Text: Riik­ka Lin­nan­mä­ki

Trans­la­ti­on: Sirk­ka-Lii­sa Lei­no­nen

Do you have ex­pe­rien­ces of yo­ur body not func­ti­o­ning well? Or do you have a hard time fin­ding a ba­lan­ced diet?

Nor­mal­ly, I eat a re­la­ti­ve he­alt­hy diet and do not stress about it. But I have been di­ag­no­sed with ges­ta­ti­o­nal di­a­be­tes du­ring my three preg­nan­cies. Blood glu­co­se va­lu­es should be as good as pos­sib­le to gu­a­ran­tee nor­mal growth of the baby. There have been ti­mes when it has been re­al­ly hard to main­tain that op­ti­mal le­vel and dif­fi­cult to ac­cept that I need to watch my blood glu­co­se so clo­se­ly, even if just for the time of the preg­nan­cy.

I have been di­sap­poin­ted with my­self, won­de­ring why my glu­co­se va­lu­es rise though I have ca­re­ful­ly fol­lo­wed the inst­ruc­ti­ons. I have felt frust­ra­ted and po­wer­less so very of­ten. Not even me­di­ca­ti­on seems to help.

Li­ving with this com­pa­ni­on, I have come to le­arn in prac­ti­ce that there are mec­ha­nisms stron­ger than my own will: de­ter­mi­na­ti­on is not enough to cont­rol au­to­no­mic func­ti­ons! My di­a­be­tes nur­se and my brot­her’s wife have en­cou­ra­ged me that this is not my fault, and that there is the furt­her op­ti­on of in­su­lin tre­at­ment. Fee­lings of guilt and high as­pi­ra­ti­ons are cons­tant­ly pre­sent even in he­alth-re­la­ted si­tu­a­ti­ons.

The most im­por­tant ways to treat di­a­be­tes are die­ta­ry choi­ces and phy­si­cal ac­ti­vi­ty. But one does not al­wa­ys have low-carb foods­tuf­fs re­a­di­ly avai­lab­le at home. And some di­a­be­tics can­not eat po­ta­to­es, rice, fruit and ot­her such foods that are re­com­men­ded for a he­alt­hy diet – not even as a snack.

Self-dis­cip­li­ne is re­al­ly put to test: blood glu­co­se va­lu­es pro­vi­de im­me­di­a­te feed­back on one’s die­ta­ry choi­ces. The nut­ri­ti­o­nal needs of the body do not go hand in hand with the cu­li­na­ry de­si­res of preg­nan­cy. How is it pos­sib­le, un­der this pres­su­re of me­a­su­re­ments and ob­ser­va­ti­ons, to find so­met­hing good, such as the joy of phy­si­cal and out­door ac­ti­vi­ties, the hap­pi­ness of rest, and the pre­sen­ce of mind and body?

Preg­nan­cy does not last fo­re­ver, but I would like to keep some of the imp­ro­ve­ments at­tai­ned du­ring it. I have been won­de­ring which va­lu­es I find most im­por­tant and worth pre­ser­ving; I do not have time for eve­ryt­hing. There are many im­por­tant things, and from a wi­der pers­pec­ti­ve it may seem that most of our time gets was­ted on fair­ly tri­vi­al things. What are the things I should fo­cus on in the long run? He­alth is im­por­tant, but if you stress too much about it, it may turn in­to il­l­ness. Phy­si­cal ac­ti­vi­ty should bring joy, and hob­bies and ver­sa­ti­le diet should give me strength to che­rish all the things I find im­por­tant.

My study psyc­ho­lo­gist re­com­men­ded that I should fo­cus on my baby du­ring the spring se­mes­ter. I was hap­py about this sup­port, which was in line with my own va­lu­es. My ol­der child­ren will move from full-time to part-time day care, which will bring va­rie­ty to the oc­ca­si­o­nal­ly lo­ne­ly stu­dent life. There will be more time to spend with them and to do the ac­ti­vi­ties of dai­ly life to­get­her.

Af­ter the birth of the baby, when the hor­mo­nal bur­den on in­su­lin pro­duc­ti­on has been eli­mi­na­ted, blood glu­co­se va­lu­es usu­al­ly re­turn to nor­mal. Furt­her­mo­re, it is safe to have slight­ly hig­her blood glu­co­se than du­ring the preg­nan­cy, and what is best, I will fi­nal­ly be free of the need to take blood tests to watch my va­lu­es and to in­ject in­su­lin eve­ry eve­ning!