24 weeks - tested my own blood sugar and it's high I think? what should I do?

[Laidir87]

So I've been feeling like crap about an hour after eating and my dad is diabetic. I'm due to get the gestational diabetes test but not until sometime in August.
I'm also due to go on holiday for 11 days on Sunday, so I bought a blood glucose monitor. Tested just now about 14 hours after eating, just drinking some water (didn't do this on purpose, just had a big meal last night late).
It's 6.1 mmol/L.
That's high isn't it?
What should I do? Should I go on holiday or not? (DP will be mad) Should I phone midwife answer phone line I've been given?

www.gestationaldiabetes.co.uk

OP I would try and follow the GD diet for now anyway to keep your baby safe. The GD UK website also has a Facebook support group who are amazing.

as @mummytrexsays, low carb, pair any carbs you eat with protein and fat and try and go for a walk after every meal. Lots of water, have GD friendly snacks between meals.

@Laidir87did you test as soon as you woke up or after a while?
you may have it. But I would suggest testing as soon you wake up before eating. Mine would creep up the longer I didn’t eat / fast for.

I would try to contact the midwives as soon as possible. Since you have the blood sugar monitor you can just act like you have it already and test 4 times a day (fasting and 1 hr after each meal). If you consistently get high readings I would definitely change your diet straight away as suggested above. I did manage to travel in the UK a couple of times only eating out and keep the readings OK through careful choice of restaurants and meals.

@pinkcow123 I tested as soon as I woke up yesterday it was 6.1 mmol/L after 14 hours fasting then 8.6 mmol/L 2 hours after a meal, and today it was 5.7 mmol/L after 12 hours fasting. It's difficult to get the blood out took 4 tries this morning!
@wishIwasonholiday10 The midwives phone line here is unmanned so you are supposed to leave a message and they get back to you. I left a message yesterday lunchtime, but no call back yet. Presuming it will be Monday, but I'll be away by then. There is a triage line 24 hours but it's for emergencies.

I did spend a lot of time yesterday looking into the diet, and I followed it yesterday straight away and I'll continue to do so whilst on holiday. Hopefully there will be choices available. Yesterday's food (repetitive since haven't bought anything in cause of holiday) -

Breakfast - bit of cheese, protein thin bagel with peanut butter
Lunch - Chicken in tomato based sauce, 6 chips (!), salad
Snack - an orange and handful nuts
Dinner - 1 veggie sausage, bit of cheese, protein thin bagel with butter, broccoli, red pepper

Does this sound ok

Sounds like a good start. Keep testing. Everyone is different. As your pregnancy progresses your tolerance to carbs is likely to decrease. By the end of my pregnancy I'd had to start medication and cut out bread, pasta, rice and potatoes. My carbs were derived from vegetables..

For me it was below 5.3 in the morning and below 6.7 1.5h after a meal.
It’s not all about avoiding sugar, you also have to be eating right. Usually multiple small meals throughout the days is the way to go. And a good balance of veggies, protein and carbs.
breakfast - wholewheat bread, cheese, chicken breast salami/low fat yogurt with some fruit
(fruit is limited to 2 pieces per day)
lunch - 1/4 of the plate chicken, 1/4 unseasoned potatoes/brown rice/wholewheat pasta/porridge, 1/2 plate veggies and a side of salad
dinner - wholewheat bread with cheese and veggies
in between meals - fruit, yogurt, veggies
taking a walk can also lower sugar, don’t eat your last meal too late, don’t space your meals too far apart.

It’s normally a little higher in later pregnancy. Eating carefully won’t hurt..

The diet sounds OK but I would keep testing 1 hr after meals. Everyone’s tolerance can be really different. Don’t give up carbs altogether as your baby does need carbs to grow and they don’t want you in ketosis. Usually they let you have a few weeks to try to control it with diet but if that doesn’t work there’s medication you be prescribed such as metformin (pills) or insulin (injections).

Ahh ok, that does sound likely then. But try not to stress too much, I imagine due to when they schedule tests, lots of women have had GD for a while before they test.

Me included! And then I had uncontrolled fasting numbers for a long while after being diagnosed too, so if it takes a few days to hear back from the midwives, try not to worry.
My now 2.5 yr old is perfectly healthy and their sugars were normal at birth!

Sounds like you are doing everything you can in trying to make changes to your diet! And that will be the first step they ask you to do anyway!

There is a GD network, which you have to subscribe to to get full benefit, but has so many GD friendly recipes! Including some amazing GD brownies!

But I think the key thing is around pairing carbs, so always make sure you are eating a protein with any carbs / sugar. E.g peanut butter and apple, banana and yoghurt, nuts with some dark chocolate, toast with peanut butter / avocado.
and swap white foods (potatoes, rice, pasta, bread) for brown!

Good luck!

Obviously I’m not qualified at all to give medical advice but I had gd in my last pregnancy. They initially try and control it with just eating. So if you can’t get an appointment before you go, just act as though you definitely have it - Google the eating guidelines and maybe join a gestational diabetes facebook page in case you have any questions that you want a quick answer do. Take a blood glucose monitor and write down your readings every day. I can’t remember when I had to test but I think it might have been when I woke up in the morning and an hour after my tea.

The eating side of it isn’t that hard to do so it shouldn’t fuck up your holiday but it might make eating out more expensive as you’ll not be able to fill up on the cheap carby type meals like pizza and pasta.

As well as eating well, they also encouraged me to go for a good walk after a big meal as that helps too. A lot of people do that anyway on holiday after their evening meal.