Anyone had GD and can tell me about diet to follow?

[exexe]

I'm not sure but could possibly have GD (fasting result 7.5, 2 hrs after glucose drink 4.5 bit odd)

Anyway, my diet isn't great at the moment so I do realise I need to change it.

Are you advised to follow a low gi type diet?
Reduce carbs and sugar drasticallhy?

It's not uncommon to have a lower 2-hour GTT result than baseline. It just means that your body can produce insulin to control blood glucose levels in response to a glucose load. It doesn't mean your results are wrong.

Hopefully Wednesday will provide a definitive answer.

Also, please remember that a diagnosis of GDM moves a pregnancy into the high risk category & all that comes with that eg consultant-led care, birth in regional unit with neonatal facilities. I don't mean to scare you, but it's a very serious condition with many complications for mother & baby.

Please prioritise this above your work - it's far more important.

So is 7.5 high?
I appreciate all your info btw. Youre the only person who has explained anything to me!

Glad to be of help! Yes, a fasting glucose of 7.5 is high - our local criteria for diagnosis is: fasting >5.0, 2-hour > 8.5. These are lower figures than for diagnosing "normal" diabetes.

There are NICE guidelines on gestational diabetes: www.nice.org.uk - they're a bit of a read though!

Sorry, they're called "Diabetes in Pregnancy"

So what does my result actually mean? That my blood glucose is generally high at 7.5 but lowers to 4.5 when I have to deal with a load of glucose?
(sorry to keep bothering but thanks for replying! I'm just trying to understand it)

The fasting result of 7.5 is diagnostic of diabetes in pregnancy, to answer your question. If either figure is in the diagnostic range then it means you have it - doesn't matter if it's the 1st or 2nd reading. Provided that they're proper venous blood samples, that is & taken as part of a GTT (from your description it sounds like that's been the case)

Thanks for all your info

Just realised I didn't answer your question properly - sorry, was putting toddler to bed & clearly multi-tasking is not a strong point!!

The fasting value (7.5) tells us what your blood glucose is like with nothing in your system ie food. The 2hr value tells us how your body responds to a glucose load ie how effectively it produces insulin in response.

However, the GTT is such an artificial test - how many of us go around swigging Lucozade 1st thing? But it's the only way of diagnosing diabetes in pregnancy.

To be honest, we don't read too much into the interpretation of the actual results, just whether they're diagnostic or not.

Treatment decisions (ie tablets, insulin) are based on the day-to-day blood glucose monitoring - that's why it's so important to get it started - as you don't want to be missing out on necessary treatments. This is the important bit.

I hope that answers things better x

Thanks again lotsofcheese
I think the reason I'm confused is that if my value drops to 4.5 after glucose drink then surely that means that my body is very good at responding to glucose so why such a high rate when nothing in my system?
I don't know much about it obviously and the woman I was speaking at the clinic couldn't answer my questions.

Oh well. Hopefully I'll have a better idea next wednesday.

The important thing is to see what happens on a day-to-day basis with your blood glucose monitoring ie how your body responds to food. That's why the glucose monitoring (via finger-pricker) is so important. A few days/weeks worth of readings will tell if your levels are sufficiently under control.

Blood glucose monitoring is done 4 times daily (at least) & it is seeing these figures/patterns that is the most useful.

You can't draw any other conclusions from a GTT other than whether it's diagnostic or not. It was just a snapshot at that moment in time. It's the day-to-day testing we would interpret. So don't get too hung up on the GTT figures

Hope that helps

Ps people can have high fasting levels for various reasons: liver production of glucose overnight, insulin resistance, for example

Ok I won't too hung up about the gtt results and move ahead with the result next week.

Thanks