Glucose Test

jessicaschafer8

Alright mamas, I’m doing my glucose test tomorrow. I passed my 1 hr with my 1st DS, I’m hoping for the same luck. Any tips or tricks?

lyse01

My test from this morning is still being processed, but I don’t recommend stopping at a bakery for a muffin before you get there. It’s probably fine? I hope?

MRDCle

Just eat protein focused breakfast - don't have pancakes with syrup and an OJ. I think last time I had a couple eggs? There really shouldn't be any tricks - you want the test to be accurate. My tip would be to go as early as possible so that you don't have to wait to eat more. 

thatbaintforbetty

I have never done the one hour, is that one not done fasting? 

I did the 3 hour this time and had to fast. 

Last time I was diagnosed off of bloodwork. 

Chug it as fast as you can. Since there is a time limit and you don’t want to have to do that twice. 

MRDCle

@thatbaintforbetty the one hour is not fasting. 

mermaidca

I'm going for mine in a couple of hours.  I agree with @mrdcle I want to it be accurate so I've been eating like I normally would.  If there's a chance of GD I'd like to know so I can treat it.

Good luck!!

phoenix92885

I thought I was going to do my 1hr glucose test yesterday but apparently my doctor's office requires that you fast before hand. So I'll be doing mine at 8am next Wednesday. I was told to not even drink water. This pregnant lady is not excited about it. I better pass .

sheknows6

I had mine last Thursday, thankfully passed! I didn't have to drink the glucola as I'm a bariatric patient so they just drew my hemoglobin a1c instead.

I would just follow whatever instructions they give you, I don't think this is a test you want to try and trick or beat.

rennie1108

phoenix92885 said:

I thought I was going to do my 1hr glucose test yesterday but apparently my doctor's office requires that you fast before hand. So I'll be doing mine at 8am next Wednesday. I was told to not even drink water. This pregnant lady is not excited about it. I better pass .

Say what? That's crazy. I have my one hour at like 3:30 in the afternoon, and my only instructions are to eat lunch like I normally would, just stay away from a lot of sugar. Which is going to be hard for me. I eat fruit at every meal!

jessicaschafer8

Thanks for all the advice. I’m by no means trying to ‘beat’ it, just want to make sure I don’t faint or barf ☺️

Kateriee

My last pregnancy i had to fast before my one hour. I go in next week to schedule the test and regular check-up. Since this is a different OB I'm not sure what to expect.

aqualicious

sheknows6 said:

I had mine last Thursday, thankfully passed! I didn't have to drink the glucola as I'm a bariatric patient so they just drew my hemoglobin a1c instead.

I would just follow whatever instructions they give you, I don't think this is a test you want to try and trick or beat.

Interesting, I’m also a bariatric patient and I had to drink the glucola.  I only have lap band though, and it’s temporarily drained.  

chrissdee

I had my 1 hour glucose test last week, and was told to not eat or drink anything for 1 hour before, so it wasn't bad. I can't remember what my instructions were when I was pregnant with DD. It's interesting that we all seem to have different instructions for the same test. 

Also, the fruit punch glucola tasted like an extra sweet Hawaiian punch and I actually liked it. 

sheknows6

@aqualicious does the lap band carry risk of dumping? I'm a gastric sleever so drinking that much sugar in 5 minutes is not only next to impossible for me but it will pretty much guarantee a bout of dumping syndrome

angelob88

When I had my 1 hr I was told not to fast. That was with DD. I failed by 2 or some stupid number and had to go make myself extremely sick fasting and pounding that stupid sugar drink with  the 3 hour. Passed with flying colors. I declined the test this time around. Unless risk factors pop up sometimes forgoing the insane amount of processed sugar is the better route to take.

aqualicious

sheknows6 said:

@aqualicious does the lap band carry risk of dumping? I'm a gastric sleever so drinking that much sugar in 5 minutes is not only next to impossible for me but it will pretty much guarantee a bout of dumping syndrome

It does, however since I had it drained due to the pregnancy, I don’t have that risk at the moment.  Did the sleeve work for you?  There are times I wish I’d gone that route, and others that I’m glad I chose the band. 

ysotte

Ugh. Just drank lemon lime glucose drink. It wasn’t as terrible a flavor as I was expecting, but having to drink something I don’t like within a time limit still made me feel like puking. 

sheknows6

@aqualicious It absolutely did, although I didn't lose as much as I could have since I got pregnant 9 months post op. I had another 30lbs I wanted to lose when I got pregnant, but I'm not complaining at all- I firmly think the sleeve is why my weight gain has been relatively steady, I'm only up 14.5lbs at 25 weeks. It also shouldn't be awful trying to lose the baby weight and the last 30 once she's here.

I really like that it is only restrictive and not malabsorptive like bypass or DS, I don't have any food aversions, and if you're familiar with the lap band you'll probably take to the sleeve much easier than others since you're used to restricting your portions. I think my favorite thing is that I don't get hungry like I used to, like I could eat everything in the house hungry (lap band doesn't address your Ghrelin like sleeve does). I would have done it sooner if I could have!

I definitely recommend it to anyone trying to use bariatric surgery as a tool - it's a great place to start.

lyse01

pssh did no one chug nasty beer or take shots of vodka from plastic bottles in college? Down it, down it quick, and plaster a smile on your face.
xoxo, sorority girl

MRDCle

lyse01 said:

pssh did no one chug nasty beer or take shots of vodka from plastic bottles in college? Down it, down it quick, and plaster a smile on your face.
xoxo, sorority girl

Yaaaas! Do you think I should find a beer bong and take it with me? I used to be able to do a beer in under 3 seconds.  Really impress the lab people  

jessicaschafer8

I survived! Ended up eating 2 scrambled eggs, tiny glass of milk and 1/4 of a whole wheat bagel about 1.5 hours before the test and didn’t feel too terrible. Should get the results within 24 hrs... fingers crossed!

mermaidca

@lyse01 @mrdcle There's a video of me slamming 2 beers at once in a beer bong, I was 16 at the time.  Haha.  Classy all the way.  My BIL is a plumber so he made his own with a fancy nozzle with an open/close valve. Within our group of friends it has always been called a beer funnel.  If you called it a beer bong you would be ridiculed relentlessly.

kangstadt

@angelob88, I wasn't even aware that declining the test is an option.  I don't have any risk factors and didn't have GD with my first pregnancy.  Hm... may have to call my OB Monday and ask if it's really necessary.

angelob88

@kangstadt My midwives just have me sign a waiver saying that I refuse the test, they actually don't recommend it in their practice but always give the mother the option. You can refuse any type of treatment, hospital or otherwise, you just have to be prepared to list your reasoning for it and advocate for yourself. No doctor or midwife can force you to do any test.

kangstadt

@angelob88, good to know.  With my first, I definitely didn't know better than to just go with whatever the doctors said.  Although DH (a former nurse) wants me to have the glucose test just to rule it out *rolls eyes*.

mermaidca

 May I ask why you are declining @kangstadt and @angelob88.  Other than you didn't have it last time?  It's not only overweight women who don't work out who get it.  Your body just becomes insulin resistant when you are pregnant.  I'm not judging, just curious!

lilpotatomama

@chrissdee I had the orange glucola, but I was definitely a fan. It was super cold and it tasted like tang! My stomach was a bit unsettled afterwards, but that was more nerves and hunger than anything else. 

kangstadt

@mermaidca, I'm going to do the test, just had the brief thought that all these procedures and tests are sometimes excessive if there aren't any symptoms to cause concern.  My DH is of the mindset to check for everything/do as the doctors prescribe regardless of actual need.  I followed everything the doctors said last time and ended up having a rather rough delivery and I just feel like I could be advocated more if I had been more informed (like this time I keep going back and forth on if we'll do the eye ointment or not, since I have no risk of having an STD).  Anyway, long winded way of saying that I'll still do the glucose test, just wish sometimes that as patients we were informed more about what is required versus just recommended.

angelob88

@mermaidca part of the reason I'm declining is because of the research I've done on the drink itself and what it's made with. Look up glucola, the ingredients, and why they can be harmful not only to yourself but also to the baby. I absolutely agree that gestational diabetes is a serious condition in pregnancy that should be monitored and screened for, however there are many other ways to go about it. Only 2-5% of pregnant women actually develop gestational diabetes which is a pretty low percentage, but 25% of women who are pregnant routinely get a false positive when taking the test using the Glucola drink. Also, the results are rarely able to be reproduced from one day to the next, meaning I could fail today and pass with flying colors tomorrow...I don't think that's reliable.

Not only that, but some women don't consume double the recommended amount of sugar on a daily basis. 25g is the recommended amount for an adult woman in one day. The Glucola drink has 50grams of sugar alone, and if you need to take a 3 hour test that's 100g of sugar while eating nothing else which is asking to make yourself sick.

If I were to show risk factors there are other, healthier, ways to determine whether or not I need to control my sugar levels. I can do routine blood levels through a few days and document to see whether or not they are in normal range. I can do the jelly bean test (also 50g of sugar but without all the added chemicals that glucola add), my midwife also does something along the lines of a high carbohydrate breakfast followed by blood levels to determine whether or not we need to further evaluate.

Sorry for being slightly long winded but if I'm controlling things like soda intake, sushi, raw deli meat, caffiene, etc in order to protect my baby, I sure as hell am not going to knowingly put 50g of sugar into my body on top of other chemicals to appease my doctor. Especially given it's unreliability. 

kangstadt

@angelob88, I've had similar thoughts as to why I wouldn't want to do the test but haven't actually done the research myself.  I may look further into it now before my appointment next week.  Thanks for posting your reasoning!

MRDCle

I can see declining the glucola, but I would definitely do an alternate method of testing. None of the testing is real invasive and the results of untreated GD can be devastating. 

mesweettea

@angelob88 @kangstadt Thanks for the perspective!
I've definitely been a little frustrated by the care that I have received feeling very assembly line, and not very individualized. This test was just another on the long list of steps: "next time you do this"...
I hadn't heard some of the reasons to not do the glucose test for GD, so it was interesting to read more about it and hear your reasons for opting out.
But personally, I torture my body with sugary stuff regularly, so I'm not too worried about a little extra. Also, diabetes definitely runs in my family, so the slight downsides seem worth it to me.

tmblickley

When you researched the glucola test, is this pregnancy and health bloggers/websites or scientific/medical peer reviewed journal articles? 

My 20 week scan at maternal fetal medicine said my baby was measuring big and so my ob would want to run the test at my next appt.  My ob said we could do it at 24 or 28 weeks as he wasn't too worried.  This being my 6th pregnancy with only 1 live birth thus far, I'm taking the test early for my peace of mind.

sheknows6

I agree with @MRDCle, if you don't want to drink the glucola then definitely ask for an alternate to the challenge like gummy bears or pancakes, etc. or just ask them to draw your hemoglobin a1c. I think there is a fine line between being informed and being paranoid and the internet certainly doesn't help with this. Like @tmblickley asked, when you researched, what were your sources? There is just so much fear mongering on the net that if you aren't using legitimate sources it can be easy to get lost in the weeds. 

If I wasn't bariatric I would have drank the glucola, and I was prepared to do so anyway when my doctor surprised me with the a1c option. 

ysotte

I have a history of hypoglycemia, so I was dreading drinking this glucose drink knowing full well that my body would not process it correctly. Shortly after I left the doctor’s office, I was shaking and almost passed out. Thankfully I was already preparing to eat something, so my food got to me just in time. If I had realized there were other testing options, I probably would have asked for an alternative.

kate_e_nb

Hey mamas, just had my glucose challenge this morning! Was not as bad as I had thought it was going to be. Hot tip, (for anyone like me who has a hard time getting liquids down quickly), use a big straw instead of drinking right from the container. The nurse I had was really nice and recommended that I use one, and it actually helped.

Also, for anyone who is still waiting to do theirs, I got myself really psyched up because I had so many people telling me how absolutely awful it was, and how I was definitely going to throw up. Don't listen to these people, its not nearly that bad! I don't know why its sometimes the culture to try to scare the shit out of FTMs with prior negative experiences, but it seriously sucks. 

jessicaschafer8

My breakfast regimen must have worked because I found out I passed with flying colors! Good luck to everyone else. It really isn’t that bad, you just feel a little wonky after. 

mermaidca

@angelob88 thank you for your perspective!!

I didn't feel wonky or sick after my test this time or last time.  I've never heard of anyone throwing up from the drink @kate_e_nb.  The worst I ever heard from other moms was the drink is a bit sweet haha.  It's funny how everyone has such different takes on every experience.  I've also never had negative experiences with blood tests and donate blood as often as I can when I'm not pregnant so I think that helps me in these types of situations.

lyse01

lyse01 said:

My test from this morning is still being processed, but I don’t recommend stopping at a bakery for a muffin before you get there. It’s probably fine? I hope?

Fine, as in 126 with a cut off of 135. But I still wouldn’t recommend the bakery route

kate_e_nb

@mermaidca yeah I might have to stop listening to some of the people in my life who love to tell me how horrible every test / experience is! It always gets me so worked up for nothing! Having blood drawn doesn't bother me either, I used to donate blood all the time pre-pregnancy! And really, I was a little nauseous after, but nothing crazy, pretty much the same feeling as when you over-indulge on too much junk food (which I do a fair amount and gain no diagnostic insights from haha!)

berky84

I personally like the drink. I think it's tasty but realize I'm in the minority. I find doing it in the morning after a good protein filled breakfast is best. Like eggs. Good luck Everyone!