The diabetes rant

I came to the hospital last Wednesday night November 23, so today is my 8th day in the hospital. The blogs I previously posted give the big picture, and for lots of people, that's all that really matters. For a few of you, though, the nitty gritty details might be of some interest, and since I have time on my hands, I figure that I can continue to provide updates on how things are going. Hopefully they're all innocuous and boring updates, with no dramatic incidents to report. Might not make for exciting reading, but I much prefer UNexciting at this point. So here's my unexciting diabetes rant:

Since I was admitted I've been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I'd already flunked my one hour test at the doctor's office a couple of weeks ago and was scheduled to take the three hour test at my next prenatal appointment, so they went ahead and did it last Friday. I flunked that one too, and they put me on a "diabetic" diet.

You would think that a hospital would have some notion of what types of things are good for diabetic people to eat in order to control their blood sugar, but that doesn't appear to be the case here. My meals (which are all clearly marked as diabetic) consist of such foods as spaghetti, white bread, pancakes, mashed potatoes, muffins, macaroni and cheese, dinner rolls, lots of fruit (and even fruit juice) and breakfast cereal like corn flakes and rice crispies. There is usually a token protein source, such as a single egg at breakfast, a slice of turkey on that white bread at lunch, or what I assume is ground beef in the spaghetti sauce at dinner.

During the first few days while Ed was able to be with me all the time (and while I was still hoping I'd get sent home), I tried hard to keep my sugars under control. I skipped the empty carbs on my hospital food tray, and Ed was able to bring me some more appropriate foods to fill in the gaps when I got really hungry. I was able to keep my sugar pretty well within the normal range. But now that Ed has had to go back to work and I'm not seeing much of him, I have no choice but to eat the meals I'm given, and my sugar has skyrocketed over the last couple of days.

I discussed the situation with the dietitian, with my nurses, and with my doctor, and the general consensus is that this is just the best the hospital has to offer. So now I'm on insulin. It's frustrating, because I know that if I were at home I would be able to control the diabetes with diet alone. I know very well how to eat to keep my blood sugar under control, and I hate that I am not in charge of my food choices here and have to be on insulin that would be unnecessary under different conditions.

I usually try to find a bright side when I'm griping about something, but in the case of the diabetes, I'm really cranky about it, and all the bright sides I find (at least the insulin seems to be controlling my sugar okay...at least now that I'm getting used to it, the hospital food doesn't seem quite so gross...at least I'm forcibly going cold turkey on my McDonald's/Taco Bell addiction, and hospital food has to be healthier than that...) are not really helping me to be less cranky.

So in light of the fact that I've spent some time complaining about something that's pretty much out of my hands, I'll end with a few unrelated things that I am grateful for after being in the hospital for one week:

• I'm not upside down. Some women who are on hospital bed rest have to be in bed on an incline that takes pressure off of their cervix. That means their head is lower than their feet. I can't imagine doing that for a day, let alone for weeks on end. I'm thankful I don't have to.
• The internet. Through the wonders of technology, I can keep in touch with almost all my friends and family and stay up-to-date on what's happening even when I'm not physically a part of it (I will likely be annoyingly ever-present on facebook in the coming weeks). I can also do my Christmas shopping, pay my bills, download new books to read, research baby stuff, and post updates on hospital life for people to read.
• Earplugs. The sound of babies being born is so wonderful (I am listening to a baby's first cry as I type this), and it is an amazing affirmation of the miracle of life. I hear births throughout the day since I'm living in the labor and delivery ward. But listening to the affirmation of the miracle of life at 3:00 in the morning is not quite so wonderful. After one middle-of-the-night birth that sounded more like a horror movie than a joyous occasion (and was audible even with my door closed and pillows piled on my head), I thought to ask Ed for earplugs and have been blissfully happy ever since. I can sleep all night without hearing all the sounds up and down the L&D ward. I can nap during the day for longer than fifteen minutes at a time. I feel more rested today than I have felt since I got here, and the difference that makes is truly miraculous.