Friday, January 30, 2009

The GD

Wednesday I got the call that I failed the 3 hr glucose and have gestational diabetes. Before the shock and worry could take over I was ANGRY. It took them 9 days to let me know. The last time it took 2 days. I was there on a Monday and heard them tell another patient the doctor would have results by Wednesday but could call early if they wanted and sometimes they are done. 9 freakin days. Ofcourse since I didn't hear anything I assumed I passed.



All the girl tells me from my doctor's office is that my levels are still high and that she is referring me to a nutritionist in another city. I'm pretty sure there are nutritionists in that city or hey, even the city I actually live in but whatever. About 10 mins later I get the call from the program. She is all full of information, says I need to get in ASAP, I'm already 30 wks blah blah blah. Then she wants to confirm my insurance info which is wrong. They had me on Medi-Cal. I told her no, I have Blue Cross. She asks if I'm sure. I'm sure. Then came the junk about needing an authorization because its an HMO so I get scheduled for Feb 9th. Apparently its not such a rush after all if I don't have state paid for insurance. Um...ok. So now I have to meet with a nutritionist and nurse for about 2 hrs on my initial visit. I didn't even ask how long my other "visits" are going to be because I don't want to know.



I did some research on the net (diabetes organizations, mayo clinic and web md) and they all said the same thing. Basically its sounds like modifiying my diet and checking my blood up to 4x a day. Not too excited about that. Diabetes does run in my family, but GD is different. A lot of people that get it have no family history and it doesn't have anything to do with their weight. There is no real explanation of why it happens to someone only during pregnacy. Either I''m not producing enough insulin or my body isn't processing what I do produce correctly.



I can manage the diet and checking my blood. Since I do not plan on having another child I don't have to worry about the stats that say it would most likely happen to me again. There is a greater chance for me to develop it as I get older, but with the family history I have you would never know what really caused it. A positive is that from what I read I will not be allowed to go past my due date, but a negative is that I will most likely be induced. I've done that before and know what to expect but wanted to see what happens when you actually go into labor on your own. Oh well.



The scary things are that the baby will have to be monitored after birth, and Ethan does not do well with people taking blood from his little baby. Ryan had it done 3 days in a row because of jaundice and Ethan had to leave the room. That means he left me with a screaming infant when all I wanted to do was scream myself. Ethan said he thought he was going to punch the person that was making his baby cry--cute--but I needed help. There is the possibility that the baby will need sugar water either from a bottle or IV. The IV would suck. I know getting a bottle that early could cause problems with nursing, but his health is way more important than that. He needs to be able to maintain a normal blood sugar on his own, just light maintaining weight and temperature. Plus, I had problems with Ryan and only lasted a month anyway and I think I am finally over the guilt of not exclusively breastfeeding. If this is a 100% formula fed baby, so be it. Hopefully baby's sugar levels will be normal on the first try and we won't need to deal with any of that, but they are possibilities I need to be ready for. There is also the possibility of him having to go to the nursery for monitoring and that would just make me sad.

I was trying to explain all of this to Ethan and as soon as he heard the baby needed blood taken and possibly an IV he flipped out and accused me of giving our baby diabetes. Needless to say the discussion ended there and I didn't speak to him til the next day. How dare he? I forwarded him all the research I had to prove to him that this is nothing I did on purpose but by the way, thanks for making me feel like crap. Love ya.

Now it all seems to have sunk in and I see my doctor on the 5th. Hopefully I'll get more concrete info then. **this just in, my mom called to tell me that the hospital they are sending me to is a Kaiser hospital and I don't have Kaiser. honestly...

1 comment:

Mommy3 said...

I am so sorry about all this stress! You should be enjoying these final days with your baby moving around inside you! Just reading this put tears in my eyes bc I can feel for you, especially the having to do the needles on your own. I have trouble w/it but I never left Tom alone to deal with it, maybe stress the importance to Ethan this time you really need him there bc its hard on you too, especially with all the post-baby hormones and what not. Play the hormone and baby blues card if you have to while in the hospital! And who knows this time he may feel differently, the first is always hard bc you've never been through it before. Hang in there...Praying for your baby boy and that everything is fine! They thought something was wrong with Isabel with her back nerves that would require surgery and I was sobbing so I understand. It turned out to be a birth mark on her back..can you believe that?! You'd think they could distinguish between a birth mark & a serious condition! She had two ultrasounds as the first one said she'd need surgery..get this, because the ultrasound machine was dirty and the picture had something on it that actually didn't exist! I was batty when they took her away for another ultrasound! Sorry for the novel...being a mommy can be so hard is my final point with all the worrying!