Seeking Information

[shyna]

Hi,

This is my first posting and I am so sorry to post something which is quite sad. But I am frankly lost for words in describing what my husband and I had to go through in the last 2 years.

My purpose of this new discussion is :

I am seeking information for a good and recommended gynaecologist in Yokohama.

I am in my early 40's and have had 2 miscarriages so far. The last one was this early this month.

After discovering the baby was no longer breathing , I was simply told by my doctor that my baby was dead.

He , then sent me to look for a another room on my own where I had to go through an hour and half of filling in forms to prepare my D&C. I was numb.

No one even considered how I felt or if I cried. I still remember the nurse asking me if I wanted TV in my room or if I wanted a shared room or a private room. At that point , I thought ' Who cares??'

My husband got to me soon enough but I was left in shock as they told me that I had to go home and wait for the D&C in a couple of days.
That was all done and I went back to work trying to understand what really happened at the hospital.

We got through this and tried again this year.

My second one - was a miscarriage. A week after my bleeding stopped, I had to wait at the hospital again to see my doctor. I was kept waiting for more than two hours even though my appointment was at 9-9.30. He finally saw me for ten minutes.

The same happened with my last appointment scheduled at 12 noon. I finally saw the doctor at 2pm. I was the last person in the room waiting. Every time I asked the nurse , I was told that I had to wait for my turn. ( Which was at 2pm and there was no one else in the waiting room left ! )

Then why give me an appointment time in the first place??

At some point - I felt that I was not important enough for this doctor or any one because I was not Japanese. Every Japanese person who came in after I had and had ticket numbers with time stated later than I did - were allowed in before me.

Maybe I am angry but at some point I actually begin to believe that I was being discriminated because I was not Japanese.

And I was in pain!! Everyone in the waiting room could see me in pain!!

The only consolation I had was a night shift nurse who held me when I was rushed into the emergency ward when I had my second miscarriage. I wish there were more like her.

I just wanted to find out if you know of any gynaecologist who have been great during your pregnancy.

If you of know any such doctor in Yokohama , please let me know. My husband and I are going to try again.

Thank you.
-shyna-

[synthia]

Welcome to the forum. I wish I could help you.

I only visited a doctor once while I was in Japan, for an eye infection, but I heard absolutely awful storied about the way gynecologists treated women, the lack of respect and privacy consideration offered. The stories I heard had nothing to do with not being Japanese, as the lack of privacy assured her that everyone was being treated badly.

However, I do think that racism is likely to be playing a part here. Where are you from?

I knew a Japanese woman who quit nursing training because she got tired of hearing doctors talk about how much money they planned to milk from a patient.

[oddball]

All i can say is DISGRACEFULL !!!!! Any woman of any back-ground should be treated respectfully by people in the health field , too many religions/countries treat females like possessions or mere neccessities . It would appear that if you are intent on having a child you will need to move to a country that will respect your desire considering your personal difficulties . Yeah , yeah , the money , do you want to be rich or become a mother ?

[synthia]

Well, there are other things involved. To settle in another country, you have to qualify for a visa that will allow you to work and support yourself. That isn't very easy.

[oddball]

Originally Posted by synthia

Well, there are other things involved. To settle in another country, you have to qualify for a visa that will allow you to work and support yourself. That isn't very easy.

Mmmmmmmm ? I did not know that ! Mmmmmmmmm ? Learn something every day ! Colin .

[synthia]

It seemed to be an issue you were ignoring.

[watamari]

Dear Shyna,
I'm sorry about your miscarriages. I've had plenty of my own and know the depth of the heartaches that go with them. I recommend that you find a miscarriage specialist so you can get medications that could prevent miscarriages and make sure they get caught early. Don't go to just any gynecologist. A miscarriage specialist would also probably have more interest and empathy for you.
As for the emotional support, physicians and medical staff worldwide are not trained to give emotional support. Things are getting better, for example, when I had a miscarriage in Boston, they asked me if I wanted to speak to a counselor, but Japan would lag the West anyway.
As for appointment times, appointment times are a joke in Japan. It's better than it used to be, but they don't count for much. Even in the US where I live now, depending on who I'm seeing for what, I can wait over an hour, or the nurse sees you quickly and takes your blood pressure, but the actual time you see the doctor is an hour after the stated appointment. Were you being discriminated against? Possibly. I think we all put off things we feel uncomfortable doing until the last. Most Japanese doctors have atrocious English skills, and I bet they don't care to display their lack of English in front of the other patients or nurses. Hence your doctor saw the other patients first, a willful procrastination, rather than malice or prejudice. One way to alleviate this might be to find a Japanese friend to go along with you who could translate and to diminish the discomfort of the doctor. I'm not saying that what he did was right, but it would alleviate your suffering, too, to be seen early, rather than late.
A miscarriage specialist might also have better English skills, and will make sure you get monitored frequently. I had to adopt in the end, but at least I feel confident that the doctors did all they could for me, and I have no regrets. You need to get the best care possible, too. Good luck!
Mari

[watamari]

Hi Shyna,
I found two clinics dealing with miscarriages on a cursory search of the internet using ryuuzan, senmon i, and yokohama as my search terms on Google (using Japanese characters). They are Yokohama Shidai (City University) and Amor Clinic. For the former, you should see Dr. Mika Okuda (probably a woman) on Thursday or the Friday doctor (Haruki), as they both seem to be miscarriage specialists. Those are the appointment dates if you are seeing them for the first time. The miscarriage specialty clinics are on Monday PM or Wednesday AM. The Amor clinic posts their success rates at treating miscarriages and their treatment protocol. To see if the doctors are any good at English, you can call and ask. You might also check out ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez and put in the doctor's last name and initial of first name followed by [au] in the search window to see if they have published any scientific papers in English.
The two clinic websites are:
urahp.yokohama-cu.ac.jp/p1030.html and
amor-clinic.jp/cure01.html
They are in Japanese.
Of course there are hundreds more, but these are the two that seemed like good places to start and were within the first two pages of the Google search.
The technical term for miscarriage seems to be 'fuikushou'.
Hope this is of some help.
Mari

[synthia]

watamari - Welcome to the forum and thank you so much for being so supportive and informative. The OP really has had a miserable experience, something that is difficult even when one is getting adequate consideration and support.

The waiting thing happens everywhere. After all, if you show up with an urgent problem, or are in pain, should others who aren't suffering or in danger be treated first? No.

Today I went to a clinic as a walk-in, and while I was seen fairly quickly by the nurse, and then by the doctor, things got slower after that. Once they had performed a procedure, they took care of new patients, and fit other things, like the dressing, organizing a bunch of prescritpion refills, instructions, and payment all kind of went to the back burner. I suppose they were seeing someone else in pain while I was waiting, and just as they might have kept someone else waiting while they were relieving my pain. At least at this place they offered a couple of explanations, and seemed to appreciate that I had been patiently waiting.

[synthia]

One point about trying again. Be sure to give your body adequate time to rest. I've known several people who ignored their doctor's advice to wait at least a year, and it did not go well for any of them.