I believe that a post about the gestational diabetes glucose screening is obligatory for any pregnant blogger. So here is mine - written on 18 June 2013, when I was 25ish weeks along.
I have only the vaguest memories of the gestational diabetes glucose screenings from my previous pregnancies. I think with both Miriam (in Damascus) and Magdalena (in Tucson), it was some variation on the same old "drink this really sweet drink and we'll take your blood/urine in an hour" theme.
Here in Sharjah, though, they break out the big guns right away. Instead of the standard glucose screening, with further testing for those who don't pass, they go straight to the tolerance test for everyone. You have to fast for 12 hours beforehand, and you have to drink more sweet stuff, and it's more concentrated, and you have your blood/urine taken three times over two hours instead of just one time over one hour. This would be nausea-inducing enough without being pregnant. When you're pregnant, it's downright icky.
By the way, I'm not exactly sure why they skip right to the more intensive test, though I do know that there is a gestational diabetes awareness campaign going on in Sharjah. My guess is that it's a problem, but that some women are not getting tested for it or do not understand the implications of being diagnosed with it.
I had the test this morning and it pretty much shot my whole day. The fasting was hard (my nausea tends to get worse if I don't eat), and the drink was just awful. The room temperature, syrupy Mirinda-flavored glucose solution tasted good for about the first three sips. The other three cupfuls were increasingly disgusting. I still feel woozy and ill, almost as if I, oh I don't know, drank an entire liter of flat pop in five minutes on a completely empty stomach and then sat there for two hours being poked with a needle. Weird.
I can complain about it with a bad attitude because I passed, thank goodness. Of course I'm grateful that doctors here care enough about the health of pregnant women to make sure they get the treatment they need if they have gestational diabetes. I just wish someone out there would care enough to find a different way to test for it.
Here in Sharjah, though, they break out the big guns right away. Instead of the standard glucose screening, with further testing for those who don't pass, they go straight to the tolerance test for everyone. You have to fast for 12 hours beforehand, and you have to drink more sweet stuff, and it's more concentrated, and you have your blood/urine taken three times over two hours instead of just one time over one hour. This would be nausea-inducing enough without being pregnant. When you're pregnant, it's downright icky.
By the way, I'm not exactly sure why they skip right to the more intensive test, though I do know that there is a gestational diabetes awareness campaign going on in Sharjah. My guess is that it's a problem, but that some women are not getting tested for it or do not understand the implications of being diagnosed with it.
I had the test this morning and it pretty much shot my whole day. The fasting was hard (my nausea tends to get worse if I don't eat), and the drink was just awful. The room temperature, syrupy Mirinda-flavored glucose solution tasted good for about the first three sips. The other three cupfuls were increasingly disgusting. I still feel woozy and ill, almost as if I, oh I don't know, drank an entire liter of flat pop in five minutes on a completely empty stomach and then sat there for two hours being poked with a needle. Weird.
I can complain about it with a bad attitude because I passed, thank goodness. Of course I'm grateful that doctors here care enough about the health of pregnant women to make sure they get the treatment they need if they have gestational diabetes. I just wish someone out there would care enough to find a different way to test for it.