Week 34.5 Update August 12, 2009

I tend to posts these updates following each doctor’s appointment since that’s when I learn something or have something new to talk about outside of being tired all the time or feeling like a beached whale.  I figured that the world has lost interest in those 2 redundant subjects… I know my husband is tired of listening to me talk about them. 

The best news of the day was that the baby’s growth rates have normalized.  She is still reading large, but not as alarming so as last week.  The doctor says that we may be able to avoid a C-section if things continue at this rate.  (WHOO HOO!)  The change is growth rate is directly connected to diabetes management.  The combination of the increased medication & nightly walking seem to have done the trick!   My fasting blood sugar is still a little high some mornings, but generally speaking my readings are finally within normal ranges 95% of the time.

The other interesting side effect of the diabetes management is weight loss.  As of yesterday, I weigh 2 lbs more than I did before I got pregnant.  The PA in my OB/GYN office thinks that once I deliver that will probably lose between 15-25 lbs!  It seems so strange to me that you could lose weight during pregnancy, but I’m not complaining!  I really needed to lose some weight and the plan is to continue some of the healthy eating once the baby gets here to continue the downward trend. 

My next doctor’s appointment & ultrasound are Aug 26th.  The doc says that if we can make it the next appointment without a rise in blood pressure, then she’ll probably opt to induce rather than place me on bed rest if my blood pressure was to suddenly sky rocket.  As she said this I’m sitting there thinking, “OMG!  There is no way that I’m going to be ready to have this baby in 2 weeks! I still need to get room set up & the kitchen cleared and…(you get my point.)” 

Managing my diabetes has completely consumed all my thinking so the doctor’s casual statement about potential induction in 2 weeks shocked me into the realization that the pregnancy part of this story is seriously almost over.  I need to get by butt in gear because the end of pregnancy means the start of motherhood and this mother is not even remotely ready.  (I know, I know… “You are never really ready. blah blah blah”… but this kid doesn’t have a place to sleep right now because there is so much stuff in her room.)

Thankfully the moms are coming to rescue to help me get my act together this weekend.  I really need the help!

Week 33 Update: She’s Huge! August 3, 2009

According to this morning’s ultrasound, Julianna is measuring 2 weeks ahead of schedule and is in the >90 percentile for birth weight at 33 weeks, which is doctor-speak for “Your baby is really huge.”  She already weighs over 6 lbs 7 oz give or take 10%.  Both the Mendez & Hutchison families don’t like to do anything small, so it would not surprise me if my not-so-little chunky monkey is born weighing in the double digits. 

The weight issue is a direct result of the gestational diabetes, which is quickly becoming a four letter word in my house.  Although, I’ve been anal retentive about every speck of food that goes into my mouth, my fasting blood sugar continues to remain on the high side.  The doctor increased my medication again today and cut back my diet to only meat, cheese, nuts and veggies.  I’ve never wanted a piece of cake or a starbucks frappechino so badly in my entire life!  Next weekend is going to be a huge challenge because I’m being thrown 2 baby showers:  one on Saturday & another on Sunday.   

The good news is that my huge baby appears to be happy & healthy.  The doctor suspects that unless something major happens I’ll probably end up having a c-section around week 39 (around Sept 11.)  She’d prefer to let the baby cook until the last minute and be really large, rather than induce early to have a smaller baby and potentially increase the risk of developmental issues.  I appreciate this philosophy.         

Additionally, my blood pressure is staying within normal ranges.  This reduces the chance of preclampsia, early labor & a whole slew of issues that I’d prefer not to think about.  (As if the stupid diabetes wasn’t enough!)  If my blood pressure stays ok, then I will probably avoid bed rest all together. 

Over the weekend she shifted positions and rather than laying horizontally across my belly, she’s now laying head down & feet up.  I told Juan last night that I thought she’d moved positions and sure enough today’s ultrasound confirmed it.  The dead giveaway was when her kicks and punches moved from my sides to my ribs & bladder. 

There are pros & cons to this adjustment.  Sitting has become much less comfortable and her new game of hanging upside down from my rib cage is less than pleasant.  The good news is that the nightly barrage of kicks & punches was significantly reduced, which made laying down on my side much easier.

Not-so-sweet Success!!! July 18, 2009

This morning marks the first day since my gestational diabetes diagnosis that my morning blood sugars have stayed within acceptable ranges!  My fasting blood sugar level was in the mid 90′s and following breakfast it only went into the mid 110′s.  

Trying to manage my diabetes has been a huge undertaking, which up until today has felt like a huge failure… I really don’t do well with failure, especially when I’ve been trying so hard.

I credit today’s success to the mini-breakdown I had yesterday when my blood sugar spiked to 199 following my diabetic friendly breakfast.  As a result of the ridiculously high numbers, I got on the phone with my doctor’s nurse who made some adjustments to my diet plan.  I’m hopeful that these adjustments are going to keep me off insulin shots and out of the hospital. 

Coincidentally, I also got a call yesterday from the nurse that my insurance company has assigned to me because I’ve officially been designated “high risk.”  It’s amusing to me that the insurance company doesn’t care about you until the realize that there is some potential that they might end up paying out some major bucks for your health care.  Prior to this experience, I’ve always had a trouble getting my insurance company to return phone calls… Now, I get personal calls once a week from a nurse to see how I’m doing and to answer any questions about diabetes or the pregnancy.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the additional resource.  I just think that it’s crappy that they don’t care about you until you become a potential expense for them.  I shouldn’t be surprised by this, insurance is a business. 

On a side note, I think my favorite part about blogging is naming my posts.  I know it’s uncool to laugh at your own jokes or puns, but I love the diabetes humor in today’s title.

Managing my inner zombie July 12, 2009

Well, I’m officially starting day 2 of managing my gestational diabetes.  I can tell that this is going to take some major practice to figure out but I’m excited that I’m already feeling less lethargic.  My OB/GYN said that dealing with diabetes is like running a wierd science experiment on your body. 

“How will my blood sugar level respond to this type of food or that type of food?”

I’ve been very focused on trying to stay within the recommendations so that my blood sugar remains more constant throughout the day.  Lunch didn’t work so well… I ate tuna with mayo, pickles and 6 crackers, all of which were completely within the guidelines for lunch and ended up on the couch with blood sugar levels through the roof.   After being so thoughtful about lunch, I was really discouraged that my body responded so poorly.

Fortunately, dinner was success.  I ate an Itailian sausage with stone ground mustard, asparagus with an apple & yogurt for dessert.  My blood sugar levels remained consistant throughout the entire evening and I seemed to avoid the large spike immediately following the meal. 

It’s really interesting to see how the drastic spikes in both directions impact how I feel.  It’s very obvious that when I drop too low or too high, I turn into a lethargic semi-comatose zombie.  I originally had associated this general exhaustion with the overall pregnancy.  I kept wondering how other pregnant women were able to function in the real world, because I was just barely functioning at an acceptable level and it was driving my husband nuts.

On days that I was working, literally, I would wake up, grab a quick breakfast, work for a couple hours, sleep through lunch eating something small, work until mid-afternoon and then try to sneak in another nap if my schedule permitted, finish out the day and then crash out on the couch for the rest of the evening. 

I’m realizing now that the majority of that zombie-like state was probably related to the diabetes, not necessarily the pregnancy.  It’s too bad that we didn’t figure this out a couple weeks ago because I think life could have been much easier.  At least we know now and I can manage it and function like a semi-normal human being again!

Icing on the cake that I can’t eat July 10, 2009

Between medical tests, work and new babies this week has been insane, but icing on the cake (which I’m not longer allowed to eat) was definitely the gestational diabetes diagnosis that came on Thursday morning.

I shouldn’t have been surprised by this diagnosis given my wieght and family history (father, aunt, uncle, grandfather… need I go on?)  but the reality is that it really caught me off guard.  The worst part of this situation is that my insurance company has made the process of getting my supplies nearly impossible.  I’ve literally spent 2 days trying to get the testing meter that I need to monitor my glucose levels and still have come up empty handed.

This all started yesterday morning when I got the dreaded call from the PA at my OB/GYN’s office that I was undeniably diabetic.  She reached me about 5 mins before an important client call and so I had to fake my way through an hour long call while mentally freaking out.    Once I had a free moment, I began frantically searching Google to figure out which pharmacy that I should instruct the doctor’s office to call to prescribe me all the crap that I was going to need to purchase to manage this…  Once that was done, I began frantically Googling gestational diabetes to ascertain exactly what was going on with my body.

Of course, I read all this terrible stuff about the medication that I was being prescribed (specifically that it wasn’t approved for pregnant women), which really freaked me out.  I also read about how awful this is for your baby and your body and by the time that Juan got home in the evening I’d worked myself into a panic about the whole situation, which I cleverly hid because I knew that he would go with me to the pharmacist and ask all the questions that were swirling around in my head.  (I know this is complete insanity, but for some reason yesterday it made a lot of sense!)

This panic exploded after dinner when he politely asked after dinner if I would drop him off at home so he could finish watching the Astros game while I went to the pharmacy to get my supplies.  The waterworks in the car were not pretty and although I reassured him that it was contained before the 2 of us walked into CVS, I ended up breaking down into sobs once more as soon as the pharmacist spoke to me.   Fortunately, she was very sweet and helpful… unfortunately, my insurance was not cooperating so we walked out of the store 45 mins later without any of my supplies.

Today, I spoke with the doctor’s office who calmed all my fears about the medication and got registered for the special gestational diabetes diet class at the hospital.  Then, I ended up getting passed from dept to dept within my insurance company trying to get approved for this special program that I thought would allow me get the diabetes supplies I needed.  This painful process sporadically sucked up 3+ hours out of my work day (that I’m going to have to make up over the weekend) and resulted in a nurse telling me at 5:45 this evening that all I really needed to do was to order the supplies from a medical supply store vs. a pharmacy and that program approval wasn’t actually a requirement for coverage.   As if that wasn’t annoying enough, since it was after business hours on a Friday all the approved medical supply vendors were going to be closed until Monday…   GRRRR!!!!!  Why couldn’t one of the 20 other people that I spoke with today had said that?!?!

On a happy note, I found a sample gestational diabetic diet online and was amazed at how much better I felt today after following it.   My energy level was higher today than it has been in weeks, which was good because I needed all that energy to deal with the insurance company!

I also want to add that I’m married to a really great guy.  He puts up with all my irrational, illogical nonsense and still tucks me in with a smile and kiss each night.  I’m so lucky to have him.