Just Another Routinary Checkup

There are a couple of new items for this month's checkup since I'm on my third and last trimester : Blood test for anemia, urinalysis and glucose screening test. Gestational diabetes is a high blood sugar condition that some women get during pregnancy. This is a routinary check that almost all practitioners required for pregnant women between 24 and 28 weeks.

Like any screening test, this one won't give you a diagnosis — it's designed to identify as many women as possible who may have a problem and need more testing to find out. Between 2 and 5 percent of expectant mothers develop gestational diabetes, making it one of the most common health problems during pregnancy. And because the condition rarely causes any symptoms, testing is the only way to find out if you have it.

I got at the laboratory and had my urinalysis immediately. Then I was asked to drink a very sweet glucose solution drink which tasted like a cola (a sugar solution that contains 50 grams of glucose). I have to to get all of it down in five minutes. I chugalugged the stuff with no problems as I was warned that I might feel a little nauseous afterwards. Then the attendant instructed that I they will need to have my blood drawn after an hour, no food or water intake within 1hr of course. So I waited at the lobby and read magazines while waiting.

Now here comes the one hour later. The technician took a blood sample from my arm to check your blood sugar level and anemia. He had two vials for each of these test. For blood sugar, the idea here is to see how efficiently my body processes sugar.

RESULTS: My blood sugar level is NORMAL! Yahooo! Which suggests that my body is producing enough insulin to process the extra glucose in my system. On the otherhand, my hemoglobin count lowered, which means I need to get as much rest and sleep and consistent with my vitamins to prevent anemia because my OB says I needed to have normal hemoglobin level since I will be loosing blood during delivery.

Note, to prepare for glucose screening test, it helps to eat something a few hours before. If you vomit soon after you've gotten the drink down, you'll have to come back another day and repeat the test.