I have Gestational Diabetes and am freaking out

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Argh. I am currently 31 weeks (that’s 7 months or so) pregnant, and last Tuesday I was officially diagnosed with gestational diabetes, because my one-hour glucose test was sky-high. They did the three-hour test, but I don’t know the results, and my diabetic counselor told me she isn’t even sure why they bothered with the 3-hour test, because my 1-hour test was so high (196). Anyway, she immediately put me on a diabetic diet, which restricts carbs and spreads them out over the course of the day, and had me check my blood sugar 4x a day.

A week later, my sugar levels have been uniformly too high. My counselor called me today and told me that in her opinion I need to go on insulin shots. She’s going to call my doctor, confer, and then get back to me tomorrow about what I should do.

This is freaking me out for a number of reasons. First of all, I am high risk for diabetes to start with, because it runs in my family on both sides, and I was overweight starting out the pregnancy. Yet I was only checked for high blood sugar at week 28 – what if my blood sugar was high throughout the pregnancy? I’ve been reading up, and apparently if I were diabetic starting out (which nobody knows, because I wasn’t tested), it could cause the baby severe developmental problems. Another thing is, are my high blood sugars right now harming the baby? Maybe I should have been checked a lot earlier. I don’t want my baby to have problems just because my stupid body is screwing up and not producing enough insulin.

The other thing is, I feel like my diabetic counselor is not really all that responsive. It’s hard to get her on the phone, she always seems rushed, and I just feel like she really isn’t giving my case the attention it could use. She never even mentioned exercise to me as a way to lower my blood sugar. She just put me on the low-carb diet and told me to measure my sugar levels four times a day. She talked a lot about diet, but never once mentioned exercise, which I have found is one of the quickest ways to bring my blood sugar down. Is she incompetent, or just too busy, or what? I don’t know.

But really I’m just terrified that there’s something wrong with my baby, because of my sugar levels. This really sucks, a lot. I don’t even care about having to inject myself with insulin, I just want the baby to be OK.

I don’t suppose there’s anyone else out there who has gone through this?

2

Wow, that does suck. I didn’t go through it personally, but I have friend who had it through both pregnancies and her kids are fine. I also knew a woman who had been diabetic since childhood and her pregnancy went just fine. It may complicate the birth a bit–in the sense that you’ll have to be monitored closely.

Do exercise and try to reduce stress as much as you can. I wouldn’t be surprised if the stress of finding this out isn’t at least partly responsible for you high blood sugar levels. My dad is diabetic and stress has a tremendous effect on his ability to keep his blood sugar in the right range.

I hope you’re able to take it easy and get lots of rest.

Good luck

3

RN checking in here.

First of all honey, take a deep breath and try not to panic. Gestational diabetes (GD) is usually just that, present during your pregnancy and resolves with the birth of your baby. I’ll try to address things one at a time.

  1. 196 is high for a fasting sugar but not exactly what I would call sky high. Even diabetics don’t usually take insulin (aside from any regularly scheduled doses) for a sugar under 200.

  2. The diabetic carb-limiting diet sounds about right, also the 4xday glucose level monitoring.

  3. Even if it comes to the point where you need to take insulin shots, it’s not as bad as it sounds. The needles are very fine and diabetics of all ages learn how to do it every day. When blood sugars return to normal(after birth of baby), you will no longer need the injections.

  4. I am not an expert when it comes to how diabetes specifically affects pregnancy but I am not aware of any “severe developmental problems”. You should ask your doctor about this.

  5. Probably all your high glucose levels are doing is making the baby larger than would be in a non-diabetic mother. A larger baby would make for a more difficult delivery and is at risk for hypoglycemia shortly after birth due to its (your) extra sweet blood supply being cut off. Labor and delivery doctors and nurses are very aware of this and will monitor your baby’s glucose levels closely after delivery. All baby will need to do is eat and they do that pretty well.

  6. I don’t think your diabetic counseler is incompetant, but maybe a little rushed. Just tell her what you’ve told us here

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Tell her you are scared and need more reassurance, ask if exercise would be more beneficial. IMHO it would help if for no other reason that to increase your strength and thereby make for a less exhausting labor and delivery. Added bonus is that it keeps your bowels regular. :slight_smile:

  1. I’m sure baby is just fine, maybe on the big side if anything. Has your doctor given you any reason to think that there is anything amiss with the little one? Ask him/her what are possible complications with GD.

Finally, I don’t know if this is your first baby or not, but even in the most boring textbook pregnancy and deliveries, it is common to start to get the jitters when it comes down to the home stretch. Relax (easy for me to say) take a deep breath, practice your Lamaze stuff and baby will be over before you know it as will the diabetes.

You can e-mail me if you have any questions you think I might be able to answer.
Cindi

4

The Mermaid has answered this pretty completely it looks like.

My wife had very mild gestational diabetes that did not require insulin shots. Baby was fine. From what I learned during our process, the main thing is that the medical team is aware of this at the birth, and can monitor the newborn.

5

I said

What I meant to say of course is either that “the wait for the baby” or “the pregnancy” will be over before you know it.

I’m sure Mom and Baby will be around for a long long time.

6

I had GD during my second pregnancy but not my first. I wasn’t diagnosed with it until I was 31 weeks along because they “forgot” to test me at 28 weeks. I had to remind them about it. :rolleyes: I took the one hour test and it was high so I took the 3 hour test and confirmed it. I had to test my blood sugar 4 times a day and I followed a special diet (which SUCKED because I love food and I’ve never dieted in my life!) I remember that the little bit of food I was allowed to eat was never enough and I was always munching on raw vegetables because that’s the only thing they said I could eat as much as I wanted!

AFAIK, and I’m not a doctor or expert, the GD will cause your baby to gain more weight than they should and you may have a harder time delivering. I delivered my son at 38 weeks and he was 8 lbs. 10 oz. Had I not known about the GD he probably would’ve been a lot bigger. They tested him for hypoglycemia every 4 hours (I think that’s the right time frame) by pricking his heel. The delivery was a piece of cake though. Natural painless labor, progressed quickly, had my epidural at 3:00 and he was born 54 minutes later.

Talk to your doctor about excercising and make sure it’s ok with him before doing anything. And talk to the diabetic counselor and keep on her until she answers all of your questions and concerns. She can’t be so rushed that she can’t take 5 minutes to reassure you and talk to you.

7

I was also a gestational diabetic. My baby was not extra large at 7 lbs. 9 ounces and he didn’t have high blood sugar at birth either. While GD is nothing to laugh at, it’s generally not that big a deal as long as you follow doctor’s orders.

As for being diabetic all along, I doubt that’s true. Surely you had a battery of blood tests at the beginning of you pregnancy and I’ll bet one of those tests was a non-fasting glucose test.

I was a little freaked out when I got my diagnosis too, but the thing that bothered me the most was that they wanted me to go to the lab three times a day once a week. When I found out about self-testing, I was fine with it.

Giving yourself insulin shots shouldn’t be hard, I promise. I recently underwent fertility treatment that included twice daily injections. The needles are so fine you really don’t feel them go in. I was a wreck the first time I did it and I was sure I couldn’t do it, only to discover I had!

Best of luck to you!

8

If you had a significant family history of diabetes, I’m kind of surprised they didn’t test you before the “usual” time.

Don’t sweat it! Women have been living with GD for ages with no problems.

9

Thanks for all the advice and support. It really does help. I got in touch with my OB yesterday, and she was quite supportive and reassuring as well. She told me that they can run a hemoglobin test on me to check my sugar levels over the past couple of months, to see if I’ve had high sugar levels for some time, or only recently. Also I have an ultrasound on Friday, at which they can check for obvious signs of birth defects. I think both those things should help to put my mind at ease a little.

Basically I am just calming down and not freaking out so much. It does help to hear the stories of others who have gone through it. It’s just pretty scary, not knowing whether my body is doing something to hurt my baby or not.

10

Just to chime in with everyone else…freaky but you’ll be fine. One of the biggest issues with babies of diabetic mothers is the size of the baby. Y’know those 13-15 lb newborns you’ve heard about? They are primarily born to diabetic mothers. That kind of birth weight isn’t good for either mother or baby.

And to share with your frustrations - I found out I was Rh negative when I went for my four-month checkup and they scheduled me for my shots. “Shots? What shots?” “Well, you ARE Rh negative, after all.” “I’m what?” “Rh-negative. Didn’t you know?” “Uuuuhh, no. I was under the impression I was a positive…”

So I got my shots and it was all good. A little scary, though. One of the other things that can happen with Rh incompatability is sudden miscarriages. I was good 'n freaked for about two weeks.

11

I spent the weekend with a friend who had it. She required insulin shots and everything. Her baby is absolutely perfect.

Hang in there!