And I am Vindicated

Back in June/July I expressed quite a lot of frustration at my treatment at the hands of a certain endocrinologist.  He treated me as if diabetes and/or gestational diabetes was a foregone conclusion simply based on my weight.  Despite the fact that my blood sugar is in the clinically normal range and I didn't have gestational diabetes in my first pregnancy, he never seemed able to remember that and would open every appointment by saying "So when we treated your gestational diabetes before, I assume we......(fill in blank)," at which time I would say with dwindling patience "I didn't have gestational diabetes last time."   Then in June he decided I needed to start monitoring my blood sugar 4 times a day, and despite a normal (albeit on the edge of high) hb1ac test (3 month glucose average) was talking about putting me on an insulin pump. 

   I felt like he never listened to me or considered me as anything except a weight. And following my gut instinct and knowledge of my own health, I immediately sought out a new endocrinologist.  Based on my labwork and the indicators present in my current pregnancy, she recommended that I follow the low-carb diet prescribed for women diagnosed with gestational diabetes which was a very minimal impact on how I already ate (basically a change of breakfast, but no other big impact), but chose only to treat me for my obvious and rampant hypothyroidism.  Being a pregnant woman herself and understanding the energy sapping qualities of that parasitic infection, she said that she prefers to keep thyroid levels during pregnancy at the higher end of normal so she increased my dosage and I am positive that this has had a very positive impact on this pregnancy.

  So almost 29 weeks into this pregnancy, my weight gain is minimal.  I have no swelling in my hands or ankles at this point and other than heartburn and a gag reflex that turns me into Linda Blair, I feel good. I have more energy than I did before, I'm not as uncomfortable.  Niblet is swimming along quite happily and growing as she should.

  And what's more, I had my glucose screening test this week.  The way the diagnosis process for gestational diabetes works, you take a screening test first.  Most people pass it by having a 1 hour glucose reading <140 after 50mg of glucose and don't have gestational diabetes.  About 20% don't pass and have to return for a more complicated 3 hour test. About 3-7% of women will be diagnosed with GD. 

   With The Squirt, I passed the 1 hour. I found out today that with #2 I did, too. If I was diabetic or even had significantly impaired glucose tolerance, don't you think I'd have had to take the 3 hour test at least? I do.  And I think that I am vindicated in my choice to trust my gut instead of a doctor that was not treating me like a person, but like a number.


So to doctors making assumptions instead of practicing medicine, I say neener neener. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.