Fasting bloods and hyperemesis

[Bearfrills]

I'm 16wks pregnant and was diagnoses with hyperemesis in week 9/10. I've been taking cyclizine three times a day and it's more or less working. I can go a good three, even four, days in a row without being sick and when I am sick now it's once as opposed to nonstop. Eating helps too, forcing down some crackers or cereal or toast, getting food in little and often, and the combination of that and the pills has me virtually sorted.

I also have a cervical erosion and have had several bleeds from it. The EPU said that they think the vomiting was causing the bleeds as the force of being sick was putting pressure on that area. It's certainly been the case that since I got the vomiting under control, the bleeding has stopped.

Hospital want me to have a glucose tolerance test at 24wks. They sent me an appointment out for 12pm with instructions not to eat from 11pm the night before until after the test is completed. They also said on can't take my cyclizine that day in case it interferes with the test. I rang up to say it was no good, I'll be ill. I'd have a blood test at 12pm, drink the sugary drink, wait two hours, then have another blood test at around 2pm then I'd be allowed to eat and take my cyclizine. It's too long to go without eating and I know from experience that I'll be sick and will then get to the point that I'm so sick, I can't eat or drink because it won't stay down. Their compromise was to change my appointment to time to 8.30am.

I'm such a wimp but I'm petrified of being sick. I was never good with sick anyway but the HG has got me where I feel shaky and weepy at the thought of having to be sick, I get panicky, especially if there's a chance I'll be sick in public and I can think of nowhere more public than a crowded waiting room and/or public toilet.

I have to make myself eat breakfast virtually as soon as I get out of bed each morning, if I leave it longer than around 30 minutes then I'm sick so I know the Fasting will cause problems.

Has anyone with HG had this test done or am I missing something that I haven't thought of? This is my fourth DC (sixth pregnancy) and I've never had this test in any of my previous pregnancies, have never had any issues with my blood sugar either and the blood sugar test from my booking in was normal.

Sorry for rambling!

After discussion with my midwife I refused the test. Hyperemesis meant that there was no way I would keep the sugary drink down long enough for the test to be accurate any way so the results would be useless - there is quite a lot to drink in a short space of time. Ask why they want to do the test - is it just routine or do you have symptoms?

Routine apparently, my dad is a type 2 (?) diabetic and I'm an "older mum" (35) with a lot of pregnancies in a short space of time (six in the space of seven years).

Is the drink really huge and really sweet? I'd not be able to keep it down if it is.

I have no symptoms. I saw a MW two weeks ago at the MAU and they did a finger prick blood sugar as part of their BP/temperature/wee dip routine. Finger prick was normal.

I refused the test because I had no symptoms to concern them and I knew it would make me ill.

I wonder what the chances are of gestational diabetes going completely undetected with no symptoms. They dip my wee at every appointment and it never has sugar in it and they'll be testing blood sugar as part of the standard 28wk bloods.

I don't know if it makes a difference but I'm having baby at 36-38wks anyway, having a growth scan at 32wks to decide an exact date.

I'm not excessively thirsty, I pee a normal amount and I'm not at all tired

I think you might struggle to drink the drink as it's not very nice, even when you don't have HG. It's quite a big drink. Could you ask if you could drink something like lucazade instead of their standard drink? Or why don't you ask if there's another way of checking, eg a blood test? Or ask if you can be given a monitor and test your blood before and after meals etc for a week?

I was told I needed it as I was over 35 and it was baby no.4. Midwife wasn't too fussed when I declined.

Ah bless you, I also had hyperemesis and had to do a glucose test as baby was measuring big no other symptoms. I had been in hospital a lot for the sickness and at 28 weeks when I was told I would have to have the test I was still being sick!
I decided to have the test as the thought of having undiagnosed diabetes scared me more than being sick in the end.
The only way I got through it was making sure I had someone with me, wearing my seabands and having a olbas oil stick to smell (strange I know but helped with my sickness) and sipping water. The drink tastes like flat Fanta and didn't make me feel any more sick than I already did. It really was not as bad as it seems but completely understand where you are coming from.

Can they not do a random glucose test instead? That should give enough info on whether you need a tolerance test if it comes back abnormal.

You could ask for a monitoring kit and see if you could do maybe a week of testing after food to check your tolerance.
I had GD in a previous pregnancy and this time around I was offered the choice of doing the GTT or going straight to monitoring my bloods. It would mean doing finger prick tests at home. It varies by trust but it's usually four times a day. A fasting test then one hour after each meal.
It would avoid the GTT and show up if you were having problems tolerating sugar/carbs.

I'm booked in for GTT too as my mum is diabetic and my appointment letter says I have to take a 500ml bottle of original Lucuzade with me to drink after the pin prick test when I first get there. So they aren't providing it, I have to take my own! I have to get there at 8am though. I can't believe they would book a fasting test for midday anyway, that's ridiculous! I'd have passed out long before then!