Journey to B.B., part 5

Doctors. (July 31st)

Since getting pregnant I've met eight new doctors. Eight. And let me be clear, I'm NOT a fan of doctors. Going to the doctor or dentist used to give me some serious nerves. I've gotten better with doctors, merely because throughout our infertility journey I saw so many of them, but let's not talk about the dentist. Anywho, it's hard for me to find a doctor I like. It's rare that I can ask all my questions and not feel like I'm being talked down to or an idiot for asking. I like to know everything about anything that's going on with me (or now, with my child). 


We'd talked with the neurosurgeon that we were directly referred to about a month ago. He was fine but didn't seem to click with us. After recently finding out I'll have to change OBs and the hospital where I deliver so that my daughter can be properly taken care and in the same building as me (vs. across town at another hospital), we went back to neurosurgeon searching. We quickly got an appointment to consult with a doctor a little further away but recommended by more than one person we'd talked to. 


We talked to him for five minutes before he had to step out to take a call (he was on-call that day) and I looked at Mike and said 'I already like him better.'  He came back in and we continued to talk for probably 45 minutes. He was open to discussing our daughter's options, talked about new procedures that no one else had offered us as an option, and gave her a positive prognosis. Our high-risk OB is constant doom and gloom and it's hard to stay positive when we talk to him. This surgeon wasn't all rainbows and sunshine but gave us the realistic prognosis that she will be able to learn even she's delayed in her learning vs. our high-risk OB who constantly reminds us he thinks she'll be in a vegetative state. The surgeon just seemed to be on the same page as us. It was definitely a feeling of if you had to make a decision for my child on the fly and weren't able to consult me, I would trust that you made the same decision I would for her. So, I think he's our guy. I'll deliver there and they'll evaluate her and do any necessary immediate procedures to relieve the pressure on her brain. We're still waiting to hear back from the Best Doctors service with our insurance. But if nothing in their report drastically changes our outlook, this surgeon may be our encephalocele surgeon too. 


Breathing a small sigh of relief to have met a good doctor.

Update: We heard from the Best Doctors service and it was mostly everything we'd heard before.  We changed OBs/high-risk OBs to deliver at the same hospital B.B. will be evaluated at. Very happy with all our moves, despite the chaos.