Any tips on how to optimize glucose tolerance for the screening test?

[Anonymous]

OP again. I had read about the cinnamon and am going to try it because there doesn't seem to be a downside. Also, exercise is a huge part of my plan; I had been trying to get a 30-minute walk in at least 3x/week, but now I'm doing that 6x/week and getting any additional exercise I can for good measure (painting the bathroom last weekend, taking my son for an extra walk in his stroller). I'm also going to buy a home monitor so I'll have some idea of what to expect by getting familiar with my bG patterns.

From the research I've done, it seems as though there are two types of women who get GD: (1) women who are otherwise healthy and not at higher than average risk of diabetes, for whom it really is just related to pregnancy; and (2) women who have risk factors for diabetes and are likely to develop it later in life, and the stress of pregnancy puts them temporarily into a diabetic state that will go away after delivery but is likely to recur later. Were I to get GD, I believe I would be in the second category. I think those women are the ones for whom making diet and exercise changes is most likely to affect whether or not they develop GD. Surprisingly little (i.e., one ongoing study) research has been done about whether GD is preventable through lifestyle changes, which, given the intense reaction it gets from OBs, seems absurd to me. If it's such a dangerous condition, we should be trying as hard as we can to prevent it rather than wheeling everyone who gets it into the operating room at 39 weeks, right?

Thanks so much for all the suggestions -- I'm glad that there are others out there who are concerned about this. My med student friend seconded the recommendation to fast the morning of the test, so that's what I'll do. For those who ate carbs before their test and passed, I think it just means you are really, really healthy insulin-wise and probably couldn't have failed if you tried. Last time I ate an egg mcmuffin and a hashbrown from McDs before mine and I'm now pretty positive that that's why I failed. I won't be making that mistake again.

[Anonymous]

But egg mcmuffins and hash browns are so delicious!

LOL. Would you mind updating this thread after you take (and pass with flying colors -- fingers crossed) the test? I have one coming up in about 5 weeks and am the other nervous-about-this poster. Thank you for sharing your strategy with me. I think we could all use these lifestyle changes, whether or not we're prepping for a test!

[Anonymous]

Just remember to keep up the lifestyle modifications AFTER you pass the test. You don't want a false negative!

[Anonymous]

I agree with PP, you don't want a false negative. If you have GD, you really need to know about it, I don't know that beating the test does you any good...

[Anonymous]

OP here -- I tried to address concerns over "beating" the test in my original post. I normally eat pretty healthy and will continue to do so after (hopefully) passing, but I'm just focusing more on carbs and cutting out or reducing the few sweets I do indulge in for the next few weeks because the cutoff for the test has been lowered to 130 from 140, which I think is overkill. If I really had GD, I couldn't fool the test; but since it is overdiagnosed with no evidence of improvement in maternal or fetal outcomes and opens one up to interventions, I don't want to be a false positive. I don't think a false negative is possible, so I'm not concerned. And besides, making these changes can only be a positive thing. I will report back after I take the test, PP.

[Anonymous]

OP -- did you ever take the test? This is the other person concerned about it. I take mine this week!

[Anonymous]

I was told by my doctor not to eat or drink anything after midnight the day before the test and the morning of the test only drink the glucose drink (nothing to eat or drink other than that) and then get the blood drawn an hour after.

[Anonymous]

I failed the 1 hour with each of my two prior pregnancies, both by a hair and then passed the 3-hour without a problem. I just passed the 1 hour for my third pregnancy and the only thing I did was cut out carbs and sweets the night before (salad with protein for dinner) and had scrambled eggs for breakfast in the morning. It really wasn't much different from what I normally eat but I have had a sweet tooth lately so I made sure to skip my nightly dessert just in case. I didn't want to go too drastic and in the end cheat myself by "cheating" the test but I think those minor changes really helped in the end.

[Anonymous]

Do not drink juice before the test. It causes serious spikes in blood sugar.

[Anonymous]

I'd appreciate some advice because it sounds like the posters on this threaad are much more knowledgeable than I about this topic.

I didn't have GD during my first pregnancy.

This time around, I failed the first test at 28 weeks -- my blood sugar registered at 199. I asked the docs if this definitely meant GD. I thought maybe this could have happened because I had been on bedrest for a long time, eating just one meal per day -- usually high in carbs or sweets because I had food aversions to everything. (Yes, I know I should have been eating better. But it really was a choice between junk and nothing -- it's hard to work up an appetite when you're lying perfectly still. And I've gained very little weight). So, the night before my first test, I did nothing differently. Ate my one junky meal the night before. Had some fruit in the morning.

The docs still said, "no need to take the 3 hr test because you definitely have GD."

Because this pregnancy has been non-stop stressful from the beginning, I just didn't feel that I could take doing 4 blood tests a day in addition to my other complications (cervix related). So, I asked if I could turn in the results from a weekend of blood tests and have them re-evaluate.

I tested well within the normal range during the weekend. I was eating several times a day, but I didn't really follow the diabetic diet. I didn't follow it because I wanted to test my theory that I caused that spike the first time. I'm also to the point in the pregnancy where I can finally be more active.

Now the doctors are saying that I should just follow the diet and test my blood sugar occasionally.

Waht do you think?

[Anonymous]

To those who have had or have GD: what are your symptoms when your blood sugar spikes or falls too low?

[Anonymous]

21:54, I think most people are going to tell you that you should talk to your doctor about this, and I agree. While I am one of the people who say GD is WAAY overdiagnosed, I also think that 199 is a high enough number that you probably don't have a lot of grey area. However, if I were in your shoes, i would also have a suspicion that my sugar spiked that high because I was tested for it while on bedrest and after eating a junky meal, as you put it. One of the best ways for true diabetics to manage their situation is exercise. Since you were getting NONE, I can't imagine how that would not have had an impact. Add in high carb / high sugar meals, and that could be your culprit.

What are you asking specifically, whether or not you should continue to test your blood sugar daily or whether or not you should continue to check it occasionally? I think I'd try to keep my diet healthy and I would check my blood sugar pretty faithfully for the first few weeks. If you consistently show a low blood sugar level, then you might want to get your doctor to reconsider your diagnosis now that you're back to yourself, so to speak. I'm not sure what would go along with revising a diagnosis or if it's necessary. I think, if it were me with numbers that high, I'd probably still want to monitor my blood sugar on my own every so often and I'd watch my diet / exercise, which it sounds like you are doing. Good luck to you and I hope you don't have to drink the glucola again!

[Anonymous]

OP and others posting here--I was the other one concerned about having GD. I was also VERY concerned about drinking the "sludge" as so many pregnant friends of mine have called it not-so-affectionately. I don't know my results yet and I'm still REALLY edgy about the whole thing, but the test itself was not bad at all for me. The drink was very gross. It wasn't so bad at first, but you have to drink it down so quickly and the more you put in your mouth the more you think "I can't take another sip of this." But I got it down and kept it down (I did dry heave a lot in the car, though, so any of you driving yourself to the doctors office might want to keep in mind as a possibility and be careful). The blood draw was easy and the appointment was short. I told my doc about my concerns and he promised that under no circumstances would we be inducing before my due date based on size as measured by ultrasound. I was relieved that he did not "believe in that," but he acknowledged that many doctors consider that good practice. That said, i'm still feeling like the whole test was stressful and unnecessary. I'll report back with my numbers in case anyone cares...OP, interested in knowing how you fared, as well.

FWIW, I ate normally up until the test and the morning of, had only a cheese omelette (no toast or anything). I did have a bowl of cinnamon life cereal around 11 PM the night before (I was starving!) so I'm hoping those late night carbs didn't screw me!

[Anonymous]

OP here. It's been a long, crazy five weeks. It appears that my efforts to follow a low-carb diet and exercise daily have paid off in the sense that I've been monitoring my blood sugar at home for the past two weeks and it has been within the recommended range (under 95 fasting and under 140 one hour after meals). I am satisfied that if I continue with this diet and exercise regimen and periodically monitor my blood sugar on my own, I will continue to do fine and will not have the kind of uncontrolled blood sugar issues that can occasionally lead to problems.

After giving the matter a great deal of consideration, I have decided not to participate in the glucola test. I'm in the process of switching care providers, and my new care provider is fine with my self-monitoring regimen (it's possible the old care provider would be okay with it too, I'll find out tomorrow I guess, but I doubt it). I think there's a decent chance that I would pass the three-hour test at this point, if not the one-hour screening test, but I don't think it's either healthy or necessary to put my body through that when I already have a handle on what's going on. In fact, I feel better about going this way because I'll continue to eat healthily (if blandly -- I have a list of all the things I want to eat when the baby's born!) until the birth and periodic monitoring will reassure me that I have not developed any issues later in the pregnancy. But I still think GD is mostly bullshit -- an excuse for more unnecessary interventions -- and I don't want to lend credence to it by drinking the glucola, so to speak. Although there are several reasons why I decided that it was important to change providers; this was one, but only one.

I wish everyone else on this thread good luck with the rest of their pregnancies!

[Anonymous]

Good for you, OP. Others will probably feel differently, but let them flame away. My doctor was actually fine with me monitoring my own blood sugar as an alternative to this test, but I figured i'd see how the one hour went and go from there. I do not plan to take the 3 hour, either way -- if my levels are borderline, I'll just watch a bit more. If my levels for some reason are high, I'll do the diet and monitoring without the test. Bottom line, I agree with you that the test, and possibly most of the diagnoses, are pretty idiotic.