Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Show Up


Yesterday I had my first post pregnancy diabetes appointment with my endo. During pregnancy I was seeing them every 3-4 weeks to follow up on my diabetes since my insulin requirements were constantly changing as my body accommodated carrying a baby! I remember booking my November appointment long ago and thinking that it seemed so far away, but in what feels like a blink of an eye - it came and went.

I knew going into this appointment I was not as prepared as my previous ones. Of course because during pregnancy diabetes was high on my list. I had a huge motivation and the time to put as much effort in as possible. I actually looked forward to getting my blood work done because it gave me feedback and reassurance that I was doing the best I could do.   This time around, I didn’t print my reports ahead of time, nor finger poke nearly enough (only sensor data) to give them any kind of direction or pattern of my blood sugars.  My goal was just to make it to my appointment on time, make sure my blood work was alright and get out of there.   

Turns out taking a baby to an appointment that drags on isn’t fun. I mean, it’s never fun to wait for doctors to come into the small, sterile holding cell (ha!) but adding a baby into the mix who wants no part of being there adds so much more stress.  Needless to say my heart rate was high, I was sweating like I had just finished a marathon and I began to worry as I saw snow swirling around outside. I just wanted to move on. 

However, my thyroid levels came back a bit off which apparently can happen to type 1s after pregnancy.  According to blood work it appeared I had hyperthyroidism - meaning my body is producing too much of the hormone. The good news was that my endo explained it usually cures itself over time.   I wasn’t diagnosed, because she needed more blood work to confirm which meant after waiting, I had to go wait some more to get my blood work done.  

My doctor let me know she would follow up with me after the results came back from the blood work. I was also instructed to keep an eye on my resting heart rate since it was high while I was there.  She gave me a prescription for beta blockers in case it was regularly over 100 while resting.  That frightened me the most because of the history of heart conditions in my family. However, I think I can chalk up the heart rate to stress because since being home my resting heart rate hasn’t gone over 84.  

The appointment overall was fine. My a1c was 6.1 which surprised me. While I didn’t give her much to look at data wise, she gave me some suggestions for preventing morning lows. My next appointment isn’t until August (I’ll be 30 and Nixon will be 1 by that time - oh my!) and in the meantime I will wait to see what my thyroid is up to.  

It was eye opening to realize that health is ever changing and how important it is to show up to appointments even if they’re long, exhausting and sometimes difficult.   While it wasn’t easy trucking around a 3 month old in the snow, through the busy parking garage and all around the hospital - it was important that I showed up. Being a healthy mama is important. 

Kayla