I have an aortic aneurysm (bulging of the aorta, genetic thing, my dad and aunt died at 28 and 24), and my first OB appointment was NOT what I was expecting! The (high risk) OB said she couldn't believe my cardiologist let me get pregnant, she didn't support the pregnancy and didn't think I should be pregnant. She was basically recommending a termination, but realised that was not an option for me.
So first appointment as new parents-to-be was a little.... disappointing! I wasn't sure if I should keep her, but my cardiologist assured me she was excellent and to give her one more chance, which I grudgingly did.
So we went this afternoon for appointment number 2. We got another obstetrician initially who has a cardiac background, and she was much better at explaining things than my OB. She still said they would always recommend termination if I was early on for my condition, and understood that once you see the baby on the ultrsound that's probably not going to happen.
She also said that whatever we choose to do whether it's keeping the baby, choosing a delivery method, or whatever, they'll advise and make sure we understand all risks, but ultimately they will support whatever decisions we make. So that's good!
Apparently there was a big meeting with about 20 doctors from Stanford Hospital all talking about me, my condition, how to handle it, and recommendations.
The problem is that they don't have much information about my specific condition, and if they had to guess a risk rate, they'd say between 2-5% - and that's of maternal death. She said while it doesn't sound high, that's 2-5 people in every 100 are at risk of dying, which is pretty high when you think of it that way.
Then my original "mean" OB came in as well, and talked with us with the other doc/OB, and she was much better than last time. She realises we're going ahead with this no matter what, and now she just has to keep me safe. She was also a lot better this time, so we won't fire her just yet
Anyway, so they said I shouldn't be doing any more exercise than light walking, and should be doing absolutely nothing that gets my heart rate up, because the heart is having to work a lot harder to compensate for growing a baby, and any extra load could be very bad for me.
I'll see the ob again in a month, then she said after that, they'll probably want to see me every 2-3 weeks from then on. And I'll be getting monthly echocardiograms (of my heart), plus any other tests they decide to subject me to...
I mentioned we were flying to Dublin in June and they both kinda freaked out. They looked at each other and looked very hesitant, which I knew was bad
They recommended against it saying at that point, my heart is working extra hard growing the baby, and being that far away from my doctors and cardiologist was very risky, and they recommended against it blah blah... So it seems that the only risk is that we're so far away from our doctors if something goes wrong, but we're going to be in Dublin (for work), not in the middle of Africa... It's not as though the doctors are bad there if something drastic happens. I'm flying business class there, and DH will probably give me his business class seat on the way back (I couldn't get an upgrade
), so I'll be flying fairly comfortably. I don't know what to do, but I'm leaning towards just going. We need to leave the country to renew our work visa for the US, and we can both work from the Dublin office for the company we're at, and it's all booked already, but if something DOES go wrong...
I'll be getting a heart scan just before I go, so I guess unless that shows up anything weird, I'll just assume everything should be fine.
We're certainly a lot more worried about the pregnancy now that we've spoken to someone who explained everything better and didn't seem to just be freaking out.
So that was my afternoon!!
So first appointment as new parents-to-be was a little.... disappointing! I wasn't sure if I should keep her, but my cardiologist assured me she was excellent and to give her one more chance, which I grudgingly did.
So we went this afternoon for appointment number 2. We got another obstetrician initially who has a cardiac background, and she was much better at explaining things than my OB. She still said they would always recommend termination if I was early on for my condition, and understood that once you see the baby on the ultrsound that's probably not going to happen.
She also said that whatever we choose to do whether it's keeping the baby, choosing a delivery method, or whatever, they'll advise and make sure we understand all risks, but ultimately they will support whatever decisions we make. So that's good!
Apparently there was a big meeting with about 20 doctors from Stanford Hospital all talking about me, my condition, how to handle it, and recommendations.
The problem is that they don't have much information about my specific condition, and if they had to guess a risk rate, they'd say between 2-5% - and that's of maternal death. She said while it doesn't sound high, that's 2-5 people in every 100 are at risk of dying, which is pretty high when you think of it that way.
Then my original "mean" OB came in as well, and talked with us with the other doc/OB, and she was much better than last time. She realises we're going ahead with this no matter what, and now she just has to keep me safe. She was also a lot better this time, so we won't fire her just yet
Anyway, so they said I shouldn't be doing any more exercise than light walking, and should be doing absolutely nothing that gets my heart rate up, because the heart is having to work a lot harder to compensate for growing a baby, and any extra load could be very bad for me.
I'll see the ob again in a month, then she said after that, they'll probably want to see me every 2-3 weeks from then on. And I'll be getting monthly echocardiograms (of my heart), plus any other tests they decide to subject me to...
I mentioned we were flying to Dublin in June and they both kinda freaked out. They looked at each other and looked very hesitant, which I knew was bad
I'll be getting a heart scan just before I go, so I guess unless that shows up anything weird, I'll just assume everything should be fine.
We're certainly a lot more worried about the pregnancy now that we've spoken to someone who explained everything better and didn't seem to just be freaking out.
So that was my afternoon!!