Sunday, October 16, 2011

On Insulin Now: Gestational Diabetes

Well.. you just  heard it..I am on Insulin at night because my Fasting numbers when I wake up are too  high. And to be honest, my other numbers breakfast and lunch are too high as well. I will go over  these issues with my doctor on Monday..so the insulin shots will probably be increased. They started me off with a low dose any ways, in fear of hyperglycemia..so..now that it is not working, I will be probably pumped with more insulin.I think because of IVf, with all the shots with the lupron and menupur..I am fine with the shots..they are not painful or scary at all. Especially with the progesterone inch and a half in the bumm, these are nothing compared to those monsters...ouch..and what a pain in othe ass literally. So...I will just focus o the positive right now..and wait until MOnday to talk to the rude doctors. Oh wait..let me just rant one more negative..because I really need to get this off my chest:

The doctors at my HMO ( Kaiser-San Francisco) have really kind of pissed me off. There are two kinds of drugs yu can take for gestational diabetes.  oral( glyburide) or insulin (shots) If you go to babycenter.com or just type it in google..there are so many reason not to take it. It passes the placenta, the manufacturer recommends not to use it during pregnancy. Many doctors and hospitals do not allow it during pregnancy, and well..it often does not work and you have to eventually go on insulin..oh..and it has no long term studies. Insulin on the other hand has been on the market for decades, there are many studies, and it works quicker.

So, I have my regular obgyn, she says I am sending you to another doctor to give you information on the two options, so I will not see you for this monthly appointment. I go and see him, and he saying bluntly I do not know anything about this medicine, but Kaiser would not offer  any meds that would harm you. Okay..I say thank you for your info, I want insulin...goodbye.

Then I go to the next appointment they set me up with( the high risk team of 10 doctors that I will be now seeing, They inform me that I will not be seeing my old doctor I have seen for 10 years, and have been seeing me since I was pregnant.( I am feeling in one way yes..they are going to monitor me more..but no goodbye..to my old doctor..again...like when I got pregnant form UCSF from IVF...and they just said..there you go..good luck. There is just no closure or connection with any of these doctors.

 So, I see literally 5 doctors the following two hours. The first doctor comes in and tells me why Glyburide is really good. I say, I have made up my mind with insulin, but she still goes on. Then she says how my baby can die and get really big so I will have to be induced at 39 weeks or if the baby is really big, there will have to be a c-section. Yes..at this point I am feeling extremely vulnerable and just pissed off they are scaring me. MInd you..I saw a dietician they gave me a diet...and my blood levels are still very high when I wake up. Now this week, my blood levels are high almost every meal and I am eating what they told me to eat and I am on insulin..yes...I am totally freaking out. So..to go on with this 5 doctor 2 hour doctors appointment on Friday:

the first doctor comes in and tells me about the glyburide and then says, oh here is your doctor actual doctor, we shake hands and she then comes in with a study report about glyburide. I  say Again, I  have decided on Insulin, she says, well..I just want to go over this with you. She was not respecting me at all. After 10 minutes of wasting my time, I interrupt and say, is there a difference between the effect between the two. She says, let me finish. She does for another 5 minutes ad then says no. There is no difference. I say thank you.. but I want insulin. She has the nerve to ask why. Why are all these doctors pushing this drug? She then proceeds to tell me how if I do not get a flu shot...I can die. I am so pissed off at this point..that I say no thank you..and wait for her to leave. we then go and see a dietician, who treats me like I do not know servings. As if it is my fault my sugar numbers are high. NO..it is because I am doing everything right and I have gestational diabetes. But I bite my tongue and go with it. Then, they send me to a person to go over the insulin shots. She comes in and the first words she utters is...you are my last patient I am retiring today. Well... yeah...she so did not seem to care.. ..she was such a bad teacher. Thank god I learned from UCSF for the IVF, I would have been screwed!! So...then I have been home following the plan, injecting the insulin and nothing has changed. Sometimes after my meals it works, but the fasting in the morning is the same.

4 comments:

  1. My God, who are these people scaring you like that! No wonder you are upset. Of course they need to tell you risk factors and such but it seems like they were not very tactful nor professional in doing so. Ugh.

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  2. I can't believe you've had such difficulty with these doctors! Unbelievable! Nice work being proactive and doing your own research. That is definitely a lesson we have all learned from infertility, isn't it? Hang in there - I hope your numbers get better soon!

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  3. Hi , I had GD and was able to control it with diet. I gave birth to a healthy full term boy 7 pounds 14 ounces. I too found that I knew more than the nutritionist assigned to me.

    Some things I found to be true were that stress makes your blood sugar higher, and that cinnamon tea and foods heavy on vinegar seemed to also help keep it low. The most reliable snacks I found were single serve packs of almonds, hard boiled eggs, and cheese sticks.

    You can do this.

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  4. Oh man, I give you a lot of credit. I wouldn't do well with this, seeing all these random doctors, I don't know them, I feel no connection with them. I have to trust these doctors with not only my health and life but my unborn child's health and life. I guess if you have no choice, you have no choice, but I would have a hard time. I "failed" the first GD test when I was pregnant, but when they asked me to monitor my levels each day they were all normal, so it never went any further than that, no changing doctors, no medicine, nada. Hang in there, you only have to see these other doctors temporarily and before you know it you'll have your perfect baby in your arms and nothing else will matter.

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