Preggo Life: Getting the Glucose Tolerance Test done in Week 14
March 2 (GTT)
It’s 10:25am right now and I’m chilling in the waiting room at Box Hill Hospital.
I’m currently in the pathology area in the middle of doing my Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT).
I’m only 14 weeks pregnant and already doing it!
Usually you do it at around Week 28 or so to detect Gestational Diabetes (GD) but my family has a history of diabetes so they requested that I do it earlier.
14 weeks is sooooo early! But whatevs!
So what’s the process like?
Well, it’s a fasting test so I had to fast a maximum of 14 hours before doing the test.
My test was scheduled at 9:30am so I started fasting around 8:30pm the night before which gave me a total of 13 hours of fasting.
The email that was sent through told me to fast 10-12 hours but Simon wanted me to fast closer to the 14 hour mark (which was stated on the referral letter by the midwife).
Laaaame!!!
Well, hopefully my body is digesting glucose nicely.
Anyway, so we got there around 9:25am as requested on the form (you needed to get there 5 min early). And it was a Saturday so Simon and I thought the place would be filled with a lot of people but surprisingly there was only one other pregnant woman and her partner sitting there in the waiting room.
It was pretty quiet for a Saturday morning!
The receptionist spoke to us around 9:35am and that was roughly around the time Simon said good bye to me! He wasn’t going to wait around for 2 hours or so with me - haha.
Although the other dude in the waiting room is still sitting beside his partner and I’ve been sitting here for almost an hour lol. So wow!!!
1st Blood Test
Anyway, I did my blood test. They did the regular procedure of asking for my name, birthday, address and mobile phone number. Then it was a quick prick to the left arm to take out some blood.
I held the little cotton ball to put pressure on it while she prepped the blood sample.
And then she passed over a clear plastic bottle full of the glucose mixture and told me to drink the concoction in 5 minutes.
I think I smashed it within 2 or 3 minutes but I didn’t chug the whole thing. I had to take a few breaks here and there because I felt a bit sick trying to finish it quickly lol.
Sitting here, I feel like I still feel the leftover dinner lingering inside of me - haha - which was fried chicken from El Jannah last night - lmao.
Anyway, I finished the drink and handed it back to her and she told me to sit outside in the waiting room for about an hour.
I put an alarm clock on my phone which is going to probably go off in about 5 minutes (10:40am alarm clock), so I’ll just have to turn that off.
The weird thing is that the other couple across from me has been sitting there since 9:30am and now it’s 10:36am so I thiiiink they should enter the lab soon and do another blood test??
Seems like they have been there for quite some time!
How am I feeling?
I feel kinda weird ingesting so much weird liquid but it’s fine.
Also the internet is pretty crap here so I’m actually typing on a note pad app on my laptop right now because I can’t actually directly write on my regular website/blog.
I tried sending a few messages to Simon and my sisters during this time but it took forever to send out so I decided to just blog instead.
ALSO, I’m wearing a tank, tights, and a cardigan and it’s actually really cold in here! They blasted the A/C so tips for those who are planning to come to Box Hill Hospital to do this test… bring a sweater!!!
Everyone told me this test was so boring but I didn’t mind it - the time is passing by pretty quickly.
I actually packed both my personal laptop and my work laptop in case I wanted to work on different things.
I also packed a book, “Kids Ain’t Cheap” by my friend, Ana.
* they called me in to do another blood test *
Second Blood Test
So I did another test and got carried away speaking to the other mums in the waiting room haha - they were also doing their GTT!!
Right after the second blood test (around 10:47am), they told me I’d have to wait another hour and then do my third blood test.
It’s about 11:08am right now and I was talking to two women and asking about their pregnancies.
One is having her second girl and she told me it was a surprise HAHAHA - oops! And another person is also having a girl and didn’t feel too well.
Both people had very different pregnancies.
I told them I didn’t know the gender of mine - hahahaha. But from the looks of it, all of our pregnancies were different!
Anyway, one lady finished her GTT (yay!) and the other stayed behind.
Third blood test
I finished my 3rd and final blood test around 11:40am.
And then I called Simon to meet me at Box Hill to eat lunch.
We ended up eating at a brunch place called the Penny Drop!
Overall, the GTT wasn’t too bad and the time passed quickly as I was talking to other women who did the test as well.
I actually had a food coma shortly after brunch and fell asleep and now I just woke up to finish writing this blog!!!
Also, all of the blood tests were done on my left arm so it might show a bruise later.
It doesn’t feel too painful so that’s good!
I need to get some work done, so ta ta!
Now I have to wait about 5 days or so for the results of the GTT.
The midwife said if we don’t get a call in the next week or so, then everything is all good but if we do get a call, then we have GTT and have to visit the hospital for the next steps.
xoxo, knd.