This blog allows me to do two fantastic things: rant and educate.

First, let me rant. This blood sugar management thing is driving me crazy. I am trying really hard to avoid stuff I shouldn’t eat. Problem is that each the list grows larger and things I could eat without issue a week ago are now causing my glucose levels to spike. Every time my glucosometer — it’s a OneTouch UltraMini, one in lime green, one in blue — spits a number back at me that is over, too often well over, the acceptable limits after a meal I get really mad. I’m angry at myself, at my doctors who can’t seem to figure out who should do what and how much of what medication I should take, and at food. I’m developing a hate/hate relationship with food. And just when I think I’m making progress, bam! I hit a wall.

Two weeks ago I was put on humulin, an intermediate acting insulin that should work to keep my insulin levels even for eight to 10 hours, and a week ago my numbers weren’t where they should be so humalog, a short acting insulin was added to the therapy regimen. Within a couple days of adding humalog, I started seeing progress, so having been told that I should be able to eat carbs once I started taking insulin that’s what I did since I was starting to miss bread, potatoes, rice and pasta. I had some sushi. Oops. Too soon for rice. I can’t remember what the next thing was that spiked my sugar near 200, probably bread of some sort. Whole wheat bread, actually, which I had been able to eat up until about a week ago. Then I really whiffed and got a grilled chicken sandwich on white bread instead of whole grain bread at a restaurant earlier this week.

After not getting further direction from my endocrinologist this week, I decided to adjust the dosages myself, especially after the lecture I got yesterday from my obstetrician and hearing that I was “measuring a little big” when he rolled the tape measure across my tummy.

The kind, but quite firm, doctor reminded me that I need to keep my blood sugar levels under control so that my baby will continue to develop normally and so she doesn’t get too big. All the extra sugar crosses the placenta, and like with anyone living outside the womb, excess sugar turns into fat on the fetus. Diabetic women are prone to having bigger babies. My mom, who was diagnosed with Type 2 last April, had me when she was 31 and often complains about my size — ohmigosh I was nearly 10 pounds! I betcha anything she had gestational diabetes and didn’t know it. My older sister, who was 12 when mom was pregnant with me, says our mother ate ice cream from the carton slathered in Hershey’s syrup.

According to what I’ve read, pregnant women are only supposed to take on anywhere from an extra 200 to 400 calories a day, but sometimes ladies interpret eating for two far more literally than they should.

But that’s something I can’t really get away with because of my diabetes, though I admit, as I come to the end of the second trimester my appetite has gotten quite a bit bigger. I’ve been trying to eat smaller meals four to five times a day because it’s good for my blood sugar levels and also because of the limitations of my diet it’s easier for me to do this.

I’ve gained all of five or six pounds, depending on the scale, during my pregnancy and I’m nearly 26 weeks now. If I can manage to not gain more than 15 pounds total I should be in good shape. We’ll just have to see how things go with what I can eat, the insulin doses and whatever excerise (walking the dogs around the neighborhood) I can squeeze into my busy schedule.

This whole medication and insulin thing has been a struggle for me but I’m doing the best I can. I’m starting to think it’ll be easier to take care of my baby once she’s out of the womb and away from the evil clutches of my diabetes.

I’ll find out this afternoon at the ultrasound just how far over weight she may be at this point. There’s still time to get it under control since babies gain most of their weight in the third trimester. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I can do it.