Hello,
What a wonderful forum! I am so happy to have found this place.
My wife (who is a HK citizen) and I are expecting our first child at the end of August. We just moved to New York in January and poor Helen has been suffering along the way so far. It started with acute morning sickness. I had to take her to the ER twice for dehydration because she could not hold anything down for two days in a row (on two seperate occasions). The doctors kept telling us that she would get over it soon. First they said 12 weeks, then 14, then 15. By the 20th week they told us that in some rare instances, the morning sickness lasts the whole term.
Then at a detailed anatomical ultrasound appointment at week 20, we learned that she had complete placenta previa. Apparently she has a high risk of premature labor and hemorhaging. It is very scary. We learned that if she notices any bleeding, we need to rush her to the hospital right away. Sure enough, at week 23, as she went to the washroom, we noticed blood in the water. I rushed her to the ER again. Fortunately, it was an unrelated complication. Poor Helen has always suffered from severe constipation. The strain to go to the washroom poses a danger for the placenta previa. The blood turned out to be due to hemorhoids instead of the previa, but the doctor ordered her to stop work and get more bedrest (also prescibed some medicine for the constipation).
My job keeps me away long hours in Manhattan and if Helen was going to need more bedrest, we made a somewhat rash decision that she should go back to HK to stay with her mom and dad and the large extended family over there. They can take care of her a lot better than I can here by myself.
So far, the move to HK has been great for her. Her mom is pampering her like a baby (just what I was hoping for) and the rest of the family is being very helpful too (she is the youngest of 3 brothers and 3 sisters). Since she arrived, her morning sickness has subsided alot. Eating her mothers good cooking and the good weather has made a positive impact. She has been there for almost 3 weeks now. The only thing that we are struggling with now is finding some good prenatal care for her. Because of the placenta previa, we want to have an ultrasound every 2 weeks to monitor things (that is what her doctor in NYC prescribed before she left) in a modern facility with excellent doctors and nurses.
The location of her mom's house seems to make things difficult. She is now staying out in the Tin Shui Wai, northwest of Yuen Long in the New Territories. She has gone to the Tuen Mun public hospital and was not very pleased with the quality of care she received there. Is there a better prenatal care hospital not too far from Tin Shui Wai? I found the link to hospitals in the New Territories
here, but I'm not sure which places might be better than the others. The most important things we are looking for is: 1.) good doctors/nurses, 2.) modern facilities, 3.) periodic ultrasounds every two weeks, and 4.) location.
Her sister lives in Siu Sai Wan in Chai Wan. I would be interested in good hospitals near either place. The tentative plan now is for her to stay in Tin Shui Wai until the due date gets closer, then move to Siu Sai Wan to stay with her sister to have the baby there. That might change though because she took the bus to Siu Sai Wan today and was miserable. She threw up all day and noticed some fluid leaked. I panicked when I heard that, but she assured me that it is ok now, but I still feel better if she saw a doctor knowledgable about complications associated with placenta previa. She might be limited with regard to travel.
There is a high chance Helen will need a C-section. In addition to the placenta previa, the baby is now in the breech position, which also makes it important for us to find good care.
Reading through other threads on this forum, I've found recommendations for
- Derek Lo
- Philip Ho
- Alex Doo
- Milton Leung
- Stevenson
- Sally Ferguson
- CP Lee
- Terence Lao
- Dawkins
Where are these doctors located? Where is Queen Mary? Queen Elizabeth? I noticed from other threads that CP Lee and Terence Lao are at Queen Mary High Risk Center. I've got a star down next to Philip Ho, who is apparently at Nicholson and Associates. Is that right? Where would that be? Alex Doo and Milton Leung are at the "Woman's Clinic". Where is that? Should we go public or private? Like I said, she is a HK citizen so public is an option. I just want the best care possible and am not too concerned about cost if we can have a healthy baby girl.
Sorry for such a long first post, but as you can imagine, with me being so far from my bb (my pet name for my wife) and my bb^2 (my pet name for our baby girl), I am panicking a lot these days and want to find the absolute best care possible for my wife and baby girl.
Best regards,
Eric