard and the needles. Even Thanksgiving and Christmas will have to be portioned out.

Other than that life bomb, nothing else is new. We are officially 11 weeks. We have our next appt on the 18^th and that’s our 12 week meeting and out Nuchal testing ultrasound after that. We still haven’t told anyone we are pregnant yet, so it makes it difficult when I’m worried and acclimating to these changes and everyone just thinks I’m moody.