AIBU to be bloody fed up about gestational diabetes

[YukoandHiro]

Had it in my first pregnancy, lost weight between pregnancies, am fit and slim.

Now in second trimester and it looks like it's developing again - all glucose tests at hospital are cancelled so I've been finger pricking at home and getting high readings.

Can't imagine the next 20 weeks on that damn diet.

Gah. Really fed up. Life is tricky enough just now without that amount of careful meal planning, and without being able to go to the shops whenever to pick up extra things to help.

My GTT was cancelled but replaced with an HBA1C test. It's just one blood test, with no waiting around. Could you ask for one of them?
You should be having a face to face appt at 28 weeks, so it could be done in conjunction with that, as mine was.

It is pants! But some of us have to adapt our diet permanently due to insulin resistance- and it really isn’t that tricky! Just done some fab low carb baking for our VE Day commemorations! Hope all goes well xx

Hi @liverbird - keep an eye on that as my hba1c was normal throughout pregnancy last time but my second GTT was sky high. It was almost missed, even though I had terrible symptoms including severe vision changes

Ooh can you share any links to low carb baking?

The levels in pregnancy are so strict. Have to be under 7 an hour after a meal. Basically two new potatoes with dinner was my max last time :(

Yuko a random blood sugar is also sent with the HBA1C, a result of 8 or above is indicative of GDM.

It is wick but ultimately following the regime will keep your baby safe.

I developed an autoimmume disease in this pregnancy and the medication i have been on to manage the symptoms has given me gestational diabetes. Just found out this week. It sucks.

@Pixiefringe Sorry to hear that, it's so rubbish. Make sure you join the Gestational Diabetes UK Facebook group - they are amazing, so many experienced GD mums and amazing diet advice on the website that accompanies it. It really got me through it last time.

Even though it's such a shock at the time, it doesn't last forever. X

@FoxtrotSkarloey I know exactly what you mean...: things are just grim at the moment.

Hopefully you'll skip it this time! My hospital isn't running GTTs at the moment, so I'm glad I've got a home kit to keep an eye on things.

Thank you Yuko :) i'll check out that group x

@YukoandHiro and @PrivateD00r thanks for sharing your knowledge. I am a bit confused though...is it accurate or not?
I had my test on weds a.m. and haven't heard anything (they said no news was good news). Do you reckon they've been in touch by now if there was an issue? I hope so because if there's something wrong, I want to know asap and start to deal with it!
What strange times we are living in!

@Liverbird77 It's accurate in that it tests your average blood sugar over 3 months, but it can miss severe spikes. I was spiking and crashing - I even passed the first GTT because of this last time and was only diagnosed after being sent for a second at 33 weeks after a midwife in the MAU who kept seeing me for visual changes sent me home with a test kit and high readings emerged.

If you've had it before or are high risk and have symptoms I would ask for a test kit to keep an eye on your post meal readings. So far I'm only spiking for very high carb meals such as huge bowl of pasta or massive bowl of Cheerios... but even that I think means it's coming and I need to get on the diet and get under the right midwife/team.

@YukoandHiro thanks for clarifying. I will defo keep an eye on things. I have a scan at 32 weeks so I'll see if they flag anything there.
Luckily, I didn't have it with pregnancy no 1 and there is no family history. It's just that my BMI is a bit high.
Thanks again x

It must be doubly hard during pregnancy I have sympathy as I felt permanently sick and could only stomach bland foods.
The low carb bootcamps on here are good for recipes and advice. I do not eat starchy carbs at all now because I cannot tolerate them anymore. Do you like cauliflower-it’s really versatile and delicious mashed with butter and cheese in lieu of potatoes?

There’s some good Keto recipe Facebook pages. A lot of them are American so you may have to adapt the odd one but there’s loads of nice recipes

Most of the recipes are links to blogs which then have loads more recipes

Some of the websites I use are:
lowcarbmaven,
all day i dream about food
Sugarfreelondoner
Mama bear’s cookbook

@liverbird if you didn't have it first time and all routine tests are fine and you don't have any symptoms you're probably totally in the clear. Loads of people with a higher BMI don't get it - and some people like me with no risk factors at all still do!