Bank Holiday Update

It's Bank Holiday Monday in the UK, so hubby and I both have the day off work. Hurrah! I've actually been off work since last Thursday, using up some annual leave, and I'm not going back until next Monday, which is a huge luxury. As I said in my earlier post, S could only take a couple of days off with me, so this has been a bit of a staycation, allowing me to catch up with all kinds of errands (which has actually been more fun than I thought it would be). For the last few days now I've been doing what can only be described as a very belated spring clean. I've been tidying up cupboards, emptying the few remaining boxes from when we moved in (two years ago, the shame!), and vacuuming like a demon. Mum says I must be nesting, but it's a little early in her opinion - in her experience it usually hits at 38 weeks! Maybe, but at 38 weeks I'd be the size of a house, whereas at the moment I can still crawl around the floors on my hands and knees, and I can still fit under the beds :) S has also been brilliant - I found him mopping all our wooden floors on Saturday!

Not much to update on the pregnancy front. I'm really looking forwards to my appointment on Thursday when I'll get to see Dr Inspiring and his crew, and can ask the gazillion questions I'm collecting. Most of all, I guess I just want to know what the next few months will hold, medical appointment-wise. How often will I need to attend the clinic, when, and what for? I remember at my first appointment they waved a schedule at me and briefly explained that this was the shape of things to come, but now I want to get my hands on that piece of paper!!! I'll be six weeks when I go to the clinic. When I spoke to Dr I last week he said something vague about it maybe being too early to see a heartbeat on an ultrasound, so I don't know if I'll have one or if they'll wait. It's a weird feeling at the moment - I know I'm pregnant, but still can't quite believe it! I'm doing everything I need to, diabetes-wise, and my 7 day meter average has now come down to 6.6 mmol/l, which is where I'd like it to be (and round about where it was when I had my last fab HbA1c). I guess I just need a little reassurance that all's okay, so far. My breasts are still very tender (I drove over a pothole last week and... ouch!), and I've continued to need to go to the loo more often than usual, although I'm starting to get more used to that, and don't notice as much. I'm also not sleeping through the night - I usually have to get up to go to the loo at around 4am-5am, so I take the opportunity to check my blood sugars and have a little correction dose if necessary. My overnight sugars have been pretty good the last week or so, which is brilliant, as that's where I always struggle the most.* The other slightly weird thing is that I've lost weight since I found out I was pregnant - 4 lbs by this morning. I guess that's because all my energy's going into making a healthy placenta? I have been pretty tired too, so it's been lovely to have a few days off to catch up on some sleep.

I did go to see my own GP on Thursday, to let him know the news and to sort out one or two things. He was thrilled for me, which was really nice. He's also been a huge support, what with checking my rubella status and folate levels, arranging regular HbA1cs and referring me to Dr Inspiring's clinic. We agreed that I'd delay my smear, as the histology clinic struggle to read samples from pregnant ladies. He also upped my repeat prescription for Levemir, as I seem to need more of it that I did of the Lantus. Finally he printed off a letter letting me know how to register with the surgery's midwife. He seems to think that my care will be shared between the diabetes/obstetrics clinic up at the hospital, and my GP practice. I'm not so sure he's right on this one, so I'm going to wait to talk to Dr I and co on Thursday before I do anything more in that regard.

The one thing I am doing a lot of is reading pregnancy books and websites and trying to digest as much as I possibly can. Cheryl Alkon's book (Balancing Pregnancy with Pre-existing Diabetes) is fabulously reassuring - thanks Cheryl! and I'm also enjoying Prof Ian Greer's book, Pregnancy: The Inside Guide, which has lots of useful information for people with a whole host of pre-existing medical conditions. One statistic which has blown my mind is just how fast my little passenger is growing. According to TheBump.com he/she has already grown from the size of a poppyseed (weeks 3&4) to the size of an appleseed (week 5)! How amazing is that??



Well, can't think of any more to say for the moment. I'm off to test my blood sugars (I'm up to 15 times a day, and the ends of my fingertips are wrecked!)

PS. S says that he should maybe have a right of reply on this blog, as I write about him too. Well honey, I love that you read, I love you, and you're always welcome to comment :)

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Notes:
* The week before I had one really hellish night where I had a very, very, very persistent hypo - 3.2 mmol/l for over three hours, with bucketloads of carbs having no effect at all - followed by a rebound to 15 mmol/l which then persisted despite a whacking great correction dose. Sometimes diabetes just sucks!

Taking it all in...

So, my blog's finally out in the open and I had comments from Brooke and Kerri, whose blogs I follow, which made me smile.

This week's been my first at work since finding out I'm pregnant, and I'm not sure if I'm imagining things, but I'm pretty tired. One more day to go before I have a few days' holiday, and to be honest I can't wait! Unfortunately S has to work, so it's going to be a bit of a 'staycation' and I'm really looking forwards to a few days of chilling out and relaxing at home. Our trip to Cambridge at the weekend (via my parents' house) was great, but it was a long drive and Saturday was a late night catching up with all of S's old friends, including lots of people I haven't met before. At one point the conversation came around to babies and S and I spent the next few minutes nudging each other under the table and giving each other meaningful looks, but we didn't crack. So far, so good. We managed to keep quiet! On the downside, I found myself surrounded by smokers, and just wanted to make them stop. It's one thing to blow smoke in my face, another entirely when I have a little sprog on board. I did my best to keep away from the worst of it, without being antisocial. I also managed a pretty good set of sugars considering that I was eating to someone else's timetable (ie. later than usual) and snarfing down sausages and bbq chicken. Scoreline: Me - 1; Diabetes - 0!

It was lovely visiting my parents on Friday night, and the look on my Mum's face when we told them our news was priceless. Total shellshock. They're both delighted, although Mum can't quite stop herself from worrying about me, what with the diabetes and my crazy job. S did a slightly less effective job of telling his parents when we got home on Sunday evening. I cooked dinner whilst he had his regular phonecall with his folks, and when the food was ready I called him. 'So, what did they think?' I asked. 'Oops - forgot to tell them!' said he. Talk about laid back. My husband could win the gold medal if it were a sport!!

The last couple of days I've worked extra hard on keeping my sugars in check, and so far things are pretty good. My averages aren't back to where they were, but they're going in the right direction, and I'm planning to be pretty aggressive with my adjustments and correction doses. Only 246 more days to go! Eeek - that's terrifying in so many ways. I have noticed that I'm needing slightly more insulin than usual though. According to one of the pregnancy books I'm reading that can happen, although typically requirements will go down for a while in early pregnancy. I can see that this is going to be quite a balancing act! I also managed to book an appointment with my GP, and to speak to Dr Inspiring's secretary as requested. So, I'm seeing my GP on Thursday afternoon, and will be able to give him the big news, ask him to up the amount of Novorapid and Levemir on my repeat prescription, and put off my smear test until after the big event. Unfortunately the smear I had a couple of months ago was no good (due to an 'insufficient sample') so I'm supposed to have it repeated. However, circumstances have intervened, and now I'll have to delay, since you're not supposed to have a smear whilst you're pregnant, according to advice from the NHS. Dr I's secretary managed to bring forward my clinic appointment to next Thursday, whilst I'm on leave, which is great. I explained I'd been told to keep the appointment I already have booked for later in the month, but she told me that the clinic appointments staff wanted me to get it cancelled since it's an appointment for pre-pregnancy counselling don't you know! Barmy - surely they can just re-label it, since it's for the same clinic and with the same staff. She said she'd check with Dr I and let me know. If I do have to get the appointment cancelled they'll be able to rebook me when I see Dr I next week.

So far my pregnancy symptoms seem quite mild. I've already mentioned the tender boobs (although I think I'm getting used to it, when S gives me a hug I sometimes feel like I'm going to jump out of my skin). I'm also visiting the loo a lot, although I'm not peeing any more (in terms of quantity) than normal. Once in a while I feel a little crampy thing going on, but nothing more than twinges. Also apparently quite normal. I'm a big one for normal!! :) I've been eating really well, getting all my fruit and veggies, and sticking to high fibre, healthy options - except when I fell off the bbq wagon at the weekend. This morning I was down three pounds on where I was when I weighed myself a couple of weeks ago. I wouldn't expect to have gained, but losing was a bit of a surprise. I've also had some interrupted nights' sleep - and have needed to visit the loo in the wee small hours. It does give me the chance to test my sugars and correct if necessary - every cloud has a silver lining, huh? Otherwise nothing much to report. I can't wait to have my next clinic appointment and find out what's on the horizon for me. I know the next few months are going to be full of appointments, and I'm really looking forwards to the journey.

BIG NEWS!

I don't know how to start this post as my brain's all of a whirl! So I'm just going to plunge in with a stream of consciousness...

I was expecting my period to start on Wednesday (two days ago), but it didn't appear. Nor did it arrive on Thursday. I've had extremely tender boobs for the last couple of weeks, which could have been an early pregnancy sign, or might just have been the normal hormonal stuff. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I was getting little gripey stomach pains, and I had a slightly upset stomach - both of which can be a pre-period sign for me, so I assumed that it was on it's way and started gearing myself up for disappointment. I was desperate to take a pregnancy test, but since I was sure I was going to get my period I did my best to wait.

Yesterday morning I woke up, and seeing no sign of my period at all (it usually arrives slowly with a bit of a stain on my knickers) I got as far as peeing in a cup, before talking myself out of doing a test. This morning, I woke up at 7.30am (it's my day off) and thought, what the hell. Pee... cup... 3 minute wait... whoa... hold on... I see something... it's faint, but darkening... two pink lines... TWO. The leaflet says that means... I'M PREGNANT!

Thinking I was hallucinating (yep, always assume the worst), I went and got my camera to take some photos. Nothing like corroboration, I thought. Besides, the line might disappear again (!) By the way, I know that's not a terribly rational response!! :)

Here's the picture.

S was still dozing as he's working from home today and didn't have to leap up to cycle to work. Kind wife that I am, I kind of woke him up to tell him the news. I even let him have a little 'I told you so moment' - since he did. "I guess you're not dried up after all" he joked! It does make me realise that all the worry was unneccessary - after all, four months isn't so long to be trying. I feel soooooo lucky (and strangely I always used to say 4 was my 'lucky number' when I was a little girl). Personally I think the ovulation strips were the thing that did the trick, so L at the clinic will be getting a very big thank you from me when I see her next.

We are so happy and excited. I went onto the internet to look at EDD (estimated due date) calculators. Assuming that we conceived on 4 August (I had the positive ovulation test and we did the deed late on 3 August) then my EDD is 27 April 2011. If you go by the date of my last period then it's 1 May 2011. I'm working on the earlier date, since I didn't ovulate in the middle of my cycle, but instead on day 12.

Once my head had stopped spinning we treated ourselves to breakfast in bed and had a little cwtch (welsh for cuddle, don't you know). I have to admit that I keep looking at the lines to make sure they're still there. As S points out, they will fade within 48 hours, so really I should stop checking every 10 minutes and start to believe it. Blimey. Still doesn't feel real, though.

At 10am I called Dr Inspiring to let him know. As I explained in an earlier post, he gave me his mobile number at our first appointment and said I could call whenever I needed to. I had assumed that he used this as a sort of mailbox, always letting it go through to voicemail, listening to messages and then calling back. But no, he answered on the second ring! We had a quick chat about the fact that my next appointment is due on 23 September, and he said I should keep it. I should be around 8 weeks by that point. He said that he'd try to squeeze me in for an appointment in a couple of weeks' time, but that it might be too early for an ultrasound to confirm a viable pregnancy. He gave me his secretary's number and suggested that I call her on Tuesday when she's back from leave, to give her my name and hospital number and let her know that I have a confirmed pregnancy. Then they'll try to find me an appointment. He asked how my sugars have been, and I explained they've not been bad, although I have had a couple of really high readings either in the middle of the night or early in the morning. My two week meter average is 7.9 which is rubbish compared to the earlier averages I've had of 6.5 or so. But I know that two or three very high readings have skewed this average, and as Dr I says, these things happen. Just keep testing and tweaking, testing and tweaking. I think I might have had a little infection as I have had a pretty sore throat recently, and even more nosebleeds than normal.* Dr I congratulated me and told me to have a good weekend. "I think I will" said I!

We're off to visit some of S's friends in Cambridge over the weekend, which involves a fairly long drive,** so we're intending to stay with my parents tonight. We talked a little bit about who to tell and when. "You'll burst if you don't tell your parents tonight" S pointed out. Probably true. If we weren't seeing them I'd probably try to go another month or so before saying anything, but as it is I don't reckon I'll be able to hold it in. I know that this might not work out - it's very early days, and there are no guarantees, after all. If we do tell my folks then we'll also tell S's. Otherwise we'll be keeping schtum until the 13 week point. Only 9 weeks to go then! The only other person I might tell a little earlier is my friend L, who has been such a support to me. Part of me wants to shout it from the rooftops, and part of me wants it to be a little secret for S and I to share. Oh, and my blog, which I always intended to de-cloak once I had some good news to share (writing under my pseudonym, of course)!


NOTES
* I haven't mentioned this before, but I have a bit of a track record with nosebleeds. I had a huge operation (a septoplasty) on my nose when I was 20, and since then it's been a little dodgy. In the last 12-18 months I've had loads of spontaneous nosebleeds - sometimes as many as 3 a day - which can happen at the most inconvenient time (including during meetings, whilst driving to work, etc). Have had the 'bleeding patch' cauterised twice (horrible procedure, hasn't worked) and even had a CT of my sinuses (nothing worrying found). I have the slight fear that being pregnant is only going to make this worse, since bigger blood volumes can cause nosebleeds and bleeding gums etc. in pregnant women anyway. Oh well, what can you do?
** I'll be driving S's car, since I had to be rescued by the AA last night when my car broke down outside work. Some clever rewiring later and I was back on the road. When I called the AA, I explained I was diabetic and asked them to make sure I didn't have to wait too long. They were fab - a lovely AA man arrived within half an hour and chatted with me whilst he fixed the car. He made sure my sugars were okay and offered me a Kit-Kat, which he keeps just in case of diabetic customers and we talked a little bit about what it means to have T1. I wonder if they'd have arrived even earlier if I'd known I was also a tiny bit pregnant??? ;)

Waiting, waiting and more waiting... all the time impatiently

Must be about time for another update. As my last post explained, my period eventually turned up, so it was back to the drawing board for another month - or should that be back to bed? :) TMI!!

However, galvanised by my last trip to the pre-pregnancy clinic, I ordered some ovulation strips from Amazon and decided to get proactive (as if TTC every two days doesn't count already!) The strips are much smaller and less elaborate than the expensive ovulation tests you can get in UK pharmacies, so I was curious to see what they'd be like (and to be honest, whether they'd work!)

First step in the instructions. Pee in a clean cup - don't do it first thing, like with a pregnancy test, and don't do it immediately after drinking in case you dilute your urine too much. Save up a full bladder and then go for it! So, on day 10 of my cycle, as suggested in the little leaflet that came with the strips, I came home from work and set about it. Step two - wait for twenty minutes and allow your pee to come to room temperature. Ick. That's attractive. Step three - dip the stick in the urine for ten seconds, but don't allow the urine to go above the line indicated on the strip. Step four - sit back (or perch on the loo/side of the bath) and wait for up to ten minutes to see a result. You need to see the control stripe turn pink, otherwise the test hasn't worked. A second stripe that's paler than the control stripe, or no second stripe at all, means a negative. A second stripe that's as dark or darker than the control stripe and you're in business. Ovulation will occur within 24-36 hours, and you're recommended to have sex any time within that 12-24 hours of a positive test to have the best chance of conceiving.

So then, how did the first test go? Well, after about 30 seconds the first control stripe appeared. I waited, and waited, and waited some more. After 10 minutes there was only one stripe. Not too surprising really. After all, if you have a (reasonably) regular 28 day (ish) cycle, you'd expect to ovulate on day 14. Of course the reason for the strips is that cycles vary in all kinds of ways. You can have a long or short regular cycle. You can have an all over the place kind of random seeming cycle. You can have a 28 day cycle but ovulate early. You can have a 28 day cycle and ovulate late. So many possibilities... but the strips are supposed to take some of the guesswork out of all this. Last month's cycle for me was 30 days, and the one before was 26. I'm averaging about 28 days, or thereabouts, plus or minus a couple.

On day 11 of my cycle I did a second test. 45 seconds after dipping the stick I saw not one, but two lines. Hallelujah. My ovaries might actually work! (Paranoia, much?) Jumped on S when he came home (let's draw a discreet veil over that, shall we?) So then, according to the pee sticks, I'd be ovulating not on day 14 of my cycle, but probably more like day 12-13. Does that mean this is a going to be a cycle that's on the shorter side? Curious minds want to know.

On day 12 of my cycle I did a third test. Would it still show positive, or would my luteal surge (see, I can rock the technical language) have been and gone? Well, a second stripe did appear after about three or four minutes, but it was much paler than the day before. That seemed to confirm that I was more likely to have ovulated on day 12 than day 13.

At that point I stopped using the ovulation sticks, saving my 57 remaining ones for the next and subsequent months. And, I started waiting. Yes, waiting seems to be a real feature of the whole TTC journey. It's also, frankly, a real feature of being diabetic:

• It's the second half of your menstrual cycle. Wait to see if your period will come, or if you're pregnant.
  
• You're hypo. Eat 15g of carbs wait 15 minutes and test. Repeat until your sugars return to normal.
  
• You've had a blood test for your HbA1C. Wait for your results (and boy does the time drag). [Although, see my last post for just how awesome my current Diabetes clinic is, when it comes to sharing results!]
• You wake up in the morning with your Dawn Phenomenon at it's worst. Inject and then wait a full hour before breakfast.
  

Yep. Waiting seems to be a big feature of life these days, and whilst you wait your brain fills the time with silly thoughts and needless worries. I have another few days to wait before I know what the outcome of this month's trying will be. I'm on day 21 of my cycle, and if my period comes 14 days after predicted ovulation that would be day 26 (next Wednesday, 18 August). If it's a 28 day cycle I've got a full week to wait, and if it's a 30 day cycle I won't have an answer until next Sunday. Grrr. How do people do this month in and month out? I thought I was a pretty patient person, but I must be wrong. Poor old S - I must be such a pleasure to live with whilst I have this pregnancy obsession. He's so much more down to earth and chilled - he's so sure it will happen. I'd love to believe him, and I know that worrying about it won't improve my chances - in fact, it might well do the opposite. There was an article on the BBC website yesterday which confirms this - see: High stress 'delays pregnancy' Not rocket science really, but there it is in black and white.

I have a pretty demanding job, and have been in a number of high level ongoing negotiations recently, so this little bunny may well count as being stressed. So, I'm trying to be a bit more proactive. I'm going to be more hardline on what time I'm willing to set off in the mornings. 'A meeting in London, you say? Well, that's fine, but I won't be able to get there until 10 am at the earliest' (and even that means being on the 7.30 train from Bristol, and getting up at about 5.45 in order to inject, eat and make it to the railway station). I'm also going to try to make sure that meetings finish no later than 4pm, so that I can be home by 8pm at the latest and eat at a sensible time. I'm on the flexi clock, and when I've accrued 7.5 hours I can take a day off. If I have more than 15 hours at the end of the month then I'll lose the excess. So, I'm being diligent about using my flexi time. Finally, once in a while, especially when I have lots of documentation to digest, or an important draft to write or meeting to prepare for, I have a day working from home, instead of travelling 40 miles to my distracting open-plan office, where the phone never stops ringing.

I'm sure there's more I could do, but it's a start. It's the weekend tomorrow, and I intend to have a quiet one, slobbing around the house. Next week we're visiting some of S's friends in Cambridge (a very long drive) and stopping over at my parents' house (about a third of the way there), so we're not going to have a lot of 'us time.' Still, at least by then the waiting will be over and I should know if I'm pregnant or back to square one.

Three Part Update

Part One: My period...

...did arrive, but it was a couple of days late. It finally appeared on Saturday 24th, which makes a 30 day cycle. I'm glad the mystery was solved, although it was a slightly strange period - less bright and fresh looking than usual, and slightly clotted and lumpy. Erm... TMI?? Let's see how things work out next month.

Part Two: Fifth appointment at the Pre-Pregnancy/Diabetes Clinic

I went for my fifth visit to Dr Inspiring and co on Thursday 29 July. I spent most of my time with L, the dietician. She thinks I'm doing really well, although a look at my log book confirns that my biggest struggles are still around the dawn phenomenon (things are much better than they were, but it's definitely my biggest challenge). L suggested taking my evening Levemir at bedtime rather than dinnertime, in order to see whether moving the peak action to a different part of the night would help. This might also require some changes in the daytime dose, involving a certain amount of experimentation.

My appointment was a little later than usual. Normally I opt for the first appointment of the clinic, at 8.45am, which allows me to get into work reasonably early, and means that I don't get caught up in any clinic delays (they routinely overbook appointments, so Dr I suggested that the early appointments are better for someone like me who has a longish commute to work). My appointment was originally supposed to be on 9 July, but got cancelled and reorganised (initially for a date at the end of June, which I was unable to make as I was on holiday) and I ended up with a later time slot as a consequence. The hospital where I go for my appointments is currently experiencing a lot of rebuilding work, and as a result the walk from the main car park is now about ten times as long as it used to be (which I wasn't expecting), so by the time I arrived for my appointment I was huffing and puffing and my blood sugars were dropping. After a half hour wait before being called through I was just starting to go hypo (not badly, but enough that I'd need to treat). As L arrived in the room I was just crunching up my third glucose tab, and explained that I'd need to test in 15 minutes to check I was back on course. L suggested taking not three but seven tablets! Apparently I'm undertreating. But I'm keen not to overtreat, and three seems to work for me (when I'm not being naughty and using other less revolting options like chocolate drops from my baking stash, or mentos, or licorice!) L also told me that there's a local shop which stocks the big round yummy glucose tablets - which the clinic staff apparently reach for in the afternoons when their blood glucose dips! The idea that anyone would choose to eat glucose tablets suggested to me that these yummy ones might be the holy grail, but after a drive out to the said shop I struck out (none in stock).

We also talked about how I'm trying to even out the peaks and troughs in my blood sugars, and how I've been trying to work out my ideal doses, carb ratios and correction factors by using the methods suggested in the brilliant book I just got (Using Insulin by John Walsh). I've started by trying to identify my overnight dose via basal testing, and L said she'd email me the advice sheet that the clinic uses with patients on pumps (which also works for non-pumpers, with a few tweaks). We agreed that my swings appear to be reducing, and L thinks I should keep on with what I'm doing. She couldn't think of any changes to suggest beyond trying shifting my Levemir injection for a few days, and agreed that there aren't any clear patterns of hypos emerging from my log book.

We also talked a little bit about how long S and I have been trying (three months). I said that all I seem to do is count stuff and wait - either glucose tablets and 15 minute waits following a hypo, blood sugars and insulin doses every single day, or cycle days and two week waits! Dr Inspiring stuck his head round the door at this point in the appointment to say hi, and find out how things are going. He joked with L that I'm their 'star pupil'. They agreed that I should have the full pre-pregnancy bloods panel again (including the thyroid function tests), and after a quick conflab about how long we've been trying, they said that whilst there's nothing unusual in trying for three months without success, if I'm still not pregnant next time I come for an appointment, they'd start doing some blood tests and fertility investigations and will involve the obstetricians. They both recognise what hard work it is to keep your sugars in the narrow corridor needed for a healthy pregnancy, so are happy to get the ball rolling just in case. These people are great! Dr I suggested I come back in eight weeks, by which time we'll have had another couple of full cycles and will know the outcome of both. When Dr I had gone L suggested that I think about using ovulation prediction sticks - can't hurt and will make me feel like I'm doing something to take control! Apparently they're much less expensive if you buy them through Amazon, of all places! :)

I finished my appointment by having my bloods taken by the lovely nurse who has T1. We had a really good natter whilst she was searching for a worthwhile vein (mine are both tiddly and move around a lot under the skin). She was feeling a bit the worse for wear after a night time hypo, and I was able to sympathise. We talked a bit about all of the complex variables involved in good control, and how it's about much more than food, insulin and exercise. Things like stress, and illness, and god knows what else! We also talked about how isolating having T1 can be, and the fact that I've only ever met one other T1 of my own age. She's been trying to convince the clinic to set up some kind of a support group, and I agreed that this would be great. Hell, I'd even volunteer to help run it, and I said so! She said that she finds working in the clinic great because it means she can meet diabetic women. I asked whether she'd found the D.O.C., She hadn't, although she's been in contact with Ginger Viera via facebook. I suggested that she find Six Until Me - both because Kerri Sparling is great, and because she's so central to the D.O.C. and has such a complete blogroll! (I did warn her not to start reading that night though, on account of her needing a good night's sleep and the risk that she'd do what I did, and not be able to stop clicking on links!)

All in all, it was a good appointment, and I rolled out of the clinic very happy (if a bit late for work, and an important meeting. I arrived with three whole minutes to spare!)

Part Three: My HbA1C.

When I got to work, I had an email from L waiting for me with the clinic's basal testing sheet. What service! It occured to me that I hadn't asked if I'd be able to get my blood test results before my next appointment, like last time, so I emailed back to ask. 'No problem', came the answer - 'just call or email me tomorrow'. No clinic I've ever attended has done this, and I love it. It would be utter torture to wait eight weeks to find out my result! Instead I emailed back the next day, and found out that my HbA1C was 6.5%, down slightly from 6.6 last time. WA-HEY! :) So exciting. It's not been easy, but here I am, maintaining. L also wished me luck and said that she'd see me in eight weeks (if not before). FINGERS CROSSED. I just want to be pregnant now. It seems like everyone else is. Another friend who had her first exactly a year ago is now pregnant with number two and due in November. Please let us get pregnant soon, and let me be on top of my sugars, and let us have a happy and healthy littl'un that's part me and part S (it's our first wedding anniversary today, and pregnancy feels like the next step in our wonderful life together).

Here endeth the update. Had curry for dinner this evening (romantic meal with my lovely husband) which can play havoc with the sugars, so I'm off to do a blood test before bed, and an early start in the morning for yet another London meeting. Night night.