5 Hour Glucose Tolerance Test

There’s a lot of information out on the web about what a 5 Hour Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT) consists of, but very little on what the test is actually like. Yesterday (Tuesday, September 8, 2009), I had a 5 hour GTT. It was actually a little worse than I had originally anticipated.

I took my laptop to the lab with me so I could write notes. I also took a book (The Science of Fear: How the Culture of Fear Manipulates Your Brain), although I only ended up reading a pathetic 23 pages in 5-hours, even though it’s a fantastic book. That might give you an idea of how bad I felt during the test. What follows are the unedited notes I took yesterday, so please forgive the grammar mistakes and such. I thought leaving the text as is paints a better picture of what the test was actually like.

5 Hour Glucose Tolerance Test

8:10 a.m. I’m at the lab, waiting to be seen by a phlebotomist. I finally got an appointment with an endocrinologist (he had a waiting list of 6 weeks for new patients), and I am working on Leo being seen by a pediatric endocrinologist. Rather than Leo have to go through a whole bunch of tests, I thought I would offer myself up as a guinea pig to try and find out what is causing us both to have reactive hypoglycemia.
My main concern is that I don’t want reactive hypoglycemia to cause problems with Leo’s health later in life. Perhaps if we can figure out what the underlying cause is, then we might have a better idea of how to deal with it; eating every two hours is great for temporary relief—but sometimes one of us forgets, and then we have to deal with moods and crashes for several hours afterward.
There’s no doubt I have reactive hypoglycemia, but what isn’t known is what’s causing it. My endocrinologist ordered the 5 hour Glucose Tolerance Test with insulin levels as a starting point.

8:30 Got in to see the phlemotomist at Quest Diagnostics. Had a “baseline” stick drawn, which was 2.5 ml (about a Tablespoon). Returned to the crowded waiting room, sat on a fairly uncomfortable waiting room chair, and listed to very loud football statistics from a Jacksonville Jaguars uber-fan and his son (who regaled the waiting room with their fandom for thirty minutes), followed by an almost-as-long rendition from a man with “behavioral disorders” who was taking several types of pill. As I was not allowed to leave the building (the drink, said Warren, my phlebotomist, could make “some people really ill.” Can’t wait

8:40 a.m. Asked to drink what looked like a bottle of clear pop. It said “lemon lime” flavor but tasted of blended Skittles with crushed jolly ranchers. Ugh.

You'll drink one of these for the 5 Hour Glucose Tolerance Test

9:40 a.m. Second stick (2.5ml). Felt nauseas from the drink. Had to visit the restroom (“To powder my nose” as I call it). Thought for a few seconds I was going to pass out but decided it would be a bad idea in front of a waiting room of three dozen people. Took a few deep breaths and ran my hands under the water to warm up my icy fingers.

10:40 a.m. Third stick (2.5ml). About this point, I expected to feel worse than I feel. I am writing this at this time (and I’m not going to edit it, just for kicks…I’m sure my writing isn’t going to be grand). Physically I am fine—if you don’t count the overwhelming feeling that I want to take a nap, and my fingers are very cold and almost not working. My brain feels fuzzy, like I’ve had a couple of beers. But it’s not as bad as what I expected—in the past, blood sugar dips have left me shaking and crying. Not so today. Perhaps it’s that whole waiting room full of people again. Fully aware that I am now diverging from the topic and drifting into a stream of consciousness writing mode, I am going to stop until my next stick.

11:40 a.m. Ugh. Fourth stick (2.5ml). I feel like garbage. Shaky and cold.

Blood draw for the glucose tolerance test--6 times in 5 hours!

12:23. After 45 minutes of feeling like I was going to pass out, a lady called Carol sat next to us and talked about the state of health care. Whether it was my pancreas kicking in, or having my mind taken off of my shaking legs and jaw I don’t know, but I am beginning to feel human again. My stomach is rumbling like the big island of Hawaii, demanding to know why it isn’t being satiated.

12:40 a.m. Fifth stick (2.5ml).I guess my arms have had enough of being stuck, because they couldn’t get any blood out of the right arm. The left arm was better—hope it holds up for the last stick in one hour (yippee!). I’m still freezing cold and feeling a little groggy, but not as bad as an hour ago. I was trembling from the cold as my blood was being drawn, but I have stopped trembling now.
Time to a nice hot bowl of oatmeal from Starbucks: 55 minutes.

12:57. I actually feel fine now—no worse than when I felt when I walked in this morning, hungry. I can’t stop thinking about food. Oatmeal. Decaf soy cappuccino. Nuts. I feel compelled to write about food, which is completely off topic (thank you pancreas, for kicking in!), so I’ll stop writing now until 1:40.

1:35. Sixth stick (2.5ml). I was in such a hurry to get out of that place that I forgot to write an entry for the last stick. It was uneventful, although a bit painful probably because my veins hurt from the many blood draws of the day.

Next post: The Results of my 5-hour Glucose Tolerance Test.

Related posts:

1. Test Results From 5-Hour GTT
2. The Reactive Hypoglycemia Test

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