Sunday, December 26, 2010

The Second Opinion - A Short Story


"..... the diagnosis wouldn't even have enthused Calpurnia, Caesar's wife. The C-section was fixed  for the 18th December ,a week ahead of schedule, as Dr. D'Silva was leaving for her annual vacation the next day". "Dr. D'Silva's scans had revealed that the baby was not in the head-down condition even by the 33rd week...".


" I was very keen that my child be normal, beginning with a Spontaneous Vertex Delivery - but that did not seem possible". Of course, Dr. D'Silva did mention to me that a normal delivery was possible even with a Breech presentation - in my case a Frank Breech presentation - however, this was fraught with the risk of birth defects - a risk that I did not want to take."  "I had asked the doctor if there could have been an error in the diagnosis - to which she replied that this was highly unlikely". " She mentioned that in addition to the Ultrasound test, a CBC (Complete Blood Count) and Amniocentesis was done to rule out any possibility of any mis-diagnosis." " This was on the 12th December. I had to confirm my decision of going ahead with a Caesarean - a week ahead of schedule- to the doctor - so that necessary arrangement could be made at the nursing home."


" It was later, the same day, that Geeta casually mentioned about taking a second opinion from Dr. Rao". " I was not very keen about a second opinion - however, I was even less keen about a pre-mature delivery. So, I went with Geeta to see Dr. Rao - who she knew well". " What happened at Dr. Rao's is what's amazing."
 "After analyzing some reports for about 15 minutes, he asked me to cancel the Caesarean". " Not only that, he  asked me to inform Dr. D'Silva to proceed with her vacation plans - only leaving word with the other doctors to make arrangements for a normal delivery". " 


Dr. D'Silva was aghast at my decision. She did her best to persuade me to change my mind.She told me that there was only a 15% chance of spontaneous correction of Breech Presentation - a very low chance to take a risk." " She told me that Moxibustion techniques could promote greater fetal activity to correct a Breech Presentation. However, she also warned me that Moxibustion was hardly a mainline treatment which could be relied upon to give a good result with a high Confidence Interval."


" However, by then, I was very confident of Dr. Rao's prognosis". " Rohan was born on the 25th December". " It was a normal delivery - I was back home in 2 days". "Rohan is absolutely normal". 


"Dr. Rao's analysis was that my ascendant was Cancer with Jupiter posited in it. He told me that exalted Jupiter aspecting the 5th house in both the Birth Chart and the Navamsa was certain to lead to a normal delivery. What convinced me about his ability was the  fact that he was able to tell me that I was a Lawyer, have keen interest in Sports, a big ego(!) and  that success came to me after my marriage with Arjun.


" The ultrasound wasn't inaccurate - only, the analysis of my birth chart revealed what the ultrasound could not."