Hi all,

Just thought I'd let you all know about my Glucose Tolerance Test that I had yesterday.

Because of various people having diabeties in both sides of the family, and because of my larger size, it was decided that I should have a GTT just incase I have Gestational Diabeties.

I had to be pretty much nil by mouth from 9.30pm Wednesday evening. The appointment was at 9.30am so I toddled along to the maternity ward with hubby to have my first bloods taken.

(Nightmare - not because of them, not because of the test itself, just purely ME having crap veins! So they had trouble getting blood and I nearly fainted!! Lol hysterical really as I NEVER faint for injectionsor stuff normally, but twice now while pregnant I've nearly gone while having bloods taken! Anyway, ended up on the bed to have them done from a smaller vein.)

I was told that the bloods would be sent of immediately so they got an immediate response, and they should be back in about an hour. Once they were back I would need to drink a glucose drink. Fortunately, to kill time, I had a growth scan and appointment with a consultant to go to, so the first hour sped by (all fine with baby's growth!).

10.30am back upstairs to maternity, to drink the glucose drink. Even though they tried to make it taste nice giving it an organge flavour, it was just too syrupy and horrible!! lol So drank it all, had some water to wash it down! I then couldn't eat or drink anything (except sips of water) for two hours!

Again, because we were warned how long all this would be, we popped out to buy a new ladder!! lol Got back to the hospital, and because of my troublesome veins and nearly fainting, I was due to have my 12.30pm bloods taken by the proper bloods department in out patients. So off we go. We're half an hour early, and normally they work on a number appointment system (take a number, you go in when number is called). But because they were so efficient I was called a few minutes after I arrived, and I explained where I'd come down from, and that the test couldn't be done until pretty much exactly 12.30pm. They had received a message about me from maternity, knew about me, and told me they'd call me in at 12.30pm.

12.33pm (hey, not bad!) they called me in. Bless them, because they'd been told I nearly fainted, they made sure there were no other patients in there (normally they can be taking bloods from two people at once), I had both nurses' full attention, and the window open. Being the experts they were, they managed to find a good enough vein quite quickly (they admitted that my veins weren't good for giving blood! I'd be a hopeless druggy!!) and got plenty out for the GTT and my 28 week blood test at the same time. I am also VERY pleased to announce that I didn't feel faint (I'm convinced I only feel faint when they get me to do that pumping thing with my hand, and they are tapping about looking for suitable veins!)!

And that was it. Off I went to get myself something yummy for lunch.

Today I had to phone in for my results (24 hours later!) and my blood sugar level had started at 5 yesterday morning, and was 5.6 by the time of the second blood test! So almost perfect and nothing to worry about!

So I thought I'd share my experience incase anyone else is due to have a GTT. The staff were lovely (they always are in my hospital) and although you have a bit of a wait between stages, it's not all that bad (unless you're feeble like me!! hehe).

C xxx
28+3