The Reception for Diabetes Education Center was still closed. I was asked to come at 8am and I didn't want to be late (I'm always punctual in appointments). I also didn't want my husband to be late for work.
I waited on this 'lobby' nervously. Who wouldn't?
I've been surrounded by so many informational materials on diabetes. I was already disinterested. I've already done my homework on diabetes since last year, when we rushed my mother to the hospital due to very high blood sugar. My mother has been on insulin since then.
A little after 8am, I was called by a nurse for weighing and some additional personal information. I was told that there will be eight of us in the "Gestational Diabetes Class." They don't usually have that many in a class, she added. I felt a bit of relief. Misery indeed loves company.
After asking me several questions, the nurse instructed me to go to the restroom and wash my hands as we will be doing some finger pricking later on.
When all the eight girls have been weighed and interviewed, we were finally directed to the "class room."
Yung mga box agad ng glucometer ang bumulaga sa amin! Nangingig ako. Takot talaga akong magtusok. The good thing though is that the glucometers were given to us for free (ito talaga ang maganda dito sa Canada). We were asked though if we have extended health insurance. Only one out of eight has none and she was given a different brand. I have no idea why. Could it be that the test strips of that brand are cheaper?
Nurse Kristy started the session by giving us some handouts and explaining to us what Gestational Diabetes means. Of course we already knew that. Lahat naman kami nagbasa na online.
Now the most dreadful part was the pricking. As usual, pumalpak ako. We pricked twice and in those two times I failed to put enough blood on the strip. I wasted two strips tuloy.
Pricking though was not that bad. Medyo masakit syempre pero tolerable naman.
By the way, my numbers were 4.4 mmol/l and 4.7 mmol/l. Very normal, yebaah!
We were instructed to do a 6-times-a-day pricking for two days before meeting with the Specialist the following week.
After the nurse, it was the dietitian Benedikte's turn to talk about diet and meal plans. She's given us several reading materials as well.
As expected, most of the foods she's discussed were not applicable to my food preference. I really wished we had a one-on-one session with her. Oh well, magsasariling-sikap na naman ako.
A med tech from the laboratory also came to test our blood sugar kaya tinusok pa rin kami sa braso. They wanted to check the consistency of results to that of glucometer's. Para daw accurate. I was thankful kasi Pinay uli ang med tech. So far, wala pang med tech na kumuha sa akin ng dugo na hindi Filipino. I feel comfortable with them eh.
After the class, we proceeded to the Reception again to get an appointment with the Specialist. I am scheduled on August 28 (Thursday) at 1:30pm.
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