My Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) Journey

Recently, there were a few queries on my GDM journey as my friends are starting to pop out kids one by one.

Disclaimer: This is my own experience and is by no way a substitute for doctor's advice.

During early pregnancy, I was woefully ignorant of this "GDM" medical issue. I was called upon to do a glucose test (aka drink 2 bottles of yucky orange drink) and get tested after 1 and 2 hours of drinking it respectively.

Basically, the test was horrible. I was already sleep deprived due to my hormones going crazy which led to my eczema flaring up. Then, I had to swallow 2 whole bottles of this syrupy drink, which I almost vomited out.

Anyway, cutting the long story short, i was a borderline failure for this test. And since I was with a private gynae, he set me up on a strict diet of lean protein, vegetable and minimal carbs. I also had to prick my finger 5 times a day to measure my blood glucose.

Finger pricking

To measure the blood glucose, I had to get the Accu Chek kit. It comprises of a guide (with display to show the results), the lancing device, lancets and the test strips.

The instructions are very simple:

1. Wash your hands.

2. Put the lancets into the lancing device.

3. Take out the test strip.

4. Prick your finger with the lancing device.

5. Drip blood onto test strip.

6. Plug the test strip into the guide and wait for result.

After numerous pricking, I can safely give the following advice:

- Switch finger every time you do the pricking (multiple prickings on the same finger each day is ultra painful)

- Prick the side of the finger pad instead of right in the middle. (You would thank me :D)

- Pricking is not strictly required after you have tried and tested that certain foods don't spike your blood glucose.

I admit that I became lazier as the time goes by, and I skipped some of the testing since I was more or less eating the same foods each day.

Examples of foods:

Breakfast

a slice of toast with avocado bits
peanut butter sandwich
rolled oats
yogurt with a handful of berries

Lunch/Dinner

A piece of chicken breast (~200g) with broccoli/cauliflower
Salmon/Barramundi fillet with kai lan/xiao bai cai (at most 3 times a week)
Caesar salad/ Cold Storage salad
Chicken noodles (less noodles)
ABC soup with pasta

It was a very sad and lonely period time for me, as I didn't go out much to eat, since each outdoor meal will see my blood glucose shoot up sky high (highest was 11)

But it was worth it in the end, as Hunter came out at 3.3kg at 39w4d.

For me, I only gained around 5kg throughout the whole pregnancy.

For those who have been diagnosed with GDM and saw this post, jiayou and you could do it too :)

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