Glucose Screening?! (Sorry if this has already been discussed)...

Happy New Year!

I was told last week that I will need a glucose screening (I did not have this during my first pregnancy...it was not even recommended...weird).  My current doctor was, however, wise enough to ask me if sugar caused me to dump and, more often than not, it does.  I was told this glucose tastes like very sweet soda and that scares me because, when I order a diet soda and am given regular soda by accident, the moment the soda hits my tummy, it HURTS!

My doc said she would "think of alternatives" to the screening.  Did you all have the test?  Did you have any dumping issues?  If you did not have the test due to dumping, did you do anything else instead?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thank you!
Jersey Mom

I did not do the drink. I did fasting blood sugar testing. Good luck  :)

What did the fasting blood sugar test entail?

Thanks again!!

I had to stop eating at midnight and went in at 7 am for a blood draw. Very easy!! Then I did the same thing the next month and was done with that. :) They certainly cant make you take it with that drink there are other options so I am happy I chose the fasting way!! Very easy to do.

I called my bariatric surgeon and the nurse said instead of the glucose tolerance test that I needed to do the hemoglobin A1C test instead.   There is 50 gms of sugar in the drink they give you and I dump on about 20 gms, so I'd be miserable.  She also said that since we don't have a pyloric valve now that the test results would be inaccurate.  Plus, it says in my blue bible (the booklet my surgeon gave me post op w/instructions) that the amount they want us to drink in the 3-5 minutes is too much for our pouch to hold in that quick of time.

That is so good to know.  I nearly panicked when she told me about it!

Thanks so much again!

I am doing th fasting sugar testing at 20 weeks for 1 week.

Hey you!!!


I had to eat a piece of toast with jelly on it and drink 8 oz. of apple juice and then have my blood drawn within that same hour. That was my alternative for the screening. I hope your feeling well and keep posting on here...lots of good info and people!!

Hugs,
Shannon

My OB told me I "had" to do the test.  I told him I would not.  Not because I like to be a problem, but because I have very bad reactive hypoglycemia and I could literally go into a hypoglycemic coma.  My high risk OB just wants me to test my BS 3 times a day for a week.  Works for me!

Good luck!

There are a few alternatives:

A1c -- although this may not be totally accurate for pregnancy as it is tells the story of average blood sugar for the past 90 days.  If your sugar is just now starting to go up (which it tends to do towards the end) then it won't register on A1c.

Home monitoring -- works if your OB trusts you.  Let's face it, some docs don't.  Cause let's face it, many patients lie.  Hate putting it so bluntly, but it's true.

Post paradinal -- go in fasting, draw.  Eat a normal breakfast, wait 2 hours, then draw.  This is arguably the most accurate for us since it tells how we react to FOOD -- not some stupid sugary drink that we won't be drinking anyway.


Also, given that we don't have a pyloric valve controlling the sugar to the small intestines, there is a question as to the reliability of the test in the first place.