3 hour Glucose Test

29 weeks pregnant. WOW

First let me say that the 3 hour test is actually more then 3 hours as no one takes into account the paper filling time, the time between blood withdrawals, etc. The 3 hour test ends up being closer to 3.5/4 hours. I’m special. I was there for almost 5 hours. Let me explain.

I arrive at the office (a whopping 5 minute drive from my house.) It is one of the cleanest and organized offices I’ve been to. Add to the fact that the waiting room is quite LARGE. So I walk up – sign in my name on the first line and take a seat. Not 2 seconds later I’m escorted to the back into a small room and am sitting. Very nice attendant lady asks “Can I see your script.” My world tumbles. I completely forgot to go to the office and pick up my script (i.e. referral/prescription slip) at my doctor’s office. I apologize profusely and she tells me no problem. We’ll just call the office and have them fax it over to us. I need the script to know what I need to do. Fair enough. But the call to my doctor’s office proves futile. They do not open for another hour. GREAT.

I sit in the waiting room with no other choice but to wait. I watch CNN and curse myself for being foolish enough to forget the script. 15 minutes into doing nothing, I realize that although the office opens at a certain hour – they typically open ½ hour earlier to accommodate the early app’t arrivals. So I high tail it over to my doc’s office (a whopping 15 blocks away from this office) and park. Parking lot is empty. Doors are locked. I wait. 5 minutes later one of the nurse attendants shows up. I noticed a ‘patient’ waiting for the doors to open. I sit in my car. 10 minutes later, a 2nd employee shows up and the ‘patient’ disappears. Doors are open so I head inside and am out the door and back to the original office with script in hand. Arrive there just 5 minutes shy of 1 hour period. I have lost 55 minutes to this entire thing. My 3 (really 4) hour thing has turned into 4 (really 5) hours.

So I walk in. Deal with paperwork. And its time to draw blood. Surprise of surprises, I have little veins. After 2 futile attempts at my left arm, we go for the ever popular right arm where my veins are about 10% more visible then my left. I brace myself for the pinch of the needle the same way every time. Biting down on the nail of my big thumb. And we’re in and watching it trickle down ever so slowly. The attendant is nice. Really sweet. She laughs at my little veins and jokes with me. Her braids really go with the shape of her head and she has a slight Caribbean accent and a warm smile. Made it so much easier to both take the needles and drink the drink. I got the ‘GREEN’ drink this time around. Um – I think I prefer the sickenly sweet Orange one. The green is very ‘green’ in flavor. Like an overly sweet icy pop/stick you used to get for 10 cents at the deli during the summer. I downed it quickly. So I set my phone alarm head out to the waiting room and its CNN and set up my laptop to work on video edits while I’m there.

Place is freaking COLD. Downright refrigerated. Every hour on the hour I got up and had my blood sucked. After that first attempt, they used the baby needles they use on kids. Those worked a lot better on getting the blood out. By the time I’ve had my blood drawn 3 times, I am tired and really hungry. It is already well past lunch and I had not eaten anything since 5pm the day before. Needless to say I hit the Italian deli on the way home and happily ate a roast beef hero. YUMMM.

Lets all cross our crossables that I don’t end up with Gestational Diabetes.