Today was my first full day of blood glucose monitoring. After writing my previous entry entitled From Poke to Poke in which I expressed discouragement about the high reading after breakfast, I’m glad to say that I have since earned two more happy faces today. 3 out of 4 isn’t bad at all. However, that 172 still jumps out at me. It’s like earning three A’s and one big, fat F on your report card.

I suppose I’ll need to actually measure the amount of cereal and milk that I eat tomorrow morning. I arbitrarily eyeballed it this morning, figuring that I have a generous 45 grams of carbs available to me — and all I was eating was cereal and milk, so it should be okay to eat a bowlful. *ahem* I guess that 172 is testimony to the contrary.

I know it’s a learning process, I just need to be patient and allow myself the occasional bad marks as I try to figure all of this out. Another thing I’d like to know is whether it’s bad to let your glucose level drop too low. And how low is too low? Well, I have an OB appointment tomorrow, so I’ll ask her then. So, here are my results for the day:

Breakfast: Special K with Strawberries cereal with milk
Snack: Skipped the snack since my levels were so high!
Lunch: Glucerna meal bar
Snack: Glucerna mini snack bar
Dinner: 2 pieces of shoyu chicken, brown rice, 1 piece of maki sushi, salad, beets
Dessert: 2 Sugar-free jell-o

Exercise: 2 mile walk, 5:30 – 6:15 pm

Blood Sugar Tests:
(Guideline is less than 90 fasting and 120, 2 hours after meals)
Fasting: 82
Breakfast: 172
Lunch: 82
Before dinner: 68 (extra test I took just because I was curious)
Dinner: 96

Week 33 & 1 day – 48 days until my due date!

I have a feeling this is going to be a rollercoaster ride until then end. I’m living from poke to poke — 4 times a day, I poke my finger to draw my blood for the glucose test, holding my breath while the monitor counts down and ultimately displays the number of the moment.

This morning’s fasting number was fine: 82 which is under my target value of 90.

However, my post-breakfast test registered me at 172 — a whole 52 points above the target of 120. Now that can’t be good. This was after two failed attempts to take the test. The first time, I didn’t get enough blood on the test stick. The second time, I think my finger was too sweaty. Unfortunately, the third time was not the charm I had been hoping for.

For lunch, I just ate a Glucerna meal replacement bar. It’s 32 grams of carbs and I’m allowed 60 grams for lunch. Surely, my glucose levels should be lower, right? We’ll see in two hours.

Until the next poke…