Pregnancy Diabetes Clinic #1

Ryan and I went to my first pregnancy diabetes clinic this morning. There are a couple of doctors I'm supposed to be talking to at these clinics, but I only met one today. The doctor was okay, nothing special. Her name is Elise Christensen. She's a dietician so she wanted to focus on my eating habits and make sure I was getting enough of the foods I need. And guess what? I'm not!

Turns out I am supposed to get 9 to 15 one-ounce servings of protein per day. At most, I am currently getting 3 servings!

So, I am upping my protein intake. This is supposed to help my low blood sugars.

Speaking of which, I have not yet reported to everyone my recent horror stories...

My blood sugar has been going low a lot lately. I read that this is because while the placenta is being made, blood sugars run lower. Anyhow, this last weekend has been the worst by far. On Saturday morning, I went to work. I'd been there for an hour when all of a sudden, I got the worst stomach ache ever. It was awful! It hurt to walk and it hurt to have my belt pressing on my stomach. So, I removed my belt and stuffed it in my purse at work. This sucked because I was wearing some pants I just bought a size too big in preparation for outgrowing my current size of clothing, so my pants were falling down all day. I bought some chewable Rolaids and they just made my stomach gurgle more. So I went to the breakroom to be miserable for a while. I couldn't leave work because not only were we short-handed for truck day, but someone else had called in sick. Anyway, after sitting there for a while, I realized I was going to throw up. So I walked to the bathroom and threw up my breakfast. I felt better for about two minutes and then my stomach ache came back. I was miserable for most of the day and didn't feel better until around 2:00. I got home from work around 4:00 and got on my laptop. I hadn't even been on for an hour when my vision started going weird. Note: this is a symptom of low blood sugar for me. However, that didn't pop into my head. What did pop into my head was that I'd been on the computer for too long (why I thought that, I don't know--I've been on the computer for 12 hours straight before and have had no problems with my vision). Finally my vision was tripping so bad that I shut my laptop. Ryan was playing xBox and I decided to go upstairs. This was around 5:00. I don't remember making it all the way up the stairs, so I must have gone into shock on my way up. The next thing I remembered, it was 7:30 and I had orange juice all over my shirt and in my hair. I was freezing cold from being drenched in orange juice. Ryan told me I'd gone into shock and that he was trying to force me to drink orange juice and glucose gel, and as I typically do when I'm low, I viciously fought him. I can get violent when I'm in shock. I bite and spit and throw things given to me. I refuse to eat, which is what I need to do to come out of shock, so things can be pretty scary. Ryan didn't even let me shower and insisted we go get something to eat the minute I was fully conscious. So we did. I showered when we got back and before I went to bed, all the sugar finally hit me. My blood sugar was up to almost 500. So I gave myself some insulin to get it down (not even as much as I was supposed to, though) and tested again a couple hours later. This time my blood sugar was in the 200's. Again, I gave myself some insulin to get it down (and again, I did not give myself as much as I was supposed to). I figured since I was as high as I was going to bed, I wouldn't have any trouble during the night. WRONG! I again woke up in shock. My manager at work called me at 8:15 Sunday morning wondering where I was, since I was supposed to be there at 7:30. I wasn't even fully conscious until 8:30 or so and didn't make it to work until 9:00 a.m.

Anyway, that little side story being told, the increase in protein in my diet is supposed to help. Also at this doctor's visit, we found out that I have to go these pregnancy diabetes clinics at least once a week for the entire pregnancy. Supposedly as hormones change, so do blood sugars. And they change constantly during pregnancy. So I have to see a doctor every week to adjust my insulin levels. In addition to these weekly visits, I also have to see my family physician, who is also my obstetrician, at least once a month for now. So far I still see my regular diabetes doctor only every three months (I have an appointment with him tomorrow--I'll let you know if once every three months changes), and I have not yet met with my perinatologist, and I'm not sure how often I will have to see her.

Anyhow, that's about all there is to report from the doctor's appointment today. My next appointment is tomorrow and I'll let you know how that one goes.

Hope everyone is doing fantastic!

-Aubrey