She did confirm for me that they have another standard sonogram at 34 weeks, which, in my mind, means that this one is not needed. All she could say was something along the lines of, "Well, you know, it's very important to find out if you still have a low-lying placenta and, you know, I see on your chart here that she wanted to check it at week 26 so, you know, this is week 26 and it's important to know if anything has changed." I asked why it was important to know if anything had changed if there's nothing that can be done about it either way. "Well, you know, Dr. Moses wants to know the risks and, you know, most low lying placentas will have corrected themselves by 26 weeks so, you know, this is an important time to find out if that has happened." So I went further and said, "Let's take the hypothetical situation that they find that the placenta is still low-lying, then what?" She replies, "Well, your insurance will cover this. You know that, right? There's good medical cause, so, you know, it's not for no reason or anything."
Oh, ok. Ok miss nurse. All those "you knows" really got me feeling like I'm on the same page with you now. You've completely convinced me of the importance of this ultrasound.
What? I was sitting there listening with a puzzled/annoyed look on my face, occasionally waving my hands (at the imaginary person I wished was there sitting next to me on the couch) mouthing, "WHAT??" as I tried to decide whether or not to push the issue. Do I actually not deserve a better answer than that, or does she just not know one when really pressed? That was NOT a satisfactory answer, nor did it make any sense to me whatsoever. It's just important because it's important? It's important because it's on my chart?
I guess it might be important, since we found it in the other scan at 18 weeks, if I was just in constant extreme worry about it, to settle my fears by doing this scan to show that it was no longer a problem. But I already happen to know what she told me, which is that this issue, in a majority of cases, corrects itself. I'm not worried. So, to allay my fears is not the reason. The OB shouldn't really be concerned either, in my opinion, because she knows the facts as well. If we didn't know it was low-lying at all and I began bleeding, they would ask me to come in immediately and give me a scan because of my previous miscarriage anyway. And we DO know from my 18 week scan that it could still be low-lying, so if I started bleeding they know a probable cause and would still want to do a scan to see if the placenta was, in fact, the culprit.
This scan is useless. It reports nothing that can be used proactively or preventatively and does not lessen or replace the need for more scans in the future. I just don't see any other conclusion to come to. You know?
2 comments:
You know... :) I was thinking the same thing! Why can't any health care provider say, "This is what we would like to do, here are the pros and cons and now... what would YOU like to do?"
I am all for medical advice but just give me your advice and make it clear that the decision is up to me to make.
I KNOW! I really felt like it wasn't up to me at all. I was thinking later about lawsuits and how it would just be best for them to do exactly what you said. Then, if I should go into premature labor and have complications and hospital bills that I wanted to sue for because of all the ultrasounds... they could say, SHE decided to have it after hearing all the options. At this point, they can't say that.
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