Gestational Diabetes

[ifherbumwereabungalow]

I got diagnosed with GD last Tuesday, after my Glucose Test came back over the Easter weekend with high blood sugar results. I went to the Diabetes Clinic yesterday, after following a strict diet for 6 days, but the diabetics doctor has put me onto insulin straightaway, telling me that I am 'obviously insulin-resistant.'

This was all a bit of a shock and I was having to make big decisions really quickly, and it wasn't really helped by the doctor and the diabetics nurse being pretty brusque and unsympathetic about the whole thing.

So, I took my overnight dose of insulin, but my blood sugar reading before breakfast was still too high, as was my post-breakfast one. I took a top-up of insulin and re-tested after ten minutes, but it remained high. I called the nurse in a bit of a panic, and she was very grumpy and dismissive, just telling me to up the night time dose a bit.

I am aware that getting the dose right is going to take some trail and error, but I was so hoping that it would all be fixed. Now, all I can do is cry, because I feel like while I am sleeping, my body is trying to kill my baby. I don't know if anyone else out there is experiencing the same thing, or has gone through it and come out the other side, but I could really do with some help with this one.

Thanks for sticking with this lengthy post, I am trying not to drip feed.

Oh no :(

Try upping the nighttime dose, and if nothing changes, can you call the diabetes clinic and speak to someone there?

Please try not to stress out too much, yes it will take a bit of time to get the dose right.
But it also takes time to get the diet right - there are some things that some people seem to be able to eat and others it sends right over the line.
How much diet and exercise advice have you been given? If not much - other than a diet sheet - then ask pointedly for a referral.
I also do find that when I've needed to increase my night-time dose it can take a day or so before I see really good results come through. I don't take any day time insulin but got put on slow-release insulin pretty quickly. I was tested early for it and had metformin increasing until I was taking the maximum, when that didn't seem to be helping the fasting A.M. results, we moved onto insulin. It was a shock, but I'm pleased now that they moved that quickly as I've seen good results in growth scans and my weight has been absolutely steady thoughout the pregnancy.

Fasting results are a pain - are you testing after dinner and they're ok? Or are they high before you go to bed to start of with? Are you having supper after testing? Look closely at your diet as well as the insulin doses and don't give up.

The important thing is to persevere. I suspect a lot of diabetes specialists get pretty hardened to what they perceive as poor patient effort, because - let's face it - it's a pretty difficult thing to do, big changes of eating habits, lots of self-denial - they must see a lot of people just NOT doing it but saying they are. Go in with a food diary, test results after each meal and your insulin doses and put it down on the desk in front of them next time. Make them go through it with you.

Good luck.

oh ifherbum i am so sorry you feel upset and feeling like your body is trying to kill your baby must be really upsetting. Just that really, I hear you and am offering a hand x i have heard many people on here say that wholemeal toast and hardboiled egg for breakfast is best way to go, rather than museli which can have lots of fruit sugar. hope you get it under control soon, if you are unhappy

didn't finish that'''''' if you are unhappy you could ask doctor for a session with dietician, if you tell him/her what you have told us they would be a hard bastard to refuse this!

Agree with LadyMaybe. I have type one diabetes and find it takes a day to make a difference. I would up your night time by one or two units (depending in your morning sugar level) every other night until your morning reading is below 5.

Once you get this sorted the rest of day is so much easier I promise. You don't want to be chasing these high readings all the time having to give extra insulin which can cause hypos and yoyo readings.

You will get there in the end try not to get disheartened by it it just might take a couple of weeks to settle down. Also some foods you wouldn't think are so high in sugar so look out for that

I found that it took a good few days to acclimatise to the diet and for my levels to settle down. I'm on slow-release insulin overnight but nothing during the day so far (am only 11 weeks though - last pg I was on loads by the end). I am in
France now, under a different system of care to last time - my endocrinologist here told me that if my fasting blood sugar level was too high I had to wait a day and see if it was still too high the next morning - if so, to up the dose. So give yourself a day to double-check your results.

Also, to reiterate what was said above, in my last pregnancy I was told by my diabetes clinic (in SE London) that they deal with lots of ethnic minorities who have a deep-seated cultural reluctance to change their diets away from things like plantain or white rice, so for them it was unusual to see someone stick so rigidly to the recommended diet. I second the suggestion that you keep a food diary - if nothing else it will help you understand how you react to certain foods so you can better control your blood sugar.

Lastly, re hidden sugar: it crops up in places you wouldn't think to look for it, eg
Heinz mayo or most brands of peanut butter, as well as places you might, eg ketchup. And don't forget about sugars other than glucose eg lactose in milk (so if you are having porridge, try making it with half milk half water) or fructose (apparently exotic fruits are higher in fructose than native ones. Berries are naturally low). My clinic advised that the best bread was Vogel's soya and linseed (fortunately it's delicious), but watch out for Burgen's because they add sugar. And don't be surprised that your blood sugar is harder to control in the mornings. Apparently this is because when we wake up we get a surge of pregnancy hormones that send our blood sugar levels haywire. I found it easier to have breakfast in two installments - a slice of soya and linseed toast with ham or salmon or scrambled egg or peanut butter, then later on once I'd tested and knew I was within the right parameters, a plain yoghurt (also contains lactose) or a decaff latte or whatever.

It does seem overwhelming to start with but you quickly get the hang of it. I hope you get the support you need through your medical team as well as here. Good luck!

Oh, and I found having protein for breakfast was really important if I wanted to avoid feeling weak and shaky mid-morning.

Much better advice from everyone up thread. Just wanted to check, you aren't drying your hands on patterned kitchen roll before doing your bloods are you? I was told by my GD midwife the print on that has got some kind of starch/sugar in that will affect the reading. (She wasn't in other respects terribly helpful, so I feel your pain over not knowing what you're doing and not finding the medical staff that sympathetic)

mrsboring - that's very interesting to know, that's what i do most of the time when drying my hands, i assumed the kitchen roll would be better to use than a tea towel which may have inadvertently picked up food on it somehow - I'm going to stop doing that now!

OP - just wanted to give you a bit of support really, agree with the others that you should see a dietician if they didn't offer that to you as diet and exercise will really help with regulating the sugar levels and they also talk about portion control and what to eat/avoid etc.

Thank you for all the advice ladies - I have been following the diet suggestions religiously and am trying to exercise, but being a bit held back by pelvic pain and my work schedule. I did see the dietician and she reviewed my food diary, in which I did faithfully dictate every single thing I had been eating. She said it looked as if I was doing all the right things, but my body was just not having any of it.

I am upping my dose a bit tonight, and will see how it looks in the morning. Fingers crossed I can get it under control asap. I feel fairly confident about the dietary and exercise requirements, and will be doing whatever it takes, I guess its just the emotional impact which has floored me.

mangomilkshake plain kitchen roll is fine - it's anything printed with a pattern that's a problem.

thanks mrsgboring - i thought you also meant the textured one (that's kind of a pattern aint it?) but yeh makes sense that it would be the ones with the pictures on it, ta muchly