Search for an OB and an Immunologist!

I didn't talked about my pregnancy last time because of it's delicate nature. This is a long overdue post, but I still have to talk about it so that I would give light to whoever out there that has the same problem with mine.

I wanted to document what I went through in my first pregnancy. You see, I miscarried twice in the same year. One on Jan 2008 and another in Dec 2008. After that, it was hard getting pregnant and it also scares me. I became pregnant again on Aug 2009 but it was only a chemical pregnancy. We also went through 2 OBs. One was Dra. Pascua in St. Luke's and the second one was Dra. Chiaoling in Binondo. After I miscarried the second time, Dra. Chiaoling introduced us to the possibility of APAS and recommended us to Dr. Ed Lim an Immunologist in MADOCS.

APAS (Antiphospolipid Antibody Syndrome), still a new term for me after 2 years! It is also known as Hughes syndrome or sticky blood in the UK is a complex disorder that is very unique to every individual affected by it. In layman term, it is an autoimmune system disorder that when the body recognizes certain foreign objects in the bloodstream or the cell components, the immune system releases these antibodies to get rid of them. APAS also characterized by excessive blood clotting that affects both healthy people and people who have primary illnesses.

My case also became complicated due to the fact that I'm PCOS ( Polycystic Ovary Syndrome). That's what I get for being overweight! I love eating! Oh Well..

When we went to Dr. Ed Lim, he wanted us to test several panel. There are 5 panels and boy these tests are way too expensive! According to them, a very known singer/actress also took treatments and test for APAS before giving birth to her 2 daughters.

After seeing Dr. Lim, we decided to asked and search for other immunologist. Because Dr. Lim's fee was way over the top. He charges by the min. 1st 30 mins of consultation was Php1,500 and succeeding 15 mins will be Php500. After the first consultation we were charged a total of Php2,500. The test that he wanted for us to do would cost us a total of 60k. Although we went through the first tests and having to convince ourselves that he is the best in the country, we were left emotionally and financially drained.

We asked several family and friends for a recommendation of other immunologist and OB-GYNE. And at last, a close business friend told my husband about Dra. Madamba-Burgos. He said that one of his relatives were a patient of this OB and she is known to treat such cases.

After visiting Dra. Madamba-Burgos at MADOCS, she refer us to Dra. Aleta, head of the immunologist department in PGH. I will talk about their findings and my test results in another blog post.