I went on my first continuous glucose monitor back in 2007, when the Dexcom system was known as the “STS” and the duration for a sensor was only three…
Category: Pregnancy
I was at the end of my second trimester, and the nurse filled a disposable cup with 50 grams of glucose powder – a tad less than the amount of sugar in…
The following is an excerpt from the book Pregnancy with Type 1 Diabetes by Ginger Vieira and Jennifer Smith, CDE & RD
There are two things…
Morning sickness sucks for everyone, but for women with pre-existing diabetes, it can be dangerous: if you eat food and take insulin – and then throw up the food you took the insulin to cover – you’re at risk of a serious low blood sugar. (And unfortunately, “morning sickness” can occur at any time during the day, contrary to its name.) Making things even trickier, many women with morning sickness find that easy-to-digest carbs like saltines and pretzels are the easiest thing to keep down – foods that are hardly a diabetic’s best friend.
So you’ve got type 1 diabetes and you’re thinking about having a baby. We’re not going to lie: pregnancy with type 1 diabetes isn’t a walk in the park. But we’re also here to tell you that you can have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. Here’s the first of a four-part series on what to expect when you’re expecting with type 1 diabetes, starting with pre-conception: what to do and be aware of before you even try to get pregnant.
“I wish I hadn't known about all the things that could have gone wrong with my pregnancy, and that I could have focused instead on all the things that were going right. We get so used to our bodies being broken, so it's that much more important to focus on the cool stuff, like baby building. I still can't believe I pulled it off.”
The staff wanted to follow protocol. They wanted to put sugar in the drip. And they were urging me to disconnect my pump and let the nurses take over. I thought, Hell no. I just changed my site! I adamantly said “No, thank you.” This was before the epidural, so there may have been some grimacing.
I felt a surge of water burst out of my body. I looked down and my pants were soaked. Again, I thought of the movies: Did my water break? I began to cry because I was only 30 weeks pregnant. The roar of fire trucks. Miraculously, my dad was without a scratch. So the paramedics focused on me.
But it’s a problem for women with diabetes. We need pockets for our insulin pumps, damnit! Many maternity pants have high elastic bands that slide all the way up the stomach, so there’s no waist band on which to attach the pump. And my bra size has already gone up significantly, making bra-wearing uncomfortable enough. Do I really want to clip my pump there every day? I accept that I’ll have to clip my pump to my bra on the days I wear leggings. Even non-maternity leggings don’t have pockets. I’m used to that. But when I’m wearing jeans or regular maternity pants to work, I want a pocket for my pump.
Even if I tested every hour it wouldn’t guarantee perfection. Sometimes I have to remind myself that a blood sugar of 147 is just a moment. It doesn’t make me a criminal.