Still here, still grumpy

In brief: traveling with a bad cold while anemic leaves me ... still grumpy.

The results of my 3-hour GTT: beats me.

To be precise, I think I passed everything except the initial fasting blood draw. But let me rewind a bit ...

I called my mother at 4 pm on Thursday afternoon to tell her I failed the 1-hour GTT. I somehow had forgotten she used to work in a diabetes clinic. I landed at the airport on Friday midday, and she literally handed me a pager number and told me to page the head diabetes nurse at a major research hospital and tell her I'd be over in 20 minutes.

So, I had a consult Friday afternoon and received my blood sugar monitor, new diet, and did my first finger pricks (I know, I know, sometimes all the stars align).

Even better, rather than sharing a hotel room with JD's bachelor pals over the weekend (wedding #2 this fall) we stayed with my dear friend R. R. is the one we were seriously considering splitting IVF with (he's gay - he needs eggs to have biological children) and he's in med school and very well informed. Which was fabulous because it took me 5 tries to draw blood on Saturday morning. And R. sat there and held my hand through the whole thing. Great.

But, of course, we were traveling. Which means basically nothing for me to eat (I keep kosher - so no meat out at all, and sometimes no cooked food depending on the state of the kitchen). Needless to say I lost 5 lbs between my 'diagnosis' on Thursday afternoon and my next conversation with the midwife on Tuesday afternoon. The good news: all my blood sugar levels were normal, although I could definitely see the spike 1 and 2 hours after eating.

Monday morning I had the 3 hour test. Tuesday afternoon I checked with the midwife to get the results, only to hear her say 'I'll call to ask if I have time.' Um, it's Rosh Hashanah. I wasn't even supposed to be on the phone but figured this medical mess was enough of an excuse and I had been abstaining for all of the delicious food made for the holiday. So I was more than a bit pissed. Then she tells me I passed the GTT part of the test, but failed the initial fasting blood draw (all of mine had been normal until then) and then she suggested I repeat the GTT next week. Well, there's basically no way. If the placenta does not produce enough hormones to upset my insulin by week 28 I'm supposed to be in the clear (oh, and this was my 5th GTT this year - I did several pre-pregnancy). So I said no way and I wanted a consult with a specialist if she thought I needed one (not mentioning I'd already had a preliminary consult).

Today, as we're boarding the plane to Wedding #2 this fall, she calls to tell me scheduled an appointment for the end of October and I should relax, stop testing my blood sugar, and eat whatever I want till then ... which makes no sense at all. Either I'm borderline/at risk and I need to be really careful or I'm in the clear. But there's no way it makes sense to have a specialist consult something like 6 weeks before my due date. So I am pissed but couldn't explain that very well over the phone because of the airport loudspeaker, so I'll see the midwife on Tuesday.

In the meantime, I'm very hungry (don't worry: my blood sugar has not dropped close to a dangerous low. I check it whenever my stomach starts to growl). Everything else seems to be going fine, but I just can't find enough food to fill me up. The nurse I saw said 9 servings of carbs a day max, and given how little protein I can find, it doesn't leave much. I've been eating high-protein yogurt, cottage cheese, and low-carb peanut butter as snacks between every meal, and each has at least 200 calories in a serving. And lots of nuts. But I'm supposed to limit my bread, pasta, rice, fruit, etc. and I just can't find that much to eat. We'll be back in NYC on Sunday, so that should help a lot. I just don't think I was cut out for midwife care. I don't have the trust that 'everything will be fine' and I really need to know my own test results given how little trust I currently have in this woman.

Oh, and in other less great news, seems like I might be moving to Europe alone with a 5 month old. Some type of change in JD's employer policy. We're waiting to hear a definite answer from them, but either way he's definitely getting a lot less leave than we expected, which is going to be a big problem. So, not only will I commute 2 days a week in the spring (starting when the baby is 4 weeks old) but I will then become a single parent for the next 6-9 months abroad. Such a relaxing year. And just when I was about to think of a new blog title, seems like we're back to the old commuting routine ...