Glucose Test - false positive and no re-test?

[Coronet08]

Has anyone had proper glucose testing, and how do you fight incorrect diagnosis? NHS seems pretty Orwellian to me.
Had non-fasting GTT test without warning and remember drinking juice and taking sugary snacks with me to the hospital. Either way the result showed up as over 11 after 1 hour, which is not in line with previous blood tests. I'm pretty sure it's contaminated with the stuff I ate during the test.
I'm eating healthily overall, watch my sugar intake, and exercise every day. I am not overweight and don't have any family history of diabetes.
So I had a call from diabetes team and based on this one reading they have diagnosed me with Gestational Diabetes, told me my baby is more likely to die, I need to change my diet and I will need to be induced early...
I have got the testing kit and all the home test results have been ridiculously low if anything.
I'm pretty sure I dont have GT. Got in touch with the team and no response. Midwives are not able to help and referring to the diabetes team again...
This blanket approach is very bizzare, I should have declined the test but I didn't expect this bullying attitude and jumping to conclusions. How many women don't do the research and just get depressed after speaking to these people?!

8 is high and bananas are high in carbs so will send your levels up if you're experiencing insulin issues. I know many people think it's sugar that you need to look out for but it's all carbohydrates. Waking up on 6 is quite a good indicator that there are some issues, despite yesterday's good readings. It does seem you're searching for any reason for your levels to be out of range rather than accepting it's likely to be a placenta/insulin issue. They will do placenta flow scans often towards the end though and if your levels continue to go high they can quickly adjust the plan of action for you. It sounds like you'll be willing to do all you can to avoid induction though (and I really don't blame you) so keeping those levels low and stable will be the best way to do that.

If you don't like finger pricing you can always purchase a freestyle libre (Superdrug or asda pharmacies for best price). That'll really give you a good idea of what's going on.

I had a thing on a spring to get my drop of blood and it really hurt. Plus I have callused fingers so it always took several goes. For me doing the fingerpricks got worse not easier because my fingers never got a chance to heal. But in the end I had to accept that they were right and my blood sugar was off and needed to be watched. It went right back to normal as soon as she was born and so far (nearly 3 years later) my blood sugar is very good.

For fasting sugars in the morning my endocrinologist suggested that I ate a small amount of protein just before I went to bed, so I used to have a baby bel at around midnight and once I started that my fasting sugars were also good.

Also, the normal foods didn't spike me at all and lots of supposedly good food did. Normal potatoes were fine. Sweet potato was deadly and always produced a spike. Rice was fine but oats, which are supposed to be low GI, always had me at the borderline.

I think the fundamental point, which it took me a while to get, is that if your sugars are sometimes peaking after you eat by 26 weeks or 30 weeks, even if it is not by very much, then you do need to be monitoring them because it indicates that things aren't working as well as they should be, and the demands on your pancreas will only increase as your pregnancy goes on. So I think your approach is sensible even though I understand why you felt the way you did when it was diagnosed.

@Coronet08 if you had readings around 8 then it doesn't sound like a misdiagnosis and the fasting level of 6.
Bananas are very high in sugar, small green ones paired with peanut butter or some cheese you may be able to tolerate. Loads of ideas and recipes on the gestational diabetes mums uk Facebook page x

A fasting level of 6, especially combined with the previous numbers you’ve quoted makes it sound like the diagnosis was correct. Having GD is not a character failing, or a judgment on you and your lifestyle. Be careful that you’re not searching for reasons why you “can’t” have it (went for a run, ate some nuts etc) and ignoring some of your results.

Be careful that you’re not searching for reasons why you “can’t” have it (went for a run, ate some nuts etc) and ignoring some of your results.

I have to admit I am thinking you need to be careful of this too. I don't think that feeling great or having a generally healthy diet are relevant because gestational diabetes is about demands on your pancreas from pregnancy. You've got a whole tiny person using your pancreas with you and not everyone's pancreas can cope. Bananas are healthy, sure, but if they consistently spike your blood sugar then you need to find something that doesn't.

But I do understand why you would have been put out at having to take a test that is supposed to be on a fast from midnight when you'd eaten, and I do think that it can be really hard to accept the diagnosis as it was for me.

I can empathise with this, and my advice would be to keep testing for a good few weeks and then use your normal blood scores to ask for a repeat (although your blood readings do sound all over the place to be fair and certainly not in the normal range).

I had a Hba1c blood test at 12 weeks (no GTT in my trust cos of covid) which showed a reading of 41 where the prediabetes score was 40 or above. But on the day of my blood test it was also 9 weeks to the day I'd broken a leg, been in a cast and strictly non weight bearing. And a lack of exercise can push your blood test upwards.

So I've tested 4 times a day for the last 10 weeks and my bloods are always normal. Discussed this with the diabetes team and my midwife and they agreed to retake my hba1c this week. I really pushed for this because, same as you, I hated all their talk about early induction and massive babies and risk this and risk that.

Don't stress about it, you'll get into a nice routine and probably start to find it fascinating seeing what different foods do to your blood! HOWEVER if your bloods are very erratic like they seem to be then try to be thankful instead of irritated that it's been picked up on. And enjoy the extra baby scans you'll get 😊

It sounds like it wasn’t the fasting GTT that the OP had but a non-fasting polycose test that CAN be done non-fasting which means the result still stands.

I get it. It’s horrible being diagnosed with GDM. And psychologically we are told that developing diabetes is ‘because you’re unhealthy’ but that’s not always the case with T2 and it’s never the case with T1 and very very rarely the case with GDM.

Here’s to normal readings throughout OP.