The "Wonders" of Modern Medicine Make Me Wonder

I know, I know. It has been forever. We've been kind of busy. It's, ironically, always the times when you have a lot going on that you don't have any time to tell anyone about it.

We went to Albuquerque the other day to have an ultrasound to check up on the new baby's kidneys. He has had pyelectasis (too much fluid in the kidneys, probably caused by blockage) at least since about 17 weeks gestation. They've had me go to Albuquerque to monitor the progress so we know what we're dealing with when the baby is born. It's a very common problem, accounting for about half of all anomolies found on prenatal ultrasound. Anyway, I could go on and on about this--and knowing me, I just might--but it was NOT a good experience, to say the least.

Let me begin by saying that at 17 weeks I had my first high-res ultrasound and they found the thing with the kidney, and the doctor started talking about "soft markers" for Down syndrome and wanted me to do an amniocentesis. The only reason they keep mentioning Down syndrome is because I have a sister with Down syndrome, but it was just one of those chance things and I have no more genetic predisposition than anyone else my age to have a child with Down syndrome. Like it would matter to me anyway. Then he told me that 17 weeks was a little early and the amniotic sac hadn't fully attached yet, and that there was a 95% chance that the "fetus" would survive the procedure. Like I'm too stupid to figure out that that means that there was a 1 in 20 chance that my baby would DIE just to satisfy HIS curiosity about whether my baby has Down syndrome. I told him to forget it. Now it has "REFUSED AMNIO" stamped all over my chart. At least they aren't my real doctors.

So, this is the background of what I'm dealing with. Oh, and he also "diagnosed" me with preeclampsia at my first birth a year and a half ex post facto, and when I asked him how he could be so sure when he wasn't even there and didn't know anything about me at the time and my own doctor didn't give me that diagnosis, he explained it by saying that doctors at the hospital where we live are "very nice" but they practice "stick medicine." Yep, he actually said that. I went back to my doctor and told him the whole thing and that I wasn't seeing that doctor again.

So, this last time I saw the other joker's associate, but he turned out to be just as bad if not worse. They took pictures of the kidneys, and one had resolved itself, but the other had gotten worse. He came into the room after his ultrasonographer did the initial look-see, and the first thing he said is "We've got to save that kidney!" as if it were about to explode if he didn't come to save the day. He started rambling on about tests that had to be run and going to deliver there, and I said I really didn't want to deliver there. He said, and I quote, "Well, this baby's going to be born here whether you like it or not." Buzz! Wrong answer, dude. Sorry. I asked him if the baby had to be delivered early, and he said no, nothing like that. So I said if he can wait six weeks for the baby to grow to full term, he can wait two or three more days for us to drive down there under our own power to run whatever tests needed to be done on their fancy equipment.

I was not going to be at the mercy of a hospital that looks and runs like an airport, complete with terminals, and a doctor who treats me like a uterus, my baby like a fetus, and no doubt newborns like neonates. Oh, and husbands like complete nonentities. Fortunately, our doctor told him the exact same thing before we even got home from our appointment. And that's another thing. It's a 90-mile drive to Albuquerque from our house. As if it would be better for us to drive all the way down there to deliver the baby after I go into labor than to just drive 15 miles to the local hospital.

So we're having the baby here. The only problem is that he is breech, and if he doesn't turn by the time I go into labor they will have to do a c-section. And thanks to some meddling lawyer, they can't do VBACs at this hospital anymore right now, though our doctor says they're working on fighting that and they hope to have it changed soon. He said he used to deliver vaginally after c-sections all the time, until this lawyer thought that he knew safe medical practice better than the doctors and told them they couldn't do it anymore or they'd be faced with a malpractice suit. So pray for me that the baby will turn, because we plan to have more children after this, and I don't want multiple c-sections, and I CERTAINLY don't want to have to go to Albuquerque to do it. I hate them there.