Answer: Me
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The growth that is anticipated in the coming third trimester seems to have happened on me, already. I am sure the baby is growing leaps and bounds which is exciting, since my one and only goal these days is to fatten him up to lessen the risk if he decides to come out early. That being said, the weight I feel in my mid section, the backaches, the tossing and turning at night, the leg cramps, etc etc, are the side effects of the growth. And just when you think there's no way your body mass can expand further, you know it will, because there's a solid three more months to go where little K will triple his weight. I already feel like a whale and walk around waddling like a penguin.
Little K is now estimated to be 1kg already! (Oops, that means the other 8 kgs I gained is all on me!).
Yesterday we visited the public hospital in Hong Kong, so now we are finally registered in Queen Mary Hospital in case of an emergency. The system was so confusing I almost lost it at the nurse who was trying to cancel my appointment with the private clinic doctor within the public hospital without my permission. Her bad English and my bad Cantonese that got in the way of our communication certainly didn't help. We left home at 830AM, and after running around 3 different locations in 3 hours, we finally saw a doctor at 1130AM.
At least the visit finally gave me some clarity on the system that had confused and frustrated me so -- now I understand that :
1. There is the public system and the private system within a public hospital, you have to elect one and stick with it, and you are only allowed to switch once, if you ever choose to. The difference if obviously cost and level of service, but given my gracious insurance plan I am certainly opting for service over cost;
2. Both systems can offer shared care with my primary physician, so that means in case of an emergency before 34 weeks I can deliver at Queen Mary where someone has my record and can look after me appropriately and after 34 weeks I can go with my original plan of delivery at the Sanatorium (even though my own doctor was originally trying to convince me that was not the case, and only being in the public side can the public hospital be a back-up plan)
3. Relationship ("Guan-Xi") matters -- In the case of the private side of the public hospital, the doctor actually has the right to refuse your case and kick you back to the public system, so you either really have to pull some strings or your case better be "interesting" enough for the doctor. Fortunately or unfortunately my placenta did not disappoint --- first the previa and now a new emerging fact that it has sort of become two with a main one on the right side and a little satellite on the left with a membrane connecting the two, I am not quite sure what that means yet but it seems to require close monitoring and something that would arouse the interest of a doctor who's looking for something interesting instead of the normal boring pregnancy cases with no complications. The other lucky factor for us was we were only able to get this appointment not through the help of my own doctor but the second opinion I sought in Hong Kong and a very helpful doctor that has kindly written a personalized referral letter. For that reason I am actually really upset at my own doctor for not being helpful at all in the process, but again I heard he's an excellent surgeon so I will have to overlook his lack of communication skills and bed side manners and trust that he will be a good person to perform a C-section on me if I make it past 34 weeks.
So all in, we have made some progress navigating the system and successfully have a plan in the case of an emergency. Again I hope all of this will just be a back-up plan we will never have to pull the trigger on.
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