On Baby A's birthday, the c-section surgery went as planned. I walked into the OR around 9:30am and was pushed out around 2 hours later. W was instructed to wait outside while the team was getting me prepared for anesthesia. He then got invited to come in and sat next to me while the team worked on getting Baby A out of me 😂. W was a good DJ and Baby A was born while Taylor Swift's Shake It Off was being played. So...did I feel any pain during this life-changing surgery? No, I didn't. I had a spinal block. I never felt any type of pain during the surgery. Getting the anesthesia injected - however - was the most uncomfortable part of the surgery. There was a lot of pressure. I felt my back being pulled or pushed, or something. It just felt very uncomfortable, not painful, but very uncomfortable. It was also hard to try leaning toward the source of that uncomfortableness. Learning to relax while being uncomfortable was a very hard thing to do. But it was necessary. Once it...
So I didn't pass my 1-hour glucose tolerance test. I had the test done on Dec 15 and saw my result on patient portal that night. Then, the next morning I got a message saying I need to take the 3-hour tolerance test. So I went back to the same lab at Westside five days later.
For this 3 hour test, I had to fast (I did 12 hours).
I went to the lab at 8am. Took a number and waited about 20 minutes to be called in. For this test, I had to get my blood drawn 4 times (fasting, 1 hour, 2 hour, 3 hour). All was done from my right arm. The first two pokes were fine. Starting from the 2-hour draw, I felt that sting and was uncomfortable when the needle poked in. The 3-hour poke was the worst as the needle had to go through a visible bruise.
Oh, so two phlebotomists remembered me (they remembered my incident from a week ago 😵). One helped me recline my chair so I could get my blood drawn while lying down. Another offered a bed to me to lie down on while waiting for between draws. I took that offer and was very grateful for it! What happened was I got blood drawn at the said time on the card (shown above), walked back to my bed to lie down until it was a few minutes before the next draw, then walked back to one of the available phlebotomist chairs for the next blood draw, then back to the bed and repeated that until the 4th draw was completed. The bed was right inside the lab. It wasn't in a private room, but there were curtains and provided just enough privacy so I didn't see people moving around (though I could hear everything, from phone calls to patients being called to come in to nurses talking with one another).
During this test period, I saw 4 different phlebotomists and everyone was very compassionate about my nausea and tried to help me get as comfortable as possible. The first phlebotomist took my fasting blood at 8:22am. Then, I drank that super disgusting drink (it's absolutely gross ewwww). I couldn't finish all in one go. Had to take a quick break (like 20 seconds) before taking my second gulp of it to finish the bottle 😨. The second phlebotomist set up the bed for me and brought a puking bag and a bottled water. He also drew my 1-hour blood at 9:22am. The third phlebotomist was super careful with my arm as she saw a bruise was beginning to form. I remember her making sounds like "oh" and something with a sigh when prepping for my right arm. The fourth phlebotomist gave me an ice pack after she finished that last draw and told me to stay in the chair for as long as I liked. She, too, was extra careful with my arm.
The whole time while I was getting blood drawn & waiting between draws, W was waiting for me in the waiting area just outside of the lab. He sat there for 3 hours! I texted him to let him know the lab offered me a bed to lie on so he could go home/wait from home. He refused. He said he's worried I could pass out and the experience from a week ago was still too vivid in his head. He didn't want to get waved down by a nurse again. He said that was frightening and he'd rather wait right by the lab.
The test results came back within 24 hours.
Fasting: 84 (cutoff: 94) passed.
1-hour: 149 (cutoff: 179) passed.
2-hour: 158 (cutoff: 154) failed.
3-hour: 122 (cutoff: 139) passed.
I saw my numbers on patient portal and there wasn't any comment from my doctor or anyone. I was concerned about my 2-hour result because I scored higher than the cutoff. I wrote to my ob office and asked if that meant I had gestational diabetes and whether I should make change my diet immediately (I was worried if we had to make last minute changed for our Christmas menu 😂).
On December 23rd, the office replied with
"your 3 hour GTT results are considered negative for gestational diabetes. If your fasting level was elevated you would have ruled in. If 2 of the 1, 2, 3 hour results were elevated you would be ruled in as well."
So, all was well. Christmas was saved. 🎄🌟
Here's to all will stay well!
What we did at the hospital today
Lab
3-hour glucose test
💗CM
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