In reply to your question on why you should remain still during the OGTT it might help if I explain a little about the test itself, that way you will know what is likely to happen before they conduct it on you.
You will be required to present yourself (usually in the morning after having fasted for 12 hours) but before even getting to the hospital/surgery there are a couple of things that you should do.
If you can get there by car, taxi or public transport do so, and avoid walking too much, as walking is a form of simple exercise which will bring your initial B/G reading down lower than it might otherwise be.
Also you might find it beneficial to drink a glass of just 'plain water' a half hour or so before the ODTT commences, as doing this in many cases will make it much easier for your blood to be drawn out from your arm and 'plain water' won't effect the final readings.
After taking the initial Blood sample they will frequently leave the 'dreaded' needle still attached and safely secured to your arm. This will then allow them to take further samples without having to re-inject you. I know it sounds dreadful but doing it this way sounds much worse than it actually is and you will then find that after the first dreaded 'needle' prick all the rest is easy-peasy.
You will then be asked to take a drink of a set amount of pure glucose which must be completely drunk within a few minutes. Here in the UK they frequently use a small bottle of the original 'Lucosade' energy drink 387 ml.
The next stage is the boring bit, and you will then have to remain seated, still and at rest with no walking about (that's the exercise bit again) until they decide when it's time to take another blood sample, which with the needle still attached to your arm is now straight forward and very easy.
They will probably do the same procedure at either one or two other later times so that they now have a unique collection of your blood samples taken over several hours from your fasting and when the glucose was first given to you.
From the finalised results they can then establish how well or otherwise your bodies metabolism has performed in dealing with a predefined amount of 'Pure Glucose' and from the results they can then form an accurate diagnosis as to whether you are diabetic, pre-diabetic or don't have diabetes.
If when the final results is diagnosed if should indicate that you are in the pre-diabetic stage then you should take this as a wake up call, for with a change in diet, exercise and possibly lifestyle, many people who are pre-diabetic are able to reverse their pre-diabetes and prevent themselves from ltheir ater going on to develop diabetes
Please let us know how you get on, for as you can now see here's nothing to get worried or frightened about, so you should now sail easily through your OGTT.
All the best - Lazybones
