We had a victory today. The obstetrician agreed to hospitalise me between 30 and 32 weeks. It was stressful getting to that point but we've achieved it, and that's all that matters.
I started the week with a visit to see him for my 24 week appointment. Lovely husband and I agreed that after the last rather awkward visit that didn't reassure us about how the vasa previa would be handled, that I would go to the appointment on my own.
My plan was to mention the vasa previa again and that I had been doing some reading and there were recommendations that hospitalisation was recommended around 30-32 weeks. Dr I went through what the diagnosis meant again and again said he would manage it with hospitalisation at 35 weeks and delivery at 37 weeks. I tried to get him to agree or disagree with the earlier hospitalisation but I guess I wasn't forceful enough.
LH was unhappy with it and said he still felt worried and not at all reassured.
So we asked for another appointment today and planned our strategy. I had read all the clinical papers I could find so was clear on the data that supports early hospitalisation. The plan was for LH to ask all the questions and cast himself in the role of 'bad cop', so to speak so that all of the awkwardness around questioning the doctor would be directed at him and not me. He read all the papers last night and got all his facts ready to talk through.
So in we went again today, and the first thing the doctor asked was. was I here to get some test results? It kind of put me off that he doesn't seem to remember me from one visit to the next. I was only in there on Monday and he didn't appear to remember that I wouldn't have any test results. Perhaps I am being harsh. He delivers 300 babies a year and I suppose he sees so many women every day its hard to remember who's up to what stage.
So LH said he'd been doing some research into vasa previa and wanted to talk about it. Dr I said 'So its Dr Google, is it?' and LH said 'I'm afraid so'. It was just so uncomfortable but we pushed ahead.
LH talked about why the studies show early hospitalisation is important and Dr I said if that's what we wanted, he would write to the hospital and arrange for us to be admitted between 30 and 32 weeks.
He said we have to be in the public hospital because private hospitals aren't staffed to do emergency caesarians 24 hours a day. I can go in as a private patient though, so will get a single room but it will be far from the luxury of the private hospital we are booked into. I don't care though. They can put me on a trolley in the hallway for all I care, as long as we do everything we can to save E3's life.
He also talked about issues around giving steriod doses more than once if we are not sure when the caesarian will be done because it can affect the baby, but around those issues, we are happy to rely on his judgement because that's not such a rare occurence.
I was so anxious about this visit but so glad we got the outcome we wanted. Questioning the professional judgement of a doctor is just so uncomfortable and stressful. I just kept thinking about E3 and how nothing will stop me from doing everything we can to save his life.
I think I can now go back to enjoying this pregnancy while things are still relatively normal. We've got some incredibly tough times still ahead of us but I think that we can get through it if I am in hospital. Being there for at least 5 weeks is going to be no picnic. I will miss LH terribly and it will be really lonely but we will get through it.
I try really hard not to keep wishing we had been blessed with a normal straightforward pregnancy. We are where we are, and holding E3 at the end will make it all worthwhile.
1096th Friday Blog Roundup
1 day ago
2 comments:
I'm so happy to hear that you got the outcome you wanted.
Hope you are now relaxing on a beach somewhere :)
Hi. I'm writing to you from the USA. My partner is in a very similar situation. One week and two days further along (also IVF). At 24 weeks, after some troubles similar to yours, she went in for a sono, got the vasa previa diagnosis, and has been in the hospital ever since. Her doctor would not let her go home, and we're fine with that: we live about half an hour away from the nearest hospital, and, as we understand it, were anything profound to happen, there wouldn't be time to save the baby. The plan is to have steroids for lung development at 28 weeks (coming up soon), and delivery (c-section, obviously) at 35 weeks, or perhaps at 36 weeks, if all seems to look positive at W35. All this to say that I think you are doing the right thing, going for the hospital stay at 30 weeks (and I would suggest that you should prefer W30 to W32). Obviously our doctors see the vasa previa diagnosis very differently, and I don't want to imply that yours is completely wrong. (Another doctor in the hospital implied, but not forcibly, that he might have suggested a few weeks of "freedom" before the bed rest.) But just to let you know: my partner is on quite strict bed rest. Very little walking (shower, to the toilet), and a wheel-chair ride per day. Twice a day monitoring, mostly to determine if there are any signs of contractions, and a sonogram every other week (checking up on the succenturiate lobe, and any changes to the cervix. Also hoping, although it is highly unlikely, that there is some movement of the vp away from the cervix. We are very fortunate to have a generous health care plan that makes this feasible (most Americans wouldn't have the coverage we have), and both have jobs that allow us to work from the hospital room, for the most part. But just one last thing: I think you should really take it easy (as easy as you can imagine taking it), and you should never, ever get a cervical exam (and sex is definitely and utterly out of the question). We're all very very very lucky to get the diagnosis, despite the logistical difficulties. Without the diagnosis, this likely would not have ended well. The usual diagnosis comes, as one of our doctors said, after something "profound" happens.
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