Excercise Part III

I wrote twice before about the positive effect that walking has had on my blood sugar. It was made clear to me again when I stopped walking completely for 2 days last week.

About 10 days ago, on a Saturday night, I noticed some light spotting. I had spotting later in my first pregnancy, too, so I tried not to worry too much. But an hour later, I started having menstrual-like cramps. The information my OB had given me on preterm labor symptoms include menstrual-like cramps and spotting, so to be safe I called his office. (My sister had preterm labor with her second pregnancy. Fortunately they caught it in time and put her on bed rest. But it makes me more cautious.) I spoke with a nurse practitioner that night and he suggested I go down to triage (which is basically the ER for pregnant women at the hospital where I'm delivering).

After monitoring the baby and my contractions for about an hour, they cleared me to go home. Although I'd noticed some BH contractions on the drive down, they had calmed while I was down there and the baby sounded fine. They suggested I take it easier, but didn't restrict any particular activity (aside from sex). Just to be on the safe side, though, I didn't do my morning or evening walk on Sunday. My blood sugar readings were still OK on Sunday.

But Monday, I was still spotting and again didn't go on my morning walk. That's when I started having higher blood sugar readings. Since the spotting was going away, I went on a short walk on Tuesday after breakfast. After a couple of days of not not walking, even my fasting levels were creeping up. They had been in the low to mid-90s. Three days in a row they were high 90s and I had one 100.

Gradually, by this last weekend, I was doing my full morning and evening walks and the last few days my numbers have been more like they used to be before the whole triage incident. It seems like there is a cumulative effect with the exercise - that first day of no exercise my numbers were still OK. And it took several days of resuming exercise before my numbers started to go down.

But since I had more than 6 post-meal levels above 130 in a week and more than 3 high fasting levels, I had to go see the dietitian again, a week earlier than scheduled.