zenLara's journey

[WhiteGhost]

I hope the rest of the people you have to interact with for the rest of the pregnancy are like this nurse, and that you don't run into any more like that terrible mid-wife

[Lara]

2 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I hope the rest of the people you have to interact with for the rest of the pregnancy are like this nurse, and that you don't run into any more like that terrible mid-wife

I hope too, let's cross our fingers.

I told one of my co-workers yesterday (we're quite close) and she was very happy and hugged me. Told her about the conversation with the midwife too and she nodded like she had gone through something similar before. I asked her if she had ever been told to have a cytology done during her pregnancies (she has 3 kids) and she was appalled that the midwife had even suggested it. Reassured me on my decision to refuse the procedure.

 

Day was slightly easier yesterday concerning sickness and food, and today I've been able to participate of lunch prep, instead of leaving all the work to my boyfriend because I can't stand the smell of most foods while they're being cooked. This is all so cliché

Today I had a clear feeling of hunger before I began eating, instead of the weird nausea or restlessness of my stomach at the sight of food. I still have trouble to eat regular amounts of protein (unless if it is one of my fantastic four), and instead my body keeps craving carbs. I'm trying to stay in the healthy side of them (lots of fruits, sweet potatoes, a bit of rice, and home-made sourdough bread), but there are days when it seems I just can't eat any more bananas, so I'm also eating crakers, which are helping not only with the carbs need but surprisingly also soothe my stomach when I'm feeling a bit too sick.

[Mad Hatter]

The lesson sounds great. It seems like you were a lot calmer this time, maybe pregnancy has some positive side effects on you. ?

 

And really glad you're getting some positive responses from people now! 

[Lara]

On 12/6/2019 at 2:07 PM, Mad Hatter said:

maybe pregnancy has some positive side effects on you. ?

I don't know if I mentioned it, but yes, anxiety is almost non-existent. I don't know if it's the hormones, but even when something worries me, the physical sensations are quite faint, compared to what was usual.

 

I've been thinking about a couple of things.

First, food. My choices have been so limited I have found myself eating almost the same things everyday of the week, and I would like to do some, even if small, effort to do better and assure myself I eat a bit more varied. I'm thinking of writing down my meals, so I can see more clearly what I'm eating.

Two, kegel exercises. Apparently there is no consensus about them being good or bad, so I've decided instead that I'd look for yoga poses that work the pelvic floor, and prepared a short sequence, of about 20 minutes. I tried it today and it was fun to do, unlike all those dull prenatal yoga vids on youtube.

 

December 9 meals.

Spoiler

Breakfast: one glass of almond milk with gelatin, 1 banana, 1 red plum, a handful of cashews (too light breakfast, I didn't plan groceries shopping appropriately and had run out of food).

Lunch: salad containing red cabbage, apple, sweet onion, bacon, and green olives. A bit of grilled salmon. One pomegranate and one banana.

Afternoon snack: two slices of sourdough bread with duck liver paté, and 1 banana.

Dinner: onion and squash purée. Some aged cheese with tomato and green olives.

 

December 10 meals

Spoiler

Breakfast: bowl containing almond milk, gelatin, banana, strawberries, raspberries, almonds, and chia. 1 egg omelette.

Lunch: salad containing red lettuce, carrot, avocado, pistachios, black olives, apple. Small burger with sweet potato. 1 pomegranate.

Afternoon snack: two slices of sourdough bread with jamón, 1 banana.

Dinner: onion and squash purée. 1 egg omelette.

 

December 11 meals

Spoiler

Breakfast: two slices of sourdough bread with duck liver paté, 1 garlic, 1 apple, some strawberries.

Lunch: salad: rice with canned mackerel, avocado, green olives, tomato, date. 1 pomegranate.

Afternoon snack: pomegranate (not actually digested, unfortunately).

Dinner: basically pizza crust.

 

December 12 meals

Spoiler

Breakfast: bowl containing almond milk, gelatin, banana, strawberries, raspebrries, cashews and chia. Jamón.

Lunch: salad containing green lettuce, carrot, avocado, green olives, apple. Seabass with sweet potato.

Afternoon snack: some crackers and 2 bananas.

Dinner: green veggies purée.

 

December 13 meals

Spoiler

Breakfast: same as yesterday, but no jamón left.

Lunch: a cheese and tomato sandwich. Not great, but I could eat it entirely. Probably my largest lunch in ages.

Afternoon snack: 2 bananas and some crackers.

Dinner: asparagus, onion and leek purée. 1 egg omelette with garlic. 1 apple.

 

December 14 meals

Spoiler

Breakfast: asparagus, onion and leek purée. 2 eggs omelette with garlic and a bowl of strawberries.

Lunch: salad containing green lettuce, red cabbage, carrot, apple, green olives, and roasted asparagus tips. Half a duck leg. 1 pomegranate.

Afternoon snack: sunflower seeds crackers.

Dinner: bowl of fruit and nuts (cashews, strawberries, kaki, apple) with almond milk and gelatin.

 

[Lara]

Busy week with plenty of medical appointments. I'm becoming more and more disappointed with the service available here, I hope my paperwork will be done next week so my upcoming visits will take place at the new hospital.

On tuesday, the nurse helping the ultrasound guy treated me like if I were stupid only because I didn't know the routines they have. Hello, this is my first time here, why should I know about how this works? On wednesday, I had to wait 1 hour and a half for my doctor to print my blood test results, and she only did it after an argument about the rules on test results that contradicted what was told to me in the admission counter. Today, first visit with the doctor actually in charge of my pregnancy, who didn't even look at us in the eye during the time we spent there, not even when we came in and said good morning. Had a bit of a squabble with the nurse that said that if I don't take the sullivan test, then I'm automatically considered as diabetic (even when my sugar levels in the blood test and those taken at home with the glucometer are optimal) and gave me the diet for diabetics I should follow. It contains way more foods inducing sugar peaks than my regular meals, so I'll continue eating my way.

Boyfriend is quite mad at this medical staff, because adding to what I've said, he has to deal with the fact that nobody talks or even looks at him, like he wasn't or shouldn't be there.

The good part is that every result was good. There are no troubles with my health or baby's health or development, and this is so that even with my age, the doctor has decided no more tests need to be taken for the next 2 months. I'm really happy with this, as it also gives me time to regularise my situation at the new hospital without fear of losing important appointments or tests.

 

This said, I had an awful day yesterday. Something was wrong after lunch, sickness was very intense (we can consider now that canned mackerel is no longer one of my tolerated protein sources) and I decided to stay home instead of going to work, which turned out to be the right choice, since I felt sick the whole afternoon and ended up throwing up my afternoon snack. Today I feel better and lunch felt good, I hope I'll hold all of my food inside.

 

Medical appointments and sickness have eaten up all of my time, so this is by now quite an inactive week: no walking, no gym, no music practice. I hope I'll catch up a bit during the weekend.

[Waanie]

That medical centre/hospital sounds awful. There's a good chance that you have the right to view your medical dossier, so that doctor that didn't want to print your results was probably in the wrong under EU rules (Dutch websites list it as a GDPR-rule). It's also shitty that the "diabetic"-diet they gave you causes more sugar spikes than your reasonable diet (no low carb or anything)...

 

Glad that all the test results are good though, and that you can hopefully transfer to another hospital soon. Have fun during the weekend with all the exercise and music practice .

[WhiteGhost]

1 hour ago, zenLara said:

The good part is that every result was good

This is wonderful an ultimately the most important thing.  I can't believe how terrible that hospital is, though

[Lara]

On 12/12/2019 at 3:26 PM, Waanie said:

There's a good chance that you have the right to view your medical dossier, so that doctor that didn't want to print your results was probably in the wrong under EU rules (Dutch websites list it as a GDPR-rule).

It wasn't even about that. It seems that while the admission people have some instructions about it, the doctors have totally different ones, so it doesn't matter what you do, apparently you're going to need to argue with one of the sides. Unbelievable.

 

On 12/12/2019 at 3:26 PM, Waanie said:

It's also shitty that the "diabetic"-diet they gave you causes more sugar spikes than your reasonable diet (no low carb or anything)...

I really can't understand how a diet for diabetics can be full of white bread, pasta, sweetened milk and fruit juice.

Also, apparently the nurse hopes that I will change my mind and take the sullivan test and so she included in my dossier some instructions on how to proceed. One of the points said that you should consume sweet things on the days previous to the test, such as cookies, chocolate, sweet buns or ice cream, no matter your usual diet, so as to get the "most accurate results". I guess that their goal is to classify as many women as they can as diabetics, otherwise I don't understand.

My reasonable diet is no low carb at all. It has never been, but specially since I've been pregnant, I've been craving, and eating, way more carbs than before. Only that fortunately, the only ones that appeal to me, are those on the lower side of the glucemic load charts.

 

On 12/12/2019 at 4:48 PM, WhiteGhost said:

This is wonderful an ultimately the most important thing.

Yes! My boyfriend experienced quite a relief. It seems that he has been more worried that he let me know. He's very happy now.

Right now, he is in the middle of a ridiculously fun debate with his aunt about the sex of the baby. He wants it to be a girl, but is convinced that it will be a boy (?), and his aunt keeps saying it's going to be a girl (in fact, when she texts me she always says "how are my girls today?". Now, the thing is this aunt of his, guessed, many years ago, the exact day of birth of my boyfriend: the day of her own birthday. Everybody mocked her about it, but in the end that's what happened, so who's going to say now she's wrong? ?

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

2 hours ago, zenLara said:

I really can't understand how a diet for diabetics can be full of white bread, pasta, sweetened milk and fruit juice.

Also, apparently the nurse hopes that I will change my mind and take the sullivan test and so she included in my dossier some instructions on how to proceed. One of the points said that you should consume sweet things on the days previous to the test, such as cookies, chocolate, sweet buns or ice cream, no matter your usual diet, so as to get the "most accurate results". I guess that their goal is to classify as many women as they can as diabetics, otherwise I don't understand.

My reasonable diet is no low carb at all. It has never been, but specially since I've been pregnant, I've been craving, and eating, way more carbs than before. Only that fortunately, the only ones that appeal to me, are those on the lower side of the glucemic load charts.

They may be scared about Gestational diabetes. It can happen to anyone, but if I remember correctly pregnant women over 40 are more prone to it.

Wikipedia Link

Quote

Screening glucose challenge test[edit]

The screening glucose challenge test (sometimes called the O'Sullivan test) is performed between 24–28 weeks, and can be seen as a simplified version of the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). No previous fasting is required for this screening test,^[45] in contrast to the OGTT. The O'Sullivan test involves drinking a solution containing 50 grams of glucose, and measuring blood levels 1 hour later.^[46]

If the cut-off point is set at 140 mg/dl (7.8 mmol/l), 80% of women with GDM will be detected.^[5] If this threshold for further testing is lowered to 130 mg/dl, 90% of GDM cases will be detected, but there will also be more women who will be subjected to a consequent OGTT unnecessarily.

Oral glucose tolerance test[edit]

A standardized oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT)^[47] should be done in the morning after an overnight fast of between 8 and 14 hours. During the three previous days the subject must have an unrestricted diet (containing at least 150 g carbohydrate per day) and unlimited physical activity. The subject should remain seated during the test and should not smoke throughout the test.

The test involves drinking a solution containing a certain amount of glucose, usually 75 g or 100 g, and drawing blood to measure glucose levels at the start and on set time intervals thereafter.

The diagnostic criteria from the National Diabetes Data Group (NDDG) have been used most often, but some centers rely on the Carpenter and Coustan criteria, which set the cutoff for normal at lower values. Compared with the NDDG criteria, the Carpenter and Coustan criteria lead to a diagnosis of gestational diabetes in 54 percent more pregnant women, with an increased cost and no compelling evidence of improved perinatal outcomes.^[10]

The following are the values which the American Diabetes Association considers to be abnormal during the 100 g of glucose OGTT:

• Fasting blood glucose level ≥95 mg/dl (5.33 mmol/L)
• 1 hour blood glucose level ≥180 mg/dl (10 mmol/L)
• 2 hour blood glucose level ≥155 mg/dl (8.6 mmol/L)
• 3 hour blood glucose level ≥140 mg/dl (7.8 mmol/L)

An alternative test uses a 75 g glucose load and measures the blood glucose levels before and after 1 and 2 hours, using the same reference values. This test will identify fewer women who are at risk, and there is only a weak concordance (agreement rate) between this test and a 3-hour 100 g test.^[48]

The glucose values used to detect gestational diabetes were first determined by O'Sullivan and Mahan (1964) in a retrospective cohort study (using a 100 grams of glucose OGTT) designed to detect risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the future. The values were set using whole blood and required two values reaching or exceeding the value to be positive.^[49] Subsequent information led to alterations in O'Sullivan's criteria. When methods for blood glucose determination changed from the use of whole blood to venous plasma samples, the criteria for GDM were also changed.

Sra. Tanque did what appears to be the O'Sullivan test, but they gave her something to drink first, instead of telling her to fill up on sweet things the day before. Also note the typical time in pregnancy when the test is offered. 

[Loveable_Bouncer]

Idk if you know I'm following along, intriguing changes by pregnancy and congrats!

 

Bummer medical professionals have another adgenda.

[Lara]

12 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

They may be scared about Gestational diabetes. It can happen to anyone, but if I remember correctly pregnant women over 40 are more prone to it.

Wikipedia Link

I know what gestational diabetes is. That's what I've been talking about, maybe it wasn't clear because I didn't use the exact name and talked about pregnancy diabetes or just diabetes.

What that wikipedia article forgets to say, as well as many doctors, is that:

1) Depending on the scale used to interpret the results, the percentage of women diagnosed with gestational diabetes goes from a 7-10% to a 20-25%, which is insane.

2) Once you're diagnosed with gestational diabetes, unless you are a very rare case and need insuline, the only solutions they have for you is to exercise, but not too much, and to follow a diet. This diet allows foods such as bread, cookies, juice, potatos and pasta, which don't help to regulate blood sugar. When the diet fails (obviously), a calorie restriction is usually applied, alleging that the diet is not working because the mom is eating too much. As a result of this calorie restriction, many women diagnosed with gestational diabetes end up giving birth to small underfed children.

3) Gestational diabetes diagnose is used to pressure women to have the baby earlier, around the 35th week, through a c-section, with the threat that the baby will be too big if left to grow until week 40. They do this even when from all cases of macrosomy at birth, only 5% are due to gestational diabetes, and even when statistics say that baby's weight estimation is plainly wrong in 40% of cases, and has a margen of error of +-500 grams in the remaining 60%.

4) In women that follow a healthy diet, false positives have been reported (I'm sorry, I don't remember the percentage).

5) Many women experience nausea, vomits, and fainting, while doing the test. This is so that many doctors are starting to change their minds and, doing the test only after a meal, substituting it for a carb rich breakfast, or substituting it for a 2 week glucose measuring at home.

Also, I find it unbelievable, that 50 something years after the test was designed, no one has thought of making any improvements to it.

[Lara]

4 hours ago, LovelyBouncer said:

Idk if you know I'm following along, intriguing changes by pregnancy and congrats!

 

Bummer medical professionals have another adgenda.

Hi! No, I had no idea! Welcome!

 

I hope my troubles with the medical staff will end when I switch to the new hospital. And if not, at least now I'm prepared and know what I'll have to deal with ?

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Sorry, misinterpretation on my part.

[Lara]

5 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Sorry, misinterpretation on my part.

I re-read my post and saw that it sounded a bit harsh even if it wasn't my intention. I'm sorry if it made you feel uncomfortable. Maybe this week's appointments have got on my nerves more than I thought.

[WhiteGhost]

Hope this next one goes well (both in terms of the pregnancy and the medical staff involved)

[Lara]

I called my brother to tell him the news. Given that my relationship with my family is so complicated, I was almost sure he would receive the news with some indifference. To my surprise, he was uberthrilled about it, and we spent almost one hour on the phone (a thing that had not happened in almost 20 years). He was so happy!

In contrast, I also called the only close friend I still have in my hometown (we've known each other and been friends for almost 30 years) and she was quite distant during our conversation, and my feeling was she didn't want to talk about it. She kept putting the call on hold to talk to other people and it was clear she was eager to end the conversation. It made me feel sad when I hanged up.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I'm happy about your brother's enthusiasm but saddened by the friend's lack thereof. 

[Lara]

13 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I'm happy about your brother's enthusiasm but saddened by the friend's lack thereof. 

It's a mix of feelings, yes. My boyfriend was back from his trip last night and we talked about it. I suspect my friend has got her own disappointments to accept regarding not having children (she doesn't really talk about it so I'm guessing) and this news probably made her feel sad.

 

On a happier note, I felt the baby's moves last night for the first time. It was the weirdest thing, and to be honest at first I thought it was gas ? but after a moment it was clear the sensation was different. Kept moving for a little while and then I didn't notice it anymore. Midwife told me it would take at least until the 20 week to notice the movements, but it turns out that thin women may feel them earlier since there is less "cushion".

[WhiteGhost]

BABY MOVEMENTS!!!!  So exciting!   

 

Really glad your brother had such a good reaction to the news

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

3 hours ago, zenLara said:

 

On a happier note, I felt the baby's moves last night for the first time. It was the weirdest thing, and to be honest at first I thought it was gas ? but after a moment it was clear the sensation was different. Kept moving for a little while and then I didn't notice it anymore. Midwife told me it would take at least until the 20 week to notice the movements, but it turns out that thin women may feel them earlier since there is less "cushion"

Those movements will just get stronger and stronger. Sra. Tanque always noticed them when we laid down for bed.

[Lara]

Back from visiting family. I regret having done that trip. My parents, as usually, didn't bother to warm up the room we were going to stay in, or the rest of the floor, so we spent two days in a place that was about 12ºC, excepting the living-room, the only warm place in the house. Then we went to my brother's, that lives in an old country house, that felt like a fridge when we came in. 8ºC. At least he tried to warm it up, unsuccessfully. Spent most of the time outside the house in the sun, trying to feel better. Didn't sleep much that night, my body was in tension trying to generate some heat. It was awful, and I'm way worse from my cold.

Regarding the great news we had to share, the situation made me feel stupid. Not that I would have expected any "normal" reaction from my parents, but still they managed to suprise me. My father had no reaction to it, he didn't seem to care, and made no comments about it during the 2 days we spent there. Then my mother said we were lying and fooling with her, that I was obviously not pregnant since it didn't show, and that she would believe it when she could see the kid.

Awesome days.

[Mad Hatter]

Why on Earth would they live like that? ?

 

13 minutes ago, zenLara said:

My father had no reaction to it, he didn't seem to care, and made no comments about it during the 2 days we spent there. Then my mother said we were lying and fooling with her, that I was obviously not pregnant since in didn't show, and that she would believe it when she could see the kid.

Wow. I'm sorry. It's really awful how much negativity and BS you have to deal with.

[deftona]

20 minutes ago, zenLara said:

My father had no reaction to it, he didn't seem to care, and made no comments about it during the 2 days we spent there. Then my mother said we were lying and fooling with her, that I was obviously not pregnant since in didn't show, and that she would believe it when she could see the kid.

 

What the actual fuck. 

 

 

[WhiteGhost]

43 minutes ago, zenLara said:

My father had no reaction to it, he didn't seem to care, and made no comments about it during the 2 days we spent there. Then my mother said we were lying and fooling with her, that I was obviously not pregnant since in didn't show, and that she would believe it when she could see the kid.

Awesome days.

What is wrong with your parents?   That is just awful.  I can't believe they would react that way  ?

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Holy crap! Who pooped in your parents oatmeal?