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Tuesday, August 9, 2011

First appointment for BF2

11:48 PM
Jason and I decided months ago that if I were to get pregnant, I would switch to Tricare Standard so that I could see a private practice OB instead of someone at Trippler (our Military Treatment Facility).  Personally, my only problem with Trippler was that while I was seen there with KB, I only ever saw a nurse practitioner.  There's not a thing wrong with nurse practitioners, but when you know you're going to have a very high risk pregnancy, you want the OB.  Trust me.  

I switched to standard, and did a quick little search of OBs that deliver at Castle Medical Center, the hospital closest to home.  I found one who was very interesting to me.  Her name is Dr. Susan Chapman, she's in her mid to late 40's, and I really liked her.  I chose her because I liked her practice.  She has a few nurse practitioners as well as a few midwives that practice with her, and they offer a birthing center.  I like an OB who is open to alternate forms of delivery, not just the sterile lights of an operating room.  That's pretty funny, because I'll probably only ever see the lights of an operating room.

So Dr. Chapman was great.  She came in and was already pretty well-versed in my chart.  She asked what I was already doing to prepare myself for a healthy pregnancy.  I told her that I'm taking pre-natals, extra folic acid, extra calcium, fish oil and a baby aspirin every single day.  She was happy with that, but I knew she would be after talking to the OB who delivered KB.  He reiterated to me that I could never prevent HELLP, but taking the extra vitamins would help the baby to be developed as much as possible, and there is some evidence that the baby aspirin, taken up to 20 weeks, aids in warding off recurring HELLP syndrome.

Next we did the ultrasound.  Heck yes, she did an ultrasound at 8 weeks!  Guess where that doesn't happen.  Trippler.  Or any other MTF.  Blah..  Anyway.  She said baby looked great.  He/She measured at 8 weeks, 6 days, but my calculations (which I know are perfect) had him/her at 8 weeks, 2 days.  This doesn't mean much scientifically, but in my mind it means that baby is going to be big and healthy, and that my extra vitamins are doing their job!

Dr. Chapman went ahead and tested my blood for baseline liver enzyme numbers as well as blood platelet numbers.  She wants to have an accurate baseline in case things do go wonky later.  She told me that she'll schedule me to go to a specialist at my next appointment in 6 weeks.  The specialist will run further tests to make sure things are looking good for a HELLP free pregnancy.  My chances for having HELLP again are about 20%, maybe less.  My chances of pre-ecclampsia or toxemia, however, are higher.  That part sucks, but I'm trying to not think about it.  Studies show that these problems are more likely in the first pregnancy than in subsequent pregnancies, so that's good news.  More good news is that Mom got sick with me, but not with Scott, a mere 15 months later.

The last bit of important news is that I will most likely have a scheduled c-section.  That doesn't bother me.. I figure the hell I know (c-section recovery) is preferable to the hell I don't know (vaginal recovery).  Dr. Kellum, the OB who delivered KB, said that the latest he would let me go before scheduling the c-section is 39 weeks.  Dr. Chapman agreed.  That means that BF2 will make his/her appearance sometime before March 10.

Whew!  So that was a pretty important appointment, and it went perfectly! I'm so happy I found an OB right away who matched exactly what I wanted. She was appropriately extra cautious with  me, and I'm so thankful.
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3 comments:

  1. MalynAugust 10, 2011 at 5:22 AM

    Me tooooooo babygirl! Momma loves you and the baby babygirl..and now the jellybean baby too!

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  2. AllyAugust 10, 2011 at 6:13 PM

    Congratulations on #2!!! I'm glad you found an OB you liked. My friend delivered her son at Trippler last October - and when we visited last May we took a picture of "the big pink hospital on the hill." The only complaints she had was that you are not considered "high risk" until your 3rd miscarriage (which, I'm sorry...but you who really wants to go through 3 of them in order to get the care you need? 1 was enough, thankyouverymuch) and that there is not nearly enough parking for the expectant mothers near the door. Apparently, all of the staff parks near the door and everywhere else parks wherever they can find a space. Which is a little messed up. But everything else at Trippler went fine. I'll be interested to hear how things go at Castle though for future reference! Good luck!

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  3. UnknownAugust 10, 2011 at 11:29 PM

    Thanks! I've heard my share of Trippler stories, and they definitely contributed to me going standard. I didn't want to slander them too badly, though ;) I have a friend who is being seen there now and she is enjoying it.

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