Can someone talk me through the diabetes testing process?!

[NiceToesNaughtyToes]

Booked in with the midwife earlier this week and, due to my mum's recent diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, I've been booked in to be screened for diabetes a little later on.

Can anyone talk me through what will happen and what to expect?

Huge thank you in advance!!x

[NiceToesNaughtyToes]

Apologies for this being in the wrong place, I've just asked for it to be moved

[YetAnotherHelenMumsnet]

We have moved this for you now, OP.

[GiftsOnTheFireLogsOnTheTree]

You have to have blood taken, then drink a sugary liquid and wait for two hours. Then they do blood again. Results come a day or two later. My results were fine so I can't advise any further than that.

[Helbel82]

Like you my Mum has type 2 diabetes. I had mine the morning. I wasn't allowed to eat or drink (apart from water) anything since 8pm last night, although when I got there they asked that I hadn't eaten anything since midnight. This morning I had my bloods taken early and then had to drink a bottle and a bit of lucozade within 5 minutes. I got to go home as I live locally and was told not to do anything and rest for 2 hours so I didn't use up my sugars. I then went back 2 hours later and got my second bloods taken. They've told me I should have the results tomorrow. I'm 27 weeks and they require you to have it before 28 weeks.

[Nikki2ol6]

Basically you can't eat from 9pm the night before it's water only!!!
Then in the morning you go straight to hospital and tbey will ask if you have eaten and if you have you can't do the test. So then they take a blood sample from you then give you a cup of a sugary drink, you just drink it fairly quickly the. You have to rest for 2hours, still no eating during this time, then they take your blood again and you can eat after the blood is took. And that's it!

[lorelairoryemily]

I had it done last January and this is how it went, nothing to eat or drink from 8pm the night before. Blood taken at 8 followed immediately by sugary drink, blood taken again at 9 and final blood test at ten. I had gestational diabetes, they told me that the blood sugar reading 1 hour after the drink needs to be below 10, mine was 10.2, pain in the arse!! I really hope you don't have it op, best of luck

[Largemelons]

That's if you need an oral glucose tolerance test.
A more diagnostic test is the hba1c which can detect the average amount of glucose you have had in your system over the past 8 weeks.
I'm a blood scientist in biochemistry and spend most of my day analysing these samples! It's very straight forward.
Pregnant women aren't given this as their blood can contain higher levels of fetal haemoglobin which may interfere with analysis.

[Largemelons]

Ahhh just realised you are pregnant!
Me too ignore my previous post.

[MiniMaxi]

Won't repeat what others have said about the test process as mine was the same. Sugary liquid was lucozade - bit weird drinking something so sweet and fizzy in a short period of time but it was ok. On the plus side, it has caffeine which sorted my headache from not being allowed any tea or coffee in the morning before the test.

Bring a snack for after the second blood test, especially if you feel bad when you don't eat breakfast.

I did have gestational diabetes - midwife rang with the results and they then made me an appointment with a specialist diabetes nurse and consultant to discuss management. Hopefully you won't need to go down that road! Good luck.

[lorelairoryemily]

Largemelons thats really interesting, I had the hba1c several times during my pregnancy after I was diagnosed with gd and it was always perfect, I think next time I'm pregnant I'll request it instead of the glucose test

[Largemelons]

We do do it on pregnant women, probably more than we realise but there are two reasons why that's not the best idea.

Because we're measuring the haemoglobin which has glucose attached to it, we measure all variations of haemoglobin and it comes out on a graph. If you have over 5% foetal then it can affect the result but it's more that we're being over cautious really imo.
The other reason is that gd can develop really quickly, so looking at someone's average levels over the past 8 weeks isn't really going to help.
It may be ok for monitoring, just not diagnosis.

[drinkyourmilk]

The initial test in my area is different. Nothing to eat or drink except water from 9pm the day before. Drink 410ml of original lucozade quickly. Blood test exactly 2 hours later. If test shows possibility then you are given an appointment with the diabetes team.