The glucose challenge

Today I did my glucose challenge test for gestational diabetes.  It's a routine test done around 28 weeks pregnant, and was not as bad as I had anticipated, actually.  I heard they give you this nasty orangey drink to chug, and then you wait an hour, and they test your blood glucose levels.  Well, that was a fairly accurate description, although my drink was NOT orange, it was clear (and did not taste one bit orangey), and they had it all nice and chilled for me upon arrival.  It's kind of a carbonated, overly sweet sprite kind of drink, which was not so bad at first, but definitely not something I would drink by choice.  The guy gave it to me and said I had to finish it under 5 minutes, and then he would set the one hour timer for my blood test.  Now the rules were, (1) drink it fast (2) no eating, drinking, or exercising in the one hour wait period (3) be back ON TIME to get blood drawn.  Now I did this in the morning, about 10 am, so my midwife recommended I not eat any breakfast beforehand.  She said if I needed something to eat, then maybe have something that was strictly protein, no carbs.  I don't think that's actually a rule for the test, just a recommendation she had so I went with it.  Well, this test basically seemed like it was a test to see how many different ways you could try and make a pregnant lady pass out.  (1) Don't eat any food for over 12 hours, then (2) drink this very sugary drink really quickly (3) wait an hour, still not eating or drinking anything, and then (3) have them draw about 5 vials of blood!  Luckily I don't pass out easily, and am not the slightest bit squeamish, so I made it through just fine.  Now I just have to wait on the results, which hopefully are all fine!  I have pretty much zero risk factors for GD, but you never know what weird things your body does sometimes, so we'll just wait and see.

All in all, not so bad, but not something I would really like to repeat. :)  Especially getting the blood drawn... I'm sure I'll have a bruise from that.  Although one of the things I couldn't believe was how nonchalant the lady was who drew my blood.  As in, she didn't wear any latex gloves or anything, and after she was done, she just grabbed the little gauze (with blood on it) off my arm with her bare hands and threw it away, not caring that she was touching my blood with her bare hands.  I mean, fortunately I do not have any weird diseases, but I would think someone in that profession would be a little more cautious dealing with other people's blood all day long.  Maybe it's a cultural difference here, when I took my infant first aid/CPR class, the EMT teaching it was saying how in general, people in NZ really do not even think about blood borne diseases like HIV, and he even contrasted it to American culture and how cautious people are there about HIV mainly.

And now, after writing this blog instead of doing all the useful things I need to be doing, I should probably stop wasting the day away and actually check a few items off the "to do" list.  Oh how I love to clean the house...  in my next life, the one where I have lots of money, I think I will hire a cleaning service.  Some day, maybe... :)