Super Orange Fanta

Well, I finally got the nerve up and went and did my second prenatal blood work. I was dreading it because this is the one where they test for gestational diabetes by making you drink something sweet.

No one tells you what it is – just “a sweet drink that tastes better cold.” That is all the info out there. So, once again my imagination was running away and making it worse than reality. Like the amnio – I imagined that would be way more horrible than it was. It was nothing. I have been imagining a thick, syrupy liquid that tastes like Red Bull – the most vile concoction on earth. I was all nervous and weak walking in, praying, “Please God, don’t let it be a thick, syrupy Red Bull drink. Please don’t make me throw it up.”

It wasn’t – it was a 10-ounce bottle of hospital strength Orange Fanta, basically. Like Orange Fanta on glucose ‘roids. I’m not that big of fan of pop at any rate, but at least I could drink it fast and it didn’t make me throw up. (Now I sort of want some real Fanta. My favorite flavor is Lemon Fanta. I don’t even think you can buy that in North America. Mmmm, Lemon Fanta….) So, now you know the truth. Don’t fear the glucose drink because it isn’t that bad!

I had a brand new book with me, too, to keep me busy while I had to sit there for an hour waiting for the glucose to kick in. Then, I had the incompetent phlebotomist – again. I know I have veins that are hard to find, but it is their job! She stabs me in one arm, misses, digs the needle around in there until she finds it. She managed to fill one vial then poked through the vein or something because the blood stopped. I told her to try the other arm just to the right of the freckle. She tried it and said, “Oh, I missed.” But when she poked the vial in blood started coming out. She didn’t miss that time, but she didn’t even know she had hit the vein. We managed to fill up the other 3 vials without her poking through that vein, not that she wasn’t trying. Now I have bruises on both arms from her stabbing me. Beautiful!