Well, here we are again at the lab and this time it is for two whole wonderful, amazing, stupendous, glorious hours…. Yeah.  Just in case you could not tell by all the descriptors in the last sentence, I am feeling a bit sarcastic this morning. I have just woken up after a restless sleep and spending five or so hours at the hospital in assessment department of Labour and Delivery. I will write a separate blog on that later. In this blog I am planning to write as each part of the testing is done.

7:30 – I have now been waiting 15 minutes of the 2 hour glucose test and already ready to go home and have a pee. A warning to all, this may turn into one of those TMI kinda Blogs. I arrived at the lab ten minutes before the lab was scheduled to open and there were already four people standing outside I front of the lab. I amazed each time I have come to the lab when they open at 7 AM and find people waiting outside ready to get going.  Also amazed at the diversity of those waiting this early.  They  are not just seniors waiting; they are people of all ages and backgrounds. Apparently people are either that eager or hate blood work that much that they arrive and are willing to stand in the cold for the pleasure of being poked and prodded by the vampires. I call the lab techs vampires out of love and respect. They do a very important job yet are most people’s least favourite people next to the parking meter attendants and parking garage money takers

Now that I have hopefully set the scene of my morning it is time to share what has happened so far and the day ahead. After entering the lab and being given a number just after 7AM, I have been registered and had my 1st of three needles to get my valuable blood from. As I have been fasting for over 12 hours this I believe is supposed to give them a base line for my glucose or sugar levels with no food having been eaten recently.  They then gave me the .75 grams of sugar solution which is just .25 more than they give you for the 1 hour test and yet seems 100 times sweeter and more disgusting. They gave me 5 minutes to drink the “Stuff” and I did it in 4, take that disgusting drink. This blog and parts of the hospital visit 2 were written during this first hour of waiting..

8:15 – Ok, needle number 2 has been taken and that means I am 50% done my waiting time and 67% done my needles for the day. Yeah I am so happy and mean this a lot more than I was when I wrote at 7:30 this morning. I did learn an interesting fact from the tech who took my blood this time.  When I complained how much I hated/dislike this test she told me that they used to have a 3 hour and 5 hour version of this test. I can only imagine how much fun that would have been and it makes me feel better about this 2 hour glucose test

Well less than 24 hours after taking the glucose 1 hour test the results are in. This is the good news. The bad news is that I have to take the 2 hour version and it is FASTING. 
While I am not surprised that I have to take the second test, I was hoping that this time I would not have to.  Everything else about this pregnancy has been polar opposite of my pregnancy with my son and hoped that this would follow the same pattern of opposites.  I  guess all I can do is hope the second test follows the pattern of the first and everything comes out normal. I am not liking the idea of  what may be required for the rest of the pregnancy if  it were to turn out that I had Gestational diabetes.

"Gestational diabetes develops during pregnancy (gestation). Like other types of diabetes, gestational diabetes affects how your cells use sugar (glucose). "  -http://www.mayoclinic.org/

WOW TALK ABOUT PREGNANCY BRAIN.  It sure has been a busy day off and now my brain appears to have shut off.  I  wrote the title for this blog and then no content before I  posted it.

Well Today I did my first and hopefully only glucose test for this pregnancy. For those who have never taken it you drink this sugar liquid and then have to sit for an hour before the take your blood to measure your glucose levels. In the past they had used a coke like solution that was super sweet and those who had it said it was terrible to drink. These days they use a more bland sugar solution that while not bad to drink is definitely not pleasant to drink. I just hope I do not FAIL the test which means the glucose reading is to high. This does not mean that I necessarily have Gestational Diabetes, just that it could be. It does mean that I would have to do the two hour test which also has an additional blood test required to complete and not peeing for two hours. If you are or have been pregnant you know that it is hard for a pregnant women to hold it for two hours and just sit around and wait.