Pregnancy = Pin Cushion
Ick. I just read about the glucose screening test I have to have done between 24 and 28 weeks gestation. (It’s a normal precaution; I don’t have a history of diabetes but enough women develop gestational diabetes that the testing is part of most OB’s standard care.)
Excerpt:
An hour later (bring a book or magazine!), your practitioner or a technician will take a blood sample from your arm to check your blood sugar level. The idea is to see how efficiently your body processes sugar. Results should be available in a few days.
If the reading is abnormal (too high), which happens 15 to 23 percent of the time, your practitioner will have you come back for a three-hour glucose tolerance test to see if you really do have gestational diabetes.”
Source: BabyCenter.com article
I got stuck every 1-2 weeks for years for allergy immunotherapy (”allergy shots”), so I don’t have any problem with needles, which is a good thing because here comes another blood test! I gave something like four vials of blood back in late August for various standard pregnancy tests, so I already feel a bit like a pin cushion. I turned down the quad screen test for other reasons (high incidence of false indications, stress and worry over something that cannot be controlled or treated, etc.), but was glad to omit at least one blood test by going that route, as well. Also, the lab costs for bloodwork are horrific — I think all the routine blood tests I’ve had thus far were billed out to over $1000; thankfully, our responsibility for that, due to insurance, was just 10%.
