Hematologist

Hematologist

A few weeks ago I had a hematologist follow-up appointment with Dr. Ford. At the beginning of my pregnancy, I met with Dr. Lowry (who left the practice shortly after my appointment) and he basically said that my blood disorder is irrelevant during pregnancy but just to make sure, he'd want to have a follow up appointment near the end of my pregnancy just to check my levels to see where we were at. This appointment was scheduled with Dr. Ford. When I went in, I basically spent 3 hours in his office talking to him for maybe 5 minutes. Grrrr... I was frustrated to put it nicely. More on that, Dr. Ford is a Oncologist and so he didn't really have a good understanding of my condition and so really the only thing that was accomplished in a 3 hour appointment was that 1) he didn't really know if I had Von Willebrands and 2) he wanted to send me to Hershey for blood work.

WHAT????

So yes- I walked out of the office so confused and frustrating. 

What the heck

So now what?

I waited and waited over Christmas and New Years for a phone call from Hershey with plans to get blood work done for what? I had no idea.. but wait I did.

Nothing- I finally called my OBGYN and let my nurse know that I hadn't heard anything from Dr. Ford or Hershey.

10 Minutes later (did I mention I love my nurses at Centre Medical & Surgical!) I had a phone call from a new office HERE in State College inviting me to meet the new Hematologist!  Penns State Hershey Medical Center opened a new clinic and they quickly got me in the following day to meet Dr. Allerton. HE IS AWESOME!!!

My appointment was so great. He answered many questions that Dr. Ford had raised. 1) He said I definitely had Von Willebrands (which I hadn't doubted since I was diagnosed back in 2002) and 2) said that all the blood work that I needed could be done here locally at the hospital. He did an exam and the only thing I struggled with was when Dr. Allerton asked me if my neck was normally that fat! 

What?

 :) :) :)

All joking aside, he was a great doctor. He wrote me up some lab work to check on my levels and sent me on my way. We made a follow-up appointment for two weeks to go over my levels but he basically assured me that he'd be there at the hospital when I go into labor to make sure everything goes okay. 

A Few Days Later...

I received a phone call from the Hematologist office. Some of my blood work revealed that I had a Vitamin B-12 Deficiency.  They wanted to do a further blood work but also wanted to get me started on weekly injections of B-12 until I gave birth and then from there- once a month. 

So- I started my weekly injections of B-12 (ouch!) and I look forward to meeting with Dr. Allerton to go over the results further but I know I'm in good hands!!