Gestational Diabetes General Chatter #5

[1MOREPLZ]

well this morning i finally got a reading BELOW what it should be :P only just though.... and i have now started having porridge for breakkie.. and 2hrs post breakkie yesturday was a good reading
i just have to keep saying to myself.. 28 more days 28 more days....

[Leigh26]

Hi Girls,

Thanks for all your ideas re lunches, you've given me some good ideas. Also Belfie thanks for the meal plan!!!

All my BSL's toda have been really good so far, just hope they continue to stay that way. I am counting down the days until my baby is born too, I am sick of GD already.

I think I need to change the depth setting on my monitor. We were told to set it at 3 but a couple of times I have *****ed my finger and haven't got enough blood, even one of the times today when I tried I didn't get any blood at all.

katones - Congrats on getting a good level this morning!!!

[snowchickie79]

Yesterday we had my daughter's party for her 4 year old b'day which is actually on this Thursday. It was torture not being able to have b'day cake I have some left over at home which I will give away today.

kgb - At my first Endo apt my Mum asked about my Baby shower. I was told that the occasional treat was fine and considering it was a special occasion that I could just skip testing that day and have a treat but not get too ridiculous. So the weekend before my baby shower I had a friends' shower and they were so lovely and made sure they had diabetic friendly food but i still treated myself to a shortbread biscuit and a cupcake and shockingly enough it didn't tip my levels up very high, high 6's.
For my shower I only tested after breakfast and I had 2 lamingtons (which I made myself and had been dying to eat since discussions of the baby shower started), a cupcake which my sister made and was just so very yummy and then topped myself with some hot finger foods and some fruit. I didn't test that day but Endo said that a special occasion and 1 day won't do any harm. I did have a VERY GOOD endo though who said that if i got readings over 7 that I couldn't explain (e.g. testing out a new food) etc then that was when it was a problem. If i got over 7 but could explain why then he didn't worry about it. Mind you I only got 3 readings over 7 in my entire PG.

Moral of this long winded story - 1 day is not going to really hurt you or bub so a piece of cake as a treat once off can't be all that bad. Just have it at snack time to better prepare yourself and give your body more time to deal with it before you have to test.

Hi there, just wanted to pop in and add my two cents about remaining diabetic after the birth - I was on quite a bit of insulin (42 breakfast, 24 lunch, 32 dinner and 32 before bed) and it went away very quickly after DS was born. I was told to look at it as a warning, that if I did nothing to change my lifestyle then I would be more likely to end up with it in the next 5-15 years.

Belfie, not long to go now!

This is what I've been hearing alot but from my point of standing I'm not sure where that leaves me... I was not and am not overweight (I've dropped 8kg since being PG and I'm now 6kg under my pre-preg weight). My BMI is perfect if not possibly on the low side and I've always been active, size 8-10 and play sports in summer. I also have an extremely healthy diet, don't eat takeaway or much junk food. So i'm not sure where this leaves me in terms of what changes I should make to my lifestyle.

One of the ladies in my session had GD with her last pregnancy too and said her fingers were so sore from *****ing that she couldn't pick anything up, jeez hope mine don't get like that, have any of yours?

If you girls go for lunch somewhere what do you usually get to eat? Even if its at a shopping centre? I am so afraid I'll eat the wrong foods that will put me over the level. Do you find you eat the same things over and over almost everyday?

Leigh26 - Nope my fingers never got sore but I did tend to find that some fingers gave me blood easier than others. My best fingers were on my left hand and were my pinky, ring finger and middle finger. I'd just alternate the spot I used and had no problems. I always used the 1 or 2 setting on my lancet.

Re lunch, my staple for ALONG time was cheese & tomato. Don't have to worry about meats or reheating stuff and it was yummy. I used to throw in some cucumber, shreaded carrot and maybe some phili cream cheese or advocado and voila, yummy sandwhich or I also used to have multigrain lavash wraps which I found in Woolies.. Yummo and didn't affect my levels. I used to have a sandwich or wrap along with a piece of fruit or a yoghurt. Can also throw in a can of tuna or salmon and I'd add the tuna once or twice a week. I used to get the tomato & capsicum flavoured tuna, yummy yummy. Also did the flavoured tuna with a salad which was very filling as I'd throw in as much vegies to the salad as I could fit in the bowl. If you like soup then you can try some of the canned vegetable soups along with a slice of bread and piece of fruit. I also found baked beans on toast worked really well with me, gave me 4's.. I always just mixed these types of carbs along with a piece of fruit or yoghurt and that gave me just enough variety to manage. Again all this is trial and error and how it'll affect your levels but here are some more ideas of what I ate.

[Leigh26]

Hi Girls,

Snowchickie - Thanks for all your great ideas about lunch, I'll try some of the things you have suggested.

Yesterday was my first full day of testing and had no problems at all. My levels were all fine but today is a different story. My fasting level before breakfast was only 2.6, is this really low? I was told it had to be under 5.5 so not sure if 2.6 is too low or not. Also my reading 2 hrs after breakfast was 7.4, I was told I had to keep under 7. I had 2 pieces of multigrain toast for breakfast, this was one of the foods my diabetes educator recommended. I ate this for breakfast yesterday and my level 2 hrs after was fine, so why was it higher today? Could it have something to do with my level being so low before breakfast? I am a bit nervous to eat and test for the rest of the day now.

[1MOREPLZ]

leigh... my endocrinologist said to me today that afew of my levels around 4.6/4.2/4.3 were getting too low.. so i would say it was LOW, but then it may also depend on what your DR says...

[Leigh26]

Thanks Katones, I was thinking my level was really low. Do you think coz it was too low that, that maybe the reason why my after breaky level was high? Like maybe my sugar level spiked coz of it or something?

I go back to my diabetes educator on Monday so I will see what she says then.

[angelraelz]

hiya

If you were on insulin that would be considered a hypo so you would be advise to have so many jellybeans and a multigrain sandwich.

So yes that is low. Just keep an eye on it. Did you have anything to drink like orange juice or anything?

let us know what your diabetes educator says.

angel