“Gestational diabetes gives you between a 25% to 60% chance of getting Type II diabetes after you give birth,” the diabetician says. “Remember that Type II diabetes is incurable. It can lead to many very serious complications, such as loss of vision or gangrened limbs that might have to be amputated. How is your vision? Still good? For now, it is. What? You say you have no gangrened limbs just yet? Ha ha, you are funny!
Heart disease and stroke are the main causes of death and disability for people with Type II diabetes. For somebody like you, who already has high blood pressure, this can shorten your life span significantly. And you want to stay alive for the next 20 years because this child will need to be raised.
Gestational diabetes can lead to premature delivery and birth defects. Here are some pictures of premature babies and babies with birth defects. Well, you can’t get these from gestational diabetes, but they do look scary, huh?
So make sure you measure your blood sugar 5 times a day, follow the diet I suggested, and most importantly, remember, NO STRESS. High stress raises your blood sugar levels. Actually, let’s take a measurement right now. Hmm, the blood sugar seems kind if high. Is it something you ate for breakfast?”
Clarissa's Blog 
Have you ever tried yoga or deep breathing? It does wonders for a lot of people’s stress levels (including mine.) I do tend towards high blood pressure myself and I have always found yoga to help me.
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I’m not really stressed out, I just find it hilarious how this diabetician constructed the conversation to lead up to the suggestion to avoid stress. 🙂 🙂
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Who the fuck is this drama king?
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Doctors seem hell-bent on terrifying patients. This is the same in all countries. I remember I had bronchitis back in Ukraine when I was 17, and the doctor painted a picture of me dying an immediate and horrible death as a result.
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“Type II diabetes is incurable”
Yeah, sure…
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I love the lack of self-awareness.
This isn’t quite the same thing, but it reminds me of getting a flu shot a few years ago at a university I went to. The person administering my shot was a student in the nurse practitioner program. She got the first needle set up, then looked at it with a critical eye, and removed it… then took out a new needle and got that set up. While sitting there with my sleeve already rolled up, I asked her what the problem with the first one was, and she told me that it looked a little too blunt, and that earlier in the day one of her needles had gotten stuck in someone’s arm. Then she flashed me her bright smile and said, “Ready? Here we go.” (It turned out to be fine… but I did love the timing of her anecdote.)
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When doctors say that you have a 50% chance of developing diabetes, they mean that 50% of the people who have your condition in the population go ahead and develop diabetes. The statement is completely meaningless because they give you no information about who these people are, and what those people actually did — whether they ate healthy diets or exercised afterwards, or relapsed into eating unhealthy foods.
I wouldn’t worry too much about gestational diabetes. My aunts have all had gestational diabetes, but have since then eaten fairly healthy diets and exercised regularly over the years. As a result, they are in theirs late 60s and 70s, and are still diabetes-free. With the kind of lifestyle that you have — fresh home-cooked food, no dessert and lots of walking — I am sure you will also do fine. My best wishes for your delivery.
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Thank you, my friend.
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Doctors are so stupid.
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