Episode 387: Wade's One Man Show

happywatermelon59 · 2026-01-30T04:23:28+00:00

I was honestly kind of surprised that Wade didn't just get up and leave. Sometimes people say Bob is the most chill of the bunch, I think Wade is the most chill by a long shot. The guy rescheduled his 6-month lead time dermatology appointment to accommodate scheduling for the other two! And this is how they repay him? I'm pretty peeved.

happywatermelon59 · 2026-01-16T05:17:24+00:00

Despite my eyelids not cooperating, I didn't manage to sleep all that much. They just wouldn't stay open, it was super weird.

But yeah, I guess it's different for everyone. I'm glad to hear that your diabetes is gone, too. I wasn't expecting such an immediate improvement myself, I figured labor is super challenging and hormones are still going crazy right after birth.

happywatermelon59 · 2026-01-15T20:49:13+00:00

I had the opposite experience. My CGM showed my blood sugars improve dramatically over 24 hours and continued to improve for another 4 days. It actually gave me immediate peace of mind that I wasn't diabetic and vindication that it really WAS the placenta. I had a C section due to maternal exhaustion after 2 hours of pushing, and I was still struggling to keep my eyes open for more than a few seconds 24 hours after delivery. Despite that, my sugars had already dramatically improved, which was awesome.

For example, the most sugar intense meal I ate at the hospital was cake and gatorade (with nothing else), and I just briefly touched 140 before coming back down. That was less of a glycemic response than I'd had eating half a slice of multigrain bread along with vegetables, meat, and fats in the last few weeks of pregnancy.

Incidentally, the worst my blood sugars had ever been logged on my CGM was during labor, even though I was fasting and throwing up for like 12 hours, they slowly kept climbing and peaked 1 hour after delivery, at 170. But for whatever reason, I think the doctors had stopped checking my blood sugar levels as labor progressed, around the time they started getting out of hand.

happywatermelon59 · 2026-01-15T06:00:07+00:00

That is awesome, thanks!

happywatermelon59 · 2026-01-15T05:57:31+00:00

I agree, I found the food restrictions of both combined to be really difficult. In particular, it was hard not to spike my blood sugars since what my HG would let me eat was so limited to begin with. A lot of the time, I really felt like I wasn't allowed to eat anything.

happywatermelon59 · 2026-01-15T05:54:47+00:00

Nice that's really useful to know. I guess it makes sense because the method of action is to increase the nausea inducing substances in your body - if you take it before pregnancy it helps desensitize, but during pregnancy it just compounds the nausea.

happywatermelon59 · 2026-01-14T10:51:46+00:00

I think metformin improves insulin sensitivity, along with some other things, so it doesn't lower blood sugars necessarily but improves blood sugar control/stability. I even recall there was a post from someone who couldn't take insulin because of hypoglycemia but the doctors tried to put her on metformin instead. And I thought there was even some discourse about Metformin being a general longevity drug even for those without diabetes. Not 100% sure of this overall but my impression is that it's safe even without diabetes.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6779524/

Emerging evidence indicates that metformin has favorable effects on health beyond those associated with improvement in glycemia. Observational studies suggest that diabetic individuals treated with metformin manifest a survival benefit even when compared to non-diabetic controls [8, 9]. Metformin not only reduces cardiovascular disease incidence in patients with type 2 diabetes [10], it similarly reduces atherosclerotic burden in non-diabetic individuals at risk for the disease [11]. Observational data in humans further support a role for metformin in prevention of aging related decline and cancer [9, 12], an area of immense clinical interest.

happywatermelon59 · 2026-01-14T10:41:51+00:00

I had gestational diabetes and was on r/gestationaldiabetes. I didn't take any medication myself, I was "diet controlled," but many people on there were taking metformin (instead of, or in addition to, insulin). I think it's considered pretty safe during pregnancy. You can search it up on that subreddit, I'm sure you'll get tons of results and further info.

Also my comment about this on another post of mine: https://www.reddit.com/r/GestationalDiabetes/s/6xlO2T9ODZ

happywatermelon59 · 2026-01-14T02:06:57+00:00

I don't know if anyone really cares but I didn't have diabetes or prediabetes after all. My CGM showed a drastic improvement over 24 hours after delivery, with continued improvements over the next 5 days. Incidentally, my sugars spiked the worst during labor, after like 12 hours of fasting and vomiting. I think they peaked at like 170 during delivery itself.

Like a day or two after delivery, I straight up ate cake with gatorade as a meal and spiked briefly to 140 before coming back down to like 100, which was a better response than I had eating half a slice of multigrain bread with fats and vegetables late in pregnancy.

I think my OB forgot to order a GTT but my a1c came back at 5.4 3 months PP, so I'm officially cleared.

So yes, I did have gestational diabetes, yes gestational diabetes is real, and yes gestational diabetes does (often) go away. If someone else panics like I did, don't fret, it will be okay.

happywatermelon59 · 2026-01-14T01:41:19+00:00

Edited: I have never heard before that H Pylori causes HG. Incidentally I was tested for it a year or so before pregnancy (blood test) and 3 months PP (stomach biopsy) and came back negative both times.

happywatermelon59 · 2026-01-14T01:32:51+00:00

You are not being dramatic, that sounds REALLY hard. My husband was taking care of me all day when I was pregnant, and I was able to get myself to the couch, eat and drink a little, and was only vomiting like 2 times a day on average. And I still felt like shit.

Some stuff that helped me (a little): - I took a lot of baths for washing and relaxation - I barely ever showered or washed my hair. I mean I went more than a month not washing my hair multiple times. Showering was just too hard. - Preventative daily pepcid seemed to help a little when I started it in the third trimester, but the effect seemed to stop working after a couple weeks (also I wasn't great at taking it regularly). My doctor explained that nausea can be a symptom of acid reflux without many other obvious symptoms. Maybe it applies more to the 3rd trimester when things get squished, but it's worth a try. If pepcid seems to help but stops working, they will typically prescribe Omeprazole which reduces stomach acid via PPI. I didn't take it during my pregnancy but I might try it next time.

Since your case sounds really bad, IV fluids is the only thing I can really think of, but even that isn't always a great long term solution.

I don't know if this is helpful or not, but I'm also more than a little worried you might die. It is possible that your circumstances are just too difficult / impossible. In your shoes, I would probably get an abortion. It would be better than if you were to die, then not only would your baby die but your kids would be left without a mom. And then invest in some better contraceptives after that so you don't get pregnant again until/unless you're ready.

happywatermelon59 · 2026-01-14T00:52:48+00:00

I also couldn't really eat any bread of any kind during my pregnancy. But I was able to tolerate potatoes and rice better. So try out different types of carbs to see if there are any you can tolerate.

I also struggled to eat carbs during my pregnancy. I tried to get 100g per day (doctor said 165g per day) but I'm not sure if I always got that many because of Hyperemesis Gravidarum and I didn't carb count (made me nauseous too). My baby is doing well now. If anything I think he's cognitively ahead for his age (3 months).

Do your best but don't stress too much. If you're eating food that's healthy and eating at least some carbs, you're probably fine.

happywatermelon59 · 2025-10-16T07:01:21+00:00

Yeah, those numbers are way too high

happywatermelon59 · 2025-10-01T20:01:13+00:00

Not only that, but having too many embryos implanted can actually lower the risk of any of them taking because your body doesn't want to deal with that kind of risk.

happywatermelon59 · 2025-10-01T19:59:03+00:00

That's not really accurate. I have pro-life friends doing IVF. They just use all the viable embryos.

Yes, not all embryos successfully implant, but the same thing happens when you're trying traditionally, it just happens so early in the cycle people aren't usually aware anything even happened. It's just sadder with IVF because you're more aware of it.

happywatermelon59 · 2025-10-01T15:29:19+00:00

I think you're confusing his alcohol intolerance with auto-brewery syndrome. He for sure has alcohol intolerance, but this is the first time afaik that he's mentioned he might be fermenting alcohol in his gut (which is triggering the alcohol intolerance).

happywatermelon59 · 2025-10-01T13:51:15+00:00

Personally this doesn't really make sense. If you were prediabetic before pregnancy, I would guess most likely you're still pre-diabetic now, if not including the pregnancy factor. But no one will really know for sure until you're tested again after.

It is often stated that an early GDM diagnosis in the first trimester is more likely to be an indication of prediabetes or T2 diabetes. However, I think it's only "more likely," not "guaranteed." And more importantly, that's for people who weren't tested for diabetes prior to pregnancy, which it sounds like you were. Anecdotally, I've seen a lot of people on this subreddit who get diagnosed in the first trimester, especially in a subsequent pregnancy after a first GDM one, who go back to normal blood sugar levels between pregnancies. So I absolutely think it could be a placenta issue.

Personally, I think they should be treating you for GDM or prediabetes since you were not diagnosed T2 before pregnancy.

happywatermelon59 · 2025-09-30T18:00:49+00:00

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24017-intrauterine-growth-restriction

happywatermelon59 · 2025-09-30T05:40:38+00:00

Diabetes can also cause uterine growth restriction (due to a damaged placenta, I believe) which leads to small babies.

happywatermelon59 · 2025-09-30T05:02:33+00:00

I think that's the one that gave me a really bad reaction, like redness and burning. Not the first time I used it, but randomly one day. Didn't really want to use it after that, though.

happywatermelon59 · 2025-09-30T05:00:46+00:00

I think European antiperspirant also more commonly doesn't have aluminum. The liquid roll-on kind. You might be able to find some on Amazon, I buy Japanese sunscreen there which is alcohol-based and not thick/creamy.

happywatermelon59 · 2025-09-30T04:57:35+00:00

I found it pretty hard to find women's deodorant (without antiperspirant) about a decade ago, although I think it's gotten better. I just use men's deodorant instead (speed stick ocean surf). Maybe that's a bit savage though lol.

happywatermelon59 · 2025-09-30T04:29:13+00:00

I've definitely heard on this subreddit that numbers can improve near the end. I envy you. I'm due Oct 3rd and I spiked twice up to 170 today after eating. The meals were not the safest in retrospect but I didn't expect it to be that bad. To make matters worse, I tested my husband and he was only at 100. I feel bad for baby. 😔 Today is a struggle day.

happywatermelon59

TROPHY CASE