TIA everyone ?
I'm assuming that up until now, you've had no diagnosis of diabetes of any kind. I don't know what caused you to seek help and have the IVs.
Normally, when we eat, our digestive systems turn all the sugars and starches we eat into a sugar called glucose. The glucose is absorbed out of the digestive tract and into the blood and then it is carried off to the rest of our bodies. Most of it goes to our muscles. We need insulin to "unlock" the muscle cells and let the glucose in. When we need energy to move, the muscles cells "burn" the glucose.
When a person doesn't have enough glucose and they start to run short on energy, they can burn fat instead. The problem with that is that the fat doesn't burn as cleanly the glucose, so just like a wood fire, it leaves behing some waste products. Ketones are the waste products from burning fat.
When people have diabetes, and they can't get the glucose into the muscles, because they don't have enough insulin, or the insulin doesn't work as well as it should, they end up burning fat and producing ketones. Even people without diabetes can produce ketones if they take in less food than they need, and start burning fat. People on the Atkins diet sometimes try to eat so few carbs (sugar and starches) that they purposely start burning fat and look for ketones as a sign that they are successfully burning fat. A pregnant woman might run out of food energy if she goes all the way from supper until breakfast the next morning without eating for ten or twelve hours.
The ketones can go out the same way the glucose came in, through the muscle cell walls and into blood, and be carried to the kidneys and excreted in urine. That's no big deal as long as there are only trace amounts of ketones. The clear problem is when there moderate or large amounts of ketones, they will be toxic, and nobody wants a developing baby exposed to that kind of poison.
I certainly don't know for sure, but I would GUESS from the way the medical people responded, that they found only trace amounts of ketones, and that is why they are not very concerned at this point.
During the last trimester of pregnancy, if a woman has too much glucose in her blood, because it isn't getting into her muscles, that also means that too much glucose is going to the baby through the placenta. Then it's as if the baby were "overeating" and the baby can put on too much weight, making labor and delivery more difficult, That's why the glucose tolerance test, to see if your body can handle a large influx of glucose properly, is done at 25 weeks, as you are just about entering those last three months..
"Molly"
Type 2 diabetes diagnosed in 1995, now managed with Lantus, Humalog and Metformin; diet and exercise.
My husband and three adult sons also have type 2 diabetes.
I guess some info might have made a little sense for anyone reading my post. So here is some info:
1. at my initial fasting lab OB appointment my A1C level was around 6.5. Now I have no clue what that is so if you do, please tell me.
2. my urine tests constantly show that I am spilling ketones.
3. also the baby was measuring 25 weeks at my 23 week growth scan.
4. i am not getting to take the 1 hour glucose challenge test. the dr has already decided that I must take the 2 hour test. (of course my insurance, BlueCross, is screaming bloody murder over this. They want me to take the 1 hour and then see what the results are)
5. this my 3rd pregnanct where they have found high ketone levels in my urine (this is my 5th pregnancy over all)
6. this may or may nor be relevant but in Feb 2011 I had a TIA or mini stroke, Spent 3 days in cardian care unit.
Thanks for your help.
Here's some useful links, click on the titles
Testing 101
All About Carbs
Resources For The Un-insured and Discount Medicine and Equipment
Lizzy's Blog
for lots more
