Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (Diabetes?)

As my regular readers would know, I've been going to KKH Hospital for review of my PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). They had taken me off the mini pill last year and my cycle was ok for a while then it went haywire again after a few months. I had side effects coming off the mini pill and didn't fancy going back on it. I figured I already have 2 kids and so an irregular cycle, I could probably live with.
But they just put me back on it again yesterday because according to the gynaecologist, a thick womb lining wall isn't good at all. If the womb lining builds up, it can lead to other diseases and complications. She said I shouldn't allow that to happen, especially 'at my age'.

You know, it's great that I have access to healthcare at subsidised rates in Singapore (via Polyclinic referral to hospital route) but it sucks that a different doc sees me everytime. I mean, I speaka Englisha and so I am able to tell the doc my past records and what the heck I'm there for THAT day. But really, what if I were illiterate? I've experienced this too when I had to go to the hospital for review of my knee injury and physio sessions. I realised, some docs don't read (or perhaps don't understand what they are reading!) and I can discern from what they say THAT day that they are clueless to why I'm there THAT day. There is sometimes no continuation of past visits with the present one and the doc of the day dispenses advice and prescriptions according to his or her school of thought.

Ok, for example, one gynae will say I need the mini pill. Another gynae will say I don't since I'm 'menopausing' soon (Yes, she actually said that). You get the drift. I thank God though, for a very sharp and hard working gynae whom I had consulted at KKH in Feb this year. He caught the fact that my weight had been ballooning albeit slowly over the last few years. He discussed the possibility that due to my PCOS, I had insulin issues and advise me to go for a blood test for diabetes. I am ever so grateful for this doc and I will explain why later.

Let me first say I saw another gynae yesterday. Apart from discussing my monthly cycle, I asked her to prescribe me something for my lingering cough and she said, 'No problem' and asked me a few questions about my symptoms.

When I finally got my medication at the hospital pharmacy, it turns out she hadn't prescribed anything at all for the cough. The pharmacist couldn't reach the gynae via the phone so I had to buy something which I prescribed myself (!!!) at unsubsidised rates.

She also told me she'd see me in 3 months' time and I told her that I had just undergone the oral glucose tolerance test per the advice of the previous gynae. I wondered if I had to wait 3 months to know the results of that morning's test and she said if the results showed up anything abnormal, they would call. If not, she'd see me in 3 months. Hmmph! It won't even be HER I'll be seeing in 3 months.
If YOU had to test for diabetes, would you wait 3 months for the results?

Anyhow, turns out KKH did call that very same afternoon. It sounded like a death sentence. First, let me tell you what I'd done. I'd fasted the night before through to the next morning. The nurse had drawn a vial of my blood then I was given this yucky sugary drink and told to wait another 2 hours before they drew another vial of blood. In between, I had time to see the gynae and also visit the pharmacy.

The nurse called at about 4.30pm after I'd gone home and told me to come down ASAP back to their dept to collect a referral letter for the polyclinic to provide follow-up treatment. She said my blood results had come back and it was not good. She said it was not normal. I asked immediately if I had diabetes. Yes. I asked it a few times when I was there. Yes.

'But I don't even take that much sugar!' I protested.
I told her, anyone who had drunk that motherload of sugar water would have a high result but she said, 'No, a normal person can process it in 2 hours but you could not'.

So, I was so 'kan-cheong' (Cantonese for anxious) that I went to the Polyclinic today. It was interesting. First, I saw him for my cough and he said I have wheezing and sound a bit asthmatic! Wow, that was a surprise.

Next, he reviewed the blood test results and said, 'You're not diabetic. You have glucose intolerance. You need to go room 61 to 64 for counselling'.

Huh? Diabetic? Not diabetic? Aiyoh! Yes, or no???

I go to room 61 to 64.
The nurse counsellor asks me a lot of questions. It turns out, I don't even eat half of what she's persuading me to NOT EAT. Correction, I don't even eat 3/4 of what is bad for me. She concedes, 'Okay, it's organ failure we're talking about here. Doesn't mean you don't eat, you don't get'.

She says my test results show that I AM on the way to getting diabetes (if I don't take things under control). It shows that my body cannot handle a large amount of sugar. My pancreas isn't functioning as it should and there is no repair. The only thing I can do is maintain it so that I don't get a higher reading than this.

She runs through what I should do and surprise, surprise, what else could it be? I have to lose weight!

Now isn't that grand? It's because I couldn't lose weight that I went for all these tests and now after this test, they tell me I have to lose weight! What a joke!

But the counselling was informative. I didn't know that my body may not have the ability to process the sugar from fruits immediately after a meal. I'm not supposed to finish the whole (measley) portion of 'mee pok' (dried noodles) from the foodcourt and apparently, that 'healthy' muesli bar I eat for breakfast every morning, is doing me damage. I know I've got to make big, big sacrifices here. The biggest being Nasi Briyani and Prata!!! Crap! I really love that stuff.

Ok, it's serious business now. I've known all along that I feel lethargic after a heavy carbo meal but this explains it all. I'm the type of person who needs to make sense of stuff (well, except recently about God stuff - THAT I don't need to make sense of).

This is why I'm so thankful to that gynae at KKH whom I saw in Feb this year. If he hadn't been sharp enough to think of the possibility that I was diabetic, I would not have known that I was 'on the way' to having diabetes at all. (Shoot, I don't even recall his name. That's the whole problem with seeing a doc at a subsidised insituition. They keep changing and there's no relationship).

So, no diabetes and no medication. Thank God for that. I just need to lose weight. How simple. Sigh.