A glimmer of hope

So I like my hematologist.

I know I said that the last time I saw him, and then I got pregnant again and I hated him. I hated him because he'd said we'd do the Lovenox (along with my OB). I hated him because he'd never called me himself to tell me what he was thinking. Instead, he sent his nurse along with a message that he'd see me next week.

But today, he seems to have redeemed himself.

Mr. Rhody and I went to the appointment this afternoon. I had asked Mr. Rhody to come with me because of the debacle at the midwife's office last time, which had me crying for the rest of the night--and into the morning.

So the hematolgist came in and asked how things were going. I opened things up by asking him what had changed his mind--he had jumped straight to the Lovenox last time, and now was pulling back to the aspirin. He said that he had consulted with a number of doctors, my OB included. Basically, the current suggested standard of care is only the aspirin unless you've had 3 or more losses. While the hematologist conceded that if I were a member of his family, he would recommend the Lovenox, he said the data just wasn't there for him to take the liability of prescribing it to me.

As an aside, I hate that standard. I understand where it's coming from, but I already felt like my second baby was a sacrificial baby to try to figure out what was wrong. Here I am with a third baby--should this one be sacrificed as well?

Anyway, I told the hematologist that I had an article that clearly compared the aspirin and Lovenox; luckily, I had brought the article with me. (The article states success rate is 33% with aspirin and 87% with Lovenox for those with the prothrombin mutation and one past loss past 10 weeks.) Unlike the perinatologist that we saw 4 months ago, this doctor actually seemed very interested. He conceded this was compelling research that he'd never seen before.

Unfortunately, the hematologist didn't feel he was in a position to unilaterally decide one way or the other, but he did give us a promise that he was going to contact a thrombophilia specialist at a major hospital in Boston to ask his opinion. He expected to have his opinion in the next few days, then he would email it to us.

This is pretty much the best I think we can ask for at this point. To be honest, I don't want to go on the Lovenox if I can be convinced that it's not needed. Even less though, do I want to go through another miscarriage that I believed could have been prevented. At least we have people listening to us for now, looking at the research on our behalf. That seems like the best compromise to me.