Glucose Tolerance Test Results

Last Wednesday, I got a call from a nurse at the OB's office saying that I had failed my Glucose Screening Test. :( I was pretty sure that everything was fine since I hadn't heard anything and it had been almost a week since I had taken the test. So I was honestly kind of surprised to get the call. She said that my Blood Glucose level was not super high - it was144 - but it needed to be below 129 to be considered normal. Therefore, I needed to go to the lab for a three-hour Glucose Tolerance Test within the next few days. Fun times! I was not necessarily worried that I failed the one-hour test, since I had done the same when I was pregnant with Jacob (my level that time was 166). But, I was hopeful that, similar to that time, I would not fail the three-hour test!

Thankfully, Keith was able to take Friday off from work so I made an appointment at the lab to do the three-hour test that day. They wanted me to be there between 7-8am so it would have been tricky to get Jacob to someone's house or even have someone come here to watch him that early. It was nice that Daddy was able to stay home and spend some time with him too! I felt like I didn't need to rush and I even ran a bunch of errands (grabbed lunch and went to Sam's Club & Walmart) after I left the lab - it was nice to have a day to get some necessary things accomplished without having to take Jacob along.

The three-hour test wasn't that bad and the time seemed to go by quite quickly. I arrived at the lab around 8am, they took some blood before I drank the "sweet juice" (100 grams of glucose in the same sized bottle as the picture above, Lemon-Lime flavored this time...it was really gross and kind of hard to get down in the five minute allowed time). Then, I got registered and sat in the waiting room for the next three hours. They called me back to give a blood sample every hour (at 9:15am, 10:15am and 11:15am). The women who took my blood did a really good job and, of the four times I was pricked, only one of them didn't take the first time. My right arm seems to have the beat veins since they took blood from my right hand once and my right arm three times (it was my left arm that didn't want to cooperate - she said that my vein "rolled" so she couldn't get any blood even after poking around).

There were two other pregnant women there who were also doing the same thing I was, so we would chat every now and then while we were waiting. One of them is due Aug 20th and the other on Aug 21st. We joked that we would see each other at the hospital when we had our babies. Ironic thing is that they were both having boys too! I took my computer with me and there was free wi-fi in the main building's waiting area (but not in the lab waiting area), so I would wander out there every now and then to check my email or facebook. I even got a little (paid) work done. I also worked a bit on getting photos and videos organized on my Macbook so I can get them off the computer and onto DVDs (this is an on-going project that takes a long time so some uninterrupted time with nothing else to do was perfect for this!).

When I spoke to the nurse on the phone on Wednesday, she said that they might have the results on Friday afternoon, but they would definitely be available on Monday, so I decided to call the doctor's office yesterday morning. The nurse that answered the phone said that she was actually just getting ready to call me because she had gotten a note from the doctor regarding my results. When she said that my glucose levels were normal, I was very relieved! My specific numbers were:

Fasting - 87 mg/dl (needed to be under 95)
One hour - 174 mg/dl (needed to be under 180)
Two Hours - 145 mg/dl (needed to be under 155)
Three Hours - 100 mg/dl (needed to be under 140)

These numbers are similar, although a little different, to what they were three years ago with my last pregnancy. It is interesting to compare the numbers. I am thankful that I don't need to worry about Gestational Diabetes. So far, things seem to be going well with this pregnancy. I hope that continues for the next 11 weeks!!