Question from Hastings, Florida, USA:

I am 33 years old, 30 weeks pregnant with my third child, and during my first two pregnancies, I failed the initial one-hour glucose testing but passed the three-hour tests. I was not at all surprised to fail the initial test with this pregnancy and had no worries about the three-hour test. During my first two pregnancies, the test was done by drawing blood, but with this pregnancy, the three- hour was done by finger stick and the results were instant.

I had a fasting level of 78 mg/dl [4.3 mmol/L], a one-hour level of 199 mg/dl [11/1 mmol/L], a two-hour level of 145 mg/dl [8.1 mmol/L], and a three-hour level of 47 mg/dl [2.6 mmol/L]. My doctor says that technically I passed but wants me to seek counseling for gestational diabetes anyway because of the one-hour reading. I myself was more concerned that the three-hour was so low because, within 10 minutes of leaving the office, I broke out in a terrible sweat and began to shake uncontrollably until I was able to get some food in my system.

I have since received a call from the hospital to schedule an appointment for my gestational diabetes. Do these numbers put me in the classification of having gestational diabetes? Are the fingerpricks as accurate as drawing blood from the arm? Is the 47 mg/dl [2.6 mmol/L] at three hours result normal? Should there be concern there?