A Day at the Doctor

I've mentioned it a time or two on here but pregnancy has treated me very well so far and I've had pretty minimal complaints for the most part. But unfortunately last Thursday I did the 1 hour screening for gestational diabetes and did not pass...bummer. I knew it as soon as I saw my doctor's office phone number pop up on the screen, because my doctor had told me if all was good I would just get a patient portal notification with the results. Failing the 1 hour meant  I would need to complete the 3 hour screen. 

So that's where I spent my morning today and I have some thoughts.  

First of all, fasting. The one hour doesn't require any fasting but the three hour requires that you fast leading up to it. The actual requirement was fasting after midnight for my 8:45 appointment. However, I'm an early eater and I don't eat close to bed due to my reflux so my fast started when I finished dinner around 7pm. Spoiler alert, I did not get to eat lunch until almost 12:30. That's a long time for a pregnant lady not to eat. SO I think they should figure out a solution to this because boy was I feeling pretty hangry when I walked out of that doctors office today. 

The first step in the screening is a fasting blood draw- to get a baseline I suppose. Unfortunately, having had my blood drawn on Thursday, that arm/vein was still bruised and when she tried to use that vein she was unsuccessful. So I got a second stick in a different vein on my other arm- no big deal. Except as it turns out that would be the only vein that would cooperate for all 4 blood draws. I've never had repeated blood draws before but I've decided that veins don't care to be stuck over and over like that and by draw number three I was pretty uncomfortable. 

Now the gluco-crush you drink for this screening is basically hummingbird nectar. I mean honestly, it's probably too sweet for the hummingbirds even. But drinking it on an empty stomach? Not exactly pleasant. Oh and drinking it in only 5 minutes? For my 1 hour I had 15 whole minutes to drink it and even that felt like a lot of sugar in a short amount of time. But 5 minutes? I practically had to chug it. And again, I do not recommend chugging any beverage on an empty stomach particularly one that is practically pure sugar. But we power through. 

Following my drinking sprint, I was taken to the room where I would set up camp for the next few hours. And one of my oh so kind nurses brought me a Zofran for nausea. Because what would be worse than completing this long screening once? Getting sick in the middle of it, being sent home and having to complete it again! The hours passed and at 10, 11 and 12 I returned to the lab for my additional blood draws only to finally be released a little after that to satisfy my growling stomach and await my results. 

I'm always very grateful for modern medicine. I'm grateful there is a way to detect GD and address it if that's what my baby and I need. But I would just like someone to figure out a slightly more pleasant way to do it. Maybe one that involves less needles and  less tummy grumbling? 

This month I'm linking up daily with Two Writing Teachers as part of their Slice of Life Writing Challenge. Thanks for visiting!