Gestational Diabetes – Not fun

 

About two months ago I was told I have gestational diabetes.  So for the last two months I have had to monitor everything I eat very closely.  I have to keep my carbohydrate intake down to 50 g per meal and 15 g for snack.  So I am on a diet, and have actually lost a little weight while pregnant.  That is not a bad thing; I am overweight and need to lose weight to be healthy.

Unfortunately diet did not help my blood sugars.  I had to go on insulin three weeks ago.  This is not fun.  First I had to stick a pin (lance) into my fingers at least 3 times a day and change what I eat; now I have to take insulin on top of that.  I have a fear of needles!  This has been a very difficult for me to get past that fear.  Fortunately they gave me an insulin pen.  They don’t look the same as the needles I fear.  However the sharp pointy bit at the end is still a sharp pointy bit that I have to put into my belly 5 times a day. 

I am getting good at monitoring my blood and taking my insulin.  I know I have to do it for both my baby and me.  This is about being healthy.  If my baby is born “big” she has a higher chance of developing diabetes, and struggling with her weight all her life.  I have an 80% chance of not having diabetes after the baby is born.  That means there is a 20% chance it is going to stick around.  There is also some question about if I had diabetes before I became pregnant and just did not know it.  I am very overweight and there is a good chance I had diabetes for the last few years and because I was never tested I did not know.  I also have been informed that I have to lose weight after the baby is born or I have a higher chance of developing diabetes within the next 5 years.  If I can lose the weight I can reduce the possibility by 50%.  That means I have good chance of having diabetes within the next 5 years.  Suddenly getting healthy is just that much more important. 

Who knew how expensive diabetes is.  First food is expensive, bad food tends to be cheaper so we eat more of it.  Good healthy food is what I need to eat now.  Second the supplies are very exspensive in Canada.  The lances needed to test my blood and the needle tips needed to put insulin into me are not covered by our medical coverage.  They cost in the hundreds every month.  Ouch.  Then there is the insulin and test strips – also are in the hundreds every month.  We are lucky that because we are both unemployed and on Ontario Works right now all my supplies are being covered.  However if I was still working it would not be.  I did not have any medical coverage – they kept my hours under 35 a week so I was always part-time.  I would never have been able to pay for the stuff I need to test my blood or to take insulin. 

I hope that I don’t have diabetes after the baby is born, nor do I want to develop diabetes in the next 5 years.  Not just because I want to be healthy!  I hate having to monitor my food so closely, test my blood all the time, and take insulin.  More importantly I don’t want the financial burden of being diabetic.  I can live with taking care with my food, testing my blood and taking insulin.  I don’t know if I could live with the cost of diabetes.  I actually could not afford the diabetic supplies I would need.  I would have to choose between living with diabetes or paying rent, hydro and buying food.  I don’t actually make enough money to pay for the supplies, and everything else I need to live.  I guess that is the best motivation to get on the treadmill every day, diet and do everything else I need to so I can be healthy.

There is latex in what?

A friend of mine has an allergy to latex. Because of this I have found out that latex is in a lot of things most of us don’t even think about. Rubber bands for one, some clothing and now it can be found in food. One website on latex allergies I found said that “Latex is used in making condoms, diapers, rubber bands, rubber toys, sanitary pads, adhesive tape, balloons, urinary catheters, and exam gloves. Individuals that are allergic to latex can also be allergic to banana, avocado, kiwi fruit, chestnut, and tomato.”

There has been some research done regarding the transfer of latex from a glove to cheese and then from the cheese to other foods. Latex protein studies have shown that using latex gloves to handle the cheese leaves this latex protein on it. It seems that cheese is often coated with latex to keep it from molding. So if latex from a glove can be transferred to cheese then how much latex is in the cheese if it has been coated with it? Some latex gloves have cornstarch in them, it seems the latex protein attaches to the cornstarch and can become airborne causing the air in that work area, often hospitals, to have latex particles floating around waiting for someone to breath them in.

My friend is unable to eat pizza now because every time she orders in she has an allergic reaction from the cheese. Now it may just be that the food handlers are using latex gloves or the cheese was coated in latex to keep it from molding. It does not matter how the latex gets on the cheese, she still has a reaction that could kill her. Yet one more thing for me to keep in mind for when she comes over, latex protein is transferable. This means I could be handling balloons and then transfer the latex protein to her or food. Kind of scary when you think about it.

Emergency Room Dilemma – Do you go or not?

Question, do you take your kid to the emergency or wait until morning when the Doctors office or walk in clinic is open? In Hamilton we can call Telehealth Ontario, talk with a registered nurse who will assess the situation and determine what would be your best course of action. Then you know if you actually need to go to the hospital or just go see a Doctor. The idea is to help reduce the number of unnecessary visits to the emergency room. This free health service has been very helpful for us. There have been many late night calls where we have been told to stay home, do this, and then take the kids to the clinic in the morning.

When your kid is sick it is nice to be able to call and talk with someone who is a professional healthcare worker and can reassure you that you are doing the right thing, or tells you to do something different or more. As a parent of young children I want those instant answers. I don’t want to take an ambulance ride in the dead of the night and have a long wait at the hospital only to be told I could have just taken him or her to the local clinic. It is very expensive to use an ambulance, but sometimes you have no options but to use one. No one likes waiting hours in the emergency room only to get treatment at about the same time as they would have it they stayed home and went to a clinic in the morning.

I say this after my daughter had a coughing attach about 10:30 last night. She had difficulty breathing and it scared the beep out of me. We monitored her for about a ½ hour. She was having painful coughing and difficulty getting air back in. We called Telehealth Ontario and waited for their call back to us. Very quickly we had someone on the line walking us through all sorts of health questions to eliminate possible problems. The lady even had us hold the phone up to our daughter so she could hear her breathing and coughing.

The end result, she had to go to the hospital right then. So we had the fire department and two ambulances show up full sirens. Of course as soon as the firemen had arrived she stopped coughing and having problems breathing so she was not in danger anymore. We arrived at the emergency room just after midnight, was given a bed at 7:15 am, saw the Doctor at 7:30, was given medicine at 7:15 and by 8 am we were on the bus home. I spent about 4 of the almost 8 hours I was there trying to get her to go to sleep. Hard to do in a waiting room. Turns out she has Croup. It can usually be treated at home, but in some cases you do need to go to the doctors or emergency room.

So as a parent you have to make a decision to stay at home or go to the hospital. What is going to be the best thing for your children? For us it was easy, she was having problems breathing and we did not know why or what to do. It is just nice to be able to get a second professional opinion at anytime to let us know if we are panicking or does our child need to go to the hospital.