Sunday, August 11, 2013

She gets me

As I mentioned before, we saw a new OB last weekend at a brand new hospital in Shanghai. It's staffed by a mix of foreign and Chinese OB/GYN's that all lean toward western medicine and philosophy. Having a western-belief OB was my must have, little did I know that I would end up choosing a Chinese Doc. 

Yep. 

Chinese, Chinese. Not American-born Chinese. 

Why do I like her so much?

Because she seems to "get" me.

I had the chance to talk to her briefly during our tour a couple of weeks ago, and we discussed my losses, my surgery, and my somewhat irrational (by my own admission) fears with this pregnancy. She eased my mind during our discussion, pointing out that we did have a full term son following my surgery, and that the statistics ( I hate statistics!) are on our side. 


When we met with her for my actual appointment a week later, she pulled out some xerox copies and laid them in front of us. One was a picture of the two surgical techniques used to perform the surgery I had. She wanted to understand which technique my RE had used so she could be best prepared and educated on my needs. The next xerox was a medical journal linking higher live birth rates with completion of the surgery I had. As much as I hate statistics, this article was just what I needed. No one had ever shown me the statistics before. 

Here's what makes me feel better:

Before septum resection:
Live birth rate 3%
Mc rate 88%
Preterm rate 9%


Post septum resection:
Live birth rate 80%
Mc rate 14%
Preterm rate 6%



And the conclusion just makes me even more thankful for Dr. Hubert and his willingness to take our family on and figure out why we were losing pregnancy after pregnancy. Had he not cared about his patients, perhaps we would still be walking the lonely road of infertility and recurrent loss.

Even reading this study, I'm aware that there are manymore things that could still go wrong, but just seeing the statistics gives me hope that maybe just maybe, our losing spree is over. And a huge thank you to Dr. June Shen, my new Doctor for giving me peace of mind, if only for a few days til my head takes over again.

1 comment:

  1. A Chinese doc, no less, huh? I think that's great. I'm so happy there is some common understanding between you guys and if you can't be in the comfort of your American Dr. Hubert, this is at least a great place to find.

    Surely no fun being among these statistics and being a study (I'm familiar! Ugh), but it's nice to know this doctor is researched and took personal time to understand your specific condition and how that plays out in pregnancy. Wonderful to hear... even if that means you still have to be pregnant for another 20+ weeks. Agh.

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