Failed the 1 hr glucose test

[hellokitty1]

So when I was waiting the one hour in the office on Monday, I felt unusually tired and in the afternoon, I had to crash on the couch from feeling so draggy. So when I got the call today that i had failed, i assumed it that was why I felt bad. So can I correlate the level of my cruddy feeling to the severity of my test? I did not ask the nurse what the numerical results were. Is the three hour test I am taking on Friday twice as much glucose going ot make me feel twice as bad? What exactly is the difference beween the one hour that everyone takes and the three hour i have to take? And if I have GD, I have to lower my carbs, right? But the nurse told me eat some extra carbs for the next few days before my test. Why am I doing that?

[turtledove]

I'm sorry you failed the one hour test - I flunked mine right before Christmas too (not fun to think about with all of the goodies around). The good news is that most people who flunk the one hour test, pass the three hour test no problem.

The 1 hour test, checks the level of sugar in your blood when you first walk in, and an hour after you drink the nasty stuff. The 3 hour test will check you when you first come in, and at the end of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd hour. They are looking to make sure your levels are dropping at a specific rate.

I don't know if you can correlate the way you felt with how badly you "flunked" the test. I didn't feel to badly after my one hour test. The bad news is that if you felt bad after your one hour test, you will probably feel 10 times worse after your 3 hour. I can only say that speaking from my experience, but after my 3-hr test, I just wanted to crawl into a hole. During the test, my pulse rate was 100 bpm at complete rest and I thought I was going to get sick. I would have quit the test if I didn't know they would make me start all over. I had a regular OB appointment about 2 hours after the glucose test, and my blood pressure was pretty low. Other women also doing the 3 hour didn't appear to be adversly affected at all, so it probably depends on the individual. I have told my husband and my doctor that if I have more children and I flunk the 1 hour again, they can just consider me to have gestational diabetes because I won't do that to myself again. I did flunk the 3 hour test too, by a measly two points. I was officially GD, but other than somewhat watching what I ate, I didn't have any issue. I wasn't even that careful with my food especially at the end.

Not sure on the reasoning about eating more carbs before your test, but maybe someone else can chime in on that.

Good luck!

[o_mom]

You are eating extra carbs to get your body used to them. If you normally don't have a carb load like that because you are eating healthy, your body is not used to producing enough insulin to cover it. By eating extra carbs for a few days before you get your body to ramp up the insulin prodution so that it can respond to the challenge.

Take a snack along to eat as soon as they draw the last sample!

[elaineandmichaelsmommy]

I went through this just a couple of months ago. Not fun but necesary. So to answer your questions

No you don't have to drink more of the glucose than you did last time.
Yes you'll probobly feel cruddy
yes they'll make you start over if you puke
You'll get blood drawn when you come in and then get the drink and then get blood drawn every hour on the hour for 3 hours.
Pray your ob's office has a gentle phlebotomist
Call the office and make sure your glucose is chilled. It'll go down easier-kind of like super sugery soda. Mine wasn't chilled, YUCK!!!
Take something with you to read,knit, whatever. You will get bored.

Give yourself something to look foreward to to keep you from being sick,fainting or otherwise messing up the test and having the absolute pain in the butt of taking it again. Mine was a trip to starbucks right afterwards-I just kept telling myself that if I threw up I wouldn't get my venti cafe mocha I'd promised myself because it would be too late in the day to get it if I had to repeat the 3 hour test.

Good luck.

[nrp]

It depends on the lab, but most people don't actually drink more liquid, they just give you a drink with twice as much glucose. It really doesn't taste that much worse, IMO. Some labs, though, give two of the 1-hr bottles. Yuck.

As far as upping your carbs, many doctors don't recommend this anymore (mine didn't), but PP is right that the reasoning is actually to avoid a false positive on the 3-hr, insofar as a huge dose of sugar out of the blue when your body isn't used to handling is pretty hard for it to handle. So, enjoy your pancakes and holiday cookies the next few days!

I had GD with my last pregnancy, and it really wasn't that bad. It freaked me out a lot at first, and in the end I just had to watch my diet and exercise more. And the biggest risk is that you have a big baby. With following my program, DS was under 7 lbs - looking back I wish I had let myself have a little more pizza!

[s7714]

Take something with you to read,knit, whatever. You will get bored.

Actually, if the lab lets you, try to get out and walk around while you wait. Even if it's just around the building. Walking will help your body process the nasty drink better.

I sat on my bum while waiting during the test with my first DD and failed (and felt nauseous the whole time). Then I barely passed the 3 hour version doing the same thing. I've since heard many nurses and my OBs say it's better to get up and move while waiting. I took the 1 hr. test with my second DD, walked around for 40 minutes between the start and finish, and passed with flying colors (and more importantly felt fine).

Also, make sure you don't load up on carbs the night before the test. My OB said she sees a lot of women fail the first test because they'll think "oh I can't eat all morning tomorrow, so I'll eat a bunch of pizza, pasta, etc. tonight so I won't be as hungry tomorrow" and then they fail because their body is already processing so many carbs.

I hate the glucose test. I told my OBs I'd flat out refuse the 3 hr. test if I failed the 1 hr. one with my second DD. Funny enough that's when they started telling me all the best ways to handle the test so I wouldn't be as likely to fail the first one. :rolleyes:

[MommyAllison]

I agree that it's better to move around, but the lab wouldn't let me this time w/the 1 hour. I was told to sit down and not move, I heard it was because of the liability? Good luck!

[hellokitty1]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I admint my ignorance and confess that I don't understand the correlation beween sugar and carbs. i always thought diabetes was about your body not being able to process sugars normally so that was why sugar intake had to be monitored. And while I know sugars are technically carbs (right?), I didn't think of carbs as being tied to diabeste per se.

So when the nurse says to have some extra helpings of carbs for the next couple of days, I guess she is saying to increase levels so my body gets used to fighting it back (production insulin?) so when i take the real test, it's already been shocked for the last few days? In any case, I am not a sweets person but I am a carb person like bread, etc. So I'm thinking that even if i don't intentionally drive up carbs, I already have a somewhat decent carb intake.

Sadly, I think what I'm most scared of is needing to watch my diet and if i had the willpower to do that, I wouldn't have been overweight to start with. :-(

Thanks all.

[nrp]

Sadly, I think what I'm most scared of is needing to watch my diet and if i had the willpower to do that, I wouldn't have been overweight to start with. :-(

GD has nothing to do with your willpower. Although people who are overweight are more likely to get GD, nothing you ate while pregnant made you get it. It simply has to do with your pesky placenta interfering with your body's ability to produce enough insulin naturally. So don't beat yourself up! And as far as following the diet, I am usually hopeless at diets, but knowing that little one in my belly depended on it, I was super motivated.

Also, as far as the sugar/carbs thing, it is the carbs that matter. While sugar itself may cause some people's blood sugar to spike more quickly, different people may have a worse reaction to things like white pasta or potatoes. It depends quite a lot on the individual. Higher fiber carbohydrates are better, though, as they level out your blood sugar over time.

If you do happen to have GD (which you probably don't, given the high number of false "positives" on the 1-hr), PM me and I'll tell you more about what it was like for me.

[o_mom]

I agree that it's better to move around, but the lab wouldn't let me this time w/the 1 hour. I was told to sit down and not move, I heard it was because of the liability? Good luck!

Pregnancy gives you a good excuse to at least get up and pee every 45-60 min. ;)

[ThreeofUs]

I agree that it's better to move around, but the lab wouldn't let me this time w/the 1 hour. I was told to sit down and not move, I heard it was because of the liability? Good luck!



Actually, movement like walking enables your body to process the sugars from carbs quicker, and so messes up their tests.

*sigh* They told me not to move either, but it was move or barf loudly, repeatedly. I ignored them after the first draw of the 3-hour, which in retrospect I should have ignored them at the beginning! That type of sugar load just can't be good for the baby.

And as for eating carbs before to get your body used to them, that's a great idea. I don't eat many carbs b/c of allergies, flunked the 1 hour royally and the first draw of the 3-hour just as badly. Keeping track of my blood sugars and my diet was enough to comfort my endocrinologist - he said that if I had GD, it was borderline.

But really, don't worry. Even if you do flunk the test, diet and exercise will most likely control any problems you have.

[hellokitty1]

Just wanted to give an update since people took the time to share their thoughts. My three hour test went fine Friday. I daydreamed about what I wanted to eat as soon as it ended. I did not feel as bad afterwards but I don't know if that was because it was a Friday (instead of a Monday). In any case, I only failed the last of the four blood draws so I need to go in and talk with the dietician but I don't have GD. We'll discuss diet changes and they'll do a blood draw every visit.

This is certainly better news than having to use insulin. I did find out that my one hour test was 190 and their cutoff of taking the second one is 139. So I'm glad this second test wasn't so bad.

Thanks everyone.

[WatchingThemGrow]

I daydreamed about what I wanted to eat as soon as it ended. I did not feel as bad afterwards but I don't know if that was because it was a Friday (instead of a Monday).

LOL, but congrats on passing part of the tests! Please do share what the dietician shares with you. I JUST remembered that I visited one while pg with DS because I was concerned about not gaining as much as I did with DD.