Remembering My Ob-Gyne

My previous blog was about my unique (or not so unique) hormonal condition. After writing that, I just remembered my doctor – Dr. Delfin Tan.

I have some short stories about my encounter with this doctor. I was impressed not only on his concrete knowledge about his profession, but also on how he explains situations to his patients. I was surprised that he happens to be the uncle of one of my friends in Highschool. We have these egroups and I narrated my doctor’s amusing comments and then my friend told me that Dr. Tan is her uncle! It’s a good thing I only spoke good and funny things about him otherwise I probably would lose one highschool friend.

There was this time that I went to his clinic for consultation. As always, there’s a long line of patients waiting for their turn. The construction of his clinic, sad to say, had poor sound-proofing design. (Okay, this brings out the Architect in me – sigh… Kinda miss that profession since I’m into the Call Center industry right now… but let’s go back to my doctor’s clinic…) Why poor design? Because whenever he gives advices to his patients, the other people in line are able to hear it. Maybe the designer wanted a free-flowing atmosphere – lots of openness. But I guess they failed to anticipate that some people probably wanted privacy especially when it concerns their health. But, we have no choice. We went to that clinic to see the doctor, not to criticize his place.

Anyway, here are some of my doctor’s funny (and somehow sarcastic) comments to his patients. The original conversations were in Filipino but since I wanted to share this to a wider audience, I would have to translate it to English (but I would admit, there’s a different impact if I narrate this in Filipino… oh well…)

Scenario 1: A young lady came and was crying so hard because she’s having a hard time getting pregnant and she’s so afraid that her husband would leave her because of this.

Doctor: Okay Mrs., please calm down. Let me try to discover the problem so that I can help you.

Mrs: *sob* Okay.

Doctor: How long have you been trying to have a baby?

Mrs: *sob* 6 months.

Doctor: And how long have you been married?

Mrs: 6 months.

(Here’s my doctor’s comment)

Doctor: This is your situation. Imagine a basketball game. For you to be able to score, you need to shoot the ball in the ring. During that game period, you always attempt to shoot that ball but sometimes it doesn’t go through. This is the same with your problem. You and your husband are always trying to make a baby but sometimes, nothing happens. You just have to continue trying. And since you have been husband and wife for 6 months only, there’s still a long way to go. It’s just like you’re in the 1st Quarter of that basketball game. There are some couples who only had children after a good number of years in marriage. So don’t lose hope. Your husband will not leave you (yet).

Scenario 2: A lady came to the clinic wearing a long maternity dress. When the doctor reviewed the results of her tests, she IS NOT PREGNANT.

(My doctor’s sarcastic comment)

Doctor: Ma’am, according to your test results you are not pregnant. So I think you shouldn’t be wearing maternity dress at this point. Those bulges are only FATS!!!

Scenario 3: An elderly couple (probably around 40-45 years of age) came to Dr. Delfin Tan and wanted to seek advise on having children.

Doctor: Mrs., don’t you think it’s too late for you to think about having children? Why did you only decide to have children at this time?

Mrs.: Well, as you can see, my husband and I were quite busy and it is only now that it dawned to us that we wanted children.

Doctor: So, have you been drinking some vitamins?

Mrs.: I don’t but my husband does.

Doctor: Have you tried to exercise to make your body fit?

Mrs.: I don’t but my husband does.

Doctor: (remarks) Mrs., who is trying to get pregnant, you or your husband?

(Dr. Tan’s Words of Wisdom)

Doctor: Okay, think of your situation like money. Let’s say you got newly printed money – it’s still crisp and it smells good. You try to deposit the money in the bank. During the 1st few years, the untouched money will still be good but after a long period of time, if you try to withdraw it, it already lost its initial crispiness and pleasant odor. Same goes with your egg cells. When you were younger, you produce good, healthy eggs. But as you age, the egg cells are not as strong or healthy as the eggs you released 5 or 10 years ago. So please think carefully if you really wanted to push through with this pregnancy. There are certain risks that you need to consider.

So, do you think you will remember my Ob-Gyne? I definitely will!

Having P.C.O.D.

I will be turning 30 this month. Gee... how fast time flies! But you know, I try to be young at heart and feed my thoughts and my soul with that child-like spirit... Okay... sometimes childish!

Biologically, I know that there's a certain point that our body would start to degenerate. Ouch! Maybe a subtle way to say this is that our system would stop to regenerate... (Hmm... how come that too didn't make me feel better?) Well, still having that big SINGLE status, as much as I enjoy my freedom, I have to be concern about my reproductive capabilities.

Eversince I reached puberty stage, I had this hormonal imbalance. My menstrual period is very irregular - sometimes I will have it this month and the next would be after 7 months! (Wow! Talk about savings on sanitary pads!) When I was in college, my friends told me that I should consult a doctor about my condition. I'm not fond of doctors so it took a lot of convincing for me to actually go to one.

My uncle is a doctor and he referred me to his professor who is currently a resident doctor of UDMC (United Doctors Medical Center). I was quite concern that this would be a Male doctor. As you can see, being an NBSB (No Boyfriend Since Birth), this is kinda awkward for me but I trust my uncle. So if he said Dr. Delfin Tan is one of the best Ob-gyne, then I believe him.

True enough, when I went to see him, after a few probing questions and some physical inspection, he knew right away what my problem is even without ultrasound. He told me I have P.C.O.D. – Poly-Cystic Ovarian Disease. And when I had the ultrasound, his diagnosis was confirmed.

When I first heard about P.C.O.D., I was terrified! I thought it was something rare and painful. But he educated me about the nature of this condition. Dr. Tan told me that this is a common problem of women, especially single people like me. He told me that I’m actually releasing egg cells (Phew! That’s good news!) but the problem is that I don’t ovulate, hence, no conception can take place and so I will also not shed blood – explaining the long await for the next period to come. When I tried to discuss this to some of my friends, can you believe that they actually envy me because I'm always "safe"? (Hah! Talk about promoting immorality! Awww... is that too harsh? Okay, talk about family planning? --- Hey, is that better?)

I was worried about this condition because I wanted to have children in the future. I love kids and wanted to have my own. Well, the good doctor told me that we now have medicines that could assist me. He just thinks that at that time, I don’t need it since I’m not married.

I’m just looking forward to that day that I will have my own kids so that I can be a living testimony to those people who have P.C.O.D. Let’s put our faith in God who can do great miracles in our lives!