Glucose Tolerance Test
[WARNING: This post mentions blood-draws, and lots of them. Don’t read if squeamish!!]
This morning I went into the hospital to undergo a ‘blood glucose tolerance test‘, which screens for pregnancy-induced diabetes (meðgöngusykursýki). The test consists of three blood-draws, spaced an hour apart. One shows up at 8 am in the morning having fasted from 10 pm the night before. Then there’s a blood-draw. After the first blood-draw, one drinks a hideously sugary drink, and then waits for one hour. After the first hour, there’s a second blood-draw, and then an hour after that, the third blood-draw.
Now, I really wouldn’t be too bothered about a test like this, except I have ‘teflon-veins’. Seriously. Not only are all the veins that lie close to the surface very skinny (the big ones apparently hide deep down), but needles seem to slip off of them! Add dehydration (fasting!) to the mix, and the veins all but shrivel up and die. So getting blood from me is no joking matter. And it’s not just me… my mom has the same problem.
It’s so bad that I always warn people that I have the suckiest veins in existence: “The kind where you need an anesthesiologist to put in an IV”, … and … “The Blood Bank doesn’t want me even though I’m O- because they can’t squeeze blood from me”…!! Some people believe me and go straight to the pros, but others don’t and my arms pay the price.
Anyway, I showed up this morning and the nurse made three attempts at my arms, before marching me downstairs to the ‘vampires’ who do this for a living. The woman there got it in one.
Waiting in the lazy-boy lounger after the first blood-draw, which took four stabs to get right.
An hour later, the nurse tried again, this time the back of my hand, and … failed. So we marched downstairs to the vampires, and the woman who’d got me last time attempted to hit the same vein as before and … failed (ouch!!). So she moved on to the back of my other hand, this time enlisting the nurse who was with me to pop the glass on the tube once the needle was in so she wouldn’t have to let go of the needle and … success!
The third time around the nurse just marched me straight downstairs without trying (I was her most difficult ‘case’ in months!) and the vampire from before again enlisted the nurse for a second pair of hands before going for the same vein in the back of my hand and … success!
Total number of stabs: EIGHT!
The only good thing about the morning was the nurse checking to see if my first two results were back before I left. They were, and were both within normal limits, so I’m hopeful the third one will be as well.
After the test, Finnur came and picked me up, and took me to lunch at Lifandi markaður (Iceland’s Whole Foods), which made up for a crappy morning. 🙂
UPDATE!
The third blood test was also within limits, so it would appear that I do not have gestational diabetes. 🙂