First Doctor Visit

What You’ll Care About:

Baby looks great. Delivery date of March 6 +/- four days depending on if I’m superstitious of different numbers. I love this country. Stuff like that cracks me up! I never would have thought of it unless the date was 666 or something like that. Two weeks early since this is c-section number four. **Funny story about 666 below.

My Ramblings of Medical Care and Family Planning Here in Singapore:

I think of myself as low key in a lot of respects (I admit that I do get high strung over the stupidest things). That, combined with my exhaustion level, not having anyone to swap babysitting with over the summer for all three kids caused me to delay calling any OBGYN to schedule the first visit. Oh yeah, and even though I have a zillion doctor referrals I had a heck of a time getting a referral from women that have had a c-section. It’s a totally different ball game than the regular method and I wanted a good surgeon.

Yesterday I called up the one I had ultimately decided to try. The two ladies who used her referred her as being a good match to my blunt and open personality. Perfect I figured. I called up and she had a five week wait to see her for first time patients. She asked how far I was in the pregnancy and wasn’t pleased when I said at least twelve weeks. She couldn’t see me the first time until I was about 17 weeks along. Even relaxed me knows that’s waiting a bit long. She referred me to another doctor and I was feeling totally defeated to be shot down after finally making a commitment when I had been procrastinating for so long.

Not having any better ideas of what to do I called Brian to see what he thought. No help there. So I called the doctor referral. They could fit me in in an hour. Umm…I don’t have a car and have to pick my kid up at school in two hours and you’re all the way downtown. They suggest tomorrow and I just say fine. Arrange a babysitter for Jacob.

Today I went down to my appointment. I knew parking at the hospital would be messy so I left twenty minutes early just in case. Most of that time got swallowed up in road construction on the PIE on the way downtown. I arrived at the hospital and missed the little access road for the parking lot. I ended up in a dead end along with twenty other delivery trucks trying to do seventeen point turns on a tiny residential street. All of a sudden I’m glad to be in a little car. Then the curb is higher than it was supposed to be and I hear CRUNCH!! Suck. I’m already late. No point in checking it. Seeing it won’t change anything now. I finish my turn and backtrack to the hospital parking lot. It’s full.

I creep back in tight traffic onto Orchard Road to attempt parking at Paragon Mall. Nope. Lot is full. Try Cairnhill Place. As I finally back into a parking spot the doctor office is calling my mobile phone to see if I’m still coming. Honestly, I’m only six minutes late by my clock and think I’m actually doing great all things considered. I tell them I’m parking and rush to the parking garage elevator and down to the street. Now where? I’m two blocks away but not sure how to get there from here. I cut through the mall and make it to the doctor about fifteen minutes late.

Sign in. New patient sheet. Pee in a cup. Blood pressure. Medical history.

Nurse: “This is your first pregnancy?”

Me: “No. Fourth.”

WIDE EYES! “Oh. Wow. You very fertile!”

Umm…thanks? What am I supposed to say to that?

“I think four could be enough. I’m getting tired.” I smile.

“You got to close that factory!!”

This lady is seriously cracking me up.

Later when she draws my blood I ask if she has children.

“Oh no! And I’m NOT planning to either. They make too much noise. I like my nieces and nephews. I play with them for a little bit and send them back to my sister. I like that much better!”

Doctor was great. Just my style too. Open and frank about what is medically going on and what my choices will be. He advises delivering two weeks early because of the uterus scarring on a person who is having the fourth c-section. He’s my new favorite person on the planet. Who doesn’t want their pregnancy cut short by two weeks and the most miserable uncomfortable weeks at that.

I ask about tubal ligation if I were to opt for that. He looks excited and supportive. Tells me frankly he recommends it for anyone who has had four surgeries. Explains risks fully of having more children in my medical case. Then tells me it’s my choice and he’ll address it a few weeks before delivery and will ask the same questions of me as anyone else and the four c-sections doesn’t mean I have to do it. In fact after he reconsiders my age he says if I was two years younger, even with four kids, he’d support not doing it quite yet. Now I know he’s my kind of doctor.

He’ll tell me my options. Not let me do anything stupid but give me my choices beyond that. That was why I loved Dr. Knudsen in Virginia.

Oh yeah. For those worried about me having a baby overseas get this. He quickly read my post-operative report and asked me specifically about a particular part of the stitching up procedure. He wants to know if I know anything about it and do they REALLY still use THAT? It’s so old they haven’t used that in years. Of course it didn’t hit me until after I left that my last doctor has been delivering for over 30 years and could have just have preferred the old stuff.

I’m going to be just fine here. Medical care is great, expensive, but great. My bill was S$ 830.15 today, about US$ 625. I brought S$ 500 cash just in case…glad I had a credit card on me!! Delivery alone estimate is S$ 13,000 if everything is easy and simple but will only go up from there. Tying my tubes is sounding like a better idea all the time. Babies are way too expensive. All three of my first cost less than US$100 each from start to finish. Thank you for great insurance plans.

***Did I write this story down already? I spent the summer between my junior and senior year working for Packard Bell Computers on the customer service line. After tech support finished trouble shooting the problem they got transferred to me. I set up home service, service center delivery service, ordered CDs to fix problems, etc. One day a poor guy had been on hold for hours, worked with tech support for hours and was convinced his computer was possessed by the devil. Seriously convinced of this. He gets transferred to me. I input all his info, name, address, machine serial number, etc. After the poor man has been on the phone call for almost four hours we are about done. The entire time he is telling me over and over that the devil is possessing the darn thing. Literally the last part of the call is giving them their problem ID number. It is something-something-something-6-6-6. As bad as he wants off the phone he demands a new number. I didn’t pick the number. It’s chronologically assigned. I CAN’T change it. He is convinced that number MUST be changed and there is nothing I can do. He remains adamant and trying not to laugh I tell him the ONLY thing he can do is to call back and start again. Then he’ll get a new number assigned. He concedes the fight, not having another four hours to waste today. He writes down the devil computer ID number and we end the call so I can laugh my head off.