My new gynae, where and who?

I have to bid farewell with Dr. Prashant after I 'graduated' from my 1st trimester.  If given a choice, I would like to continue to be under his care, but since he does not deliver baby anymore ( he has chosen to concentrate solely on treating infertility since the past few years), I have to be 'deported' to another gynae.

Where to go and who to choose? After a few round of discussion with my husband, we chose to seek a gynae in Damansara Specialist Centre (DSC) due to its proximity from where we stay. Hence, after seeking Dr. Prashant's opinion, he wrote me a referral letter so I can start to visit Dr. Gunasegaran begining from week 16.

After gathered some information from the internet, I found Dr. Guna was a highly sought after gynae, even celebrity like Erra Fazira delivered her baby under Dr. Guna. Due to this, I was a bit worried about the long queue and probably his pricey consultation fees. But, why worry? Let's find out first.

In week-16, I made an appointment with Dr. Guna's clinic. I was told by the nurse to be there by 10am, but she also reminded me that it did not mean that I can see the doctor at 10am. Waiting is a norm in Dr. Guna's clinic.

My husband and my mother accompanied me for that visit. We reached DSC at 9:30am. The clinic was very crowded, easily there were 15 patients plus their family members were waiting for their turn. The nurse told me to wait (but couldn't estimate how long) because the doctor was in the labour room.

By 10:15am, the doctor was not back yet, so we decided to go to a nearby shopping mall to kill some time. The nurse looked relieved when I told her so and informed me to come back at 12pm.

By 11:20am, I received a call from the nurse who asked me to come back immediately because according to her I would be the last patient and the doctor was waiting for me before he went up to the OT room to attend a caesarean case.

By 11:30am, my mother and I rushed back to the clinic, while my husband went round to search for a parking space at the crowded hospital. I was panting as we ran all the way from the hospital lobby to the clinic. The nurse was glad to see me and told me that it would be my turn soon after the patient in the room came out.

2 minutes later, my mum and I were ushered into the consultation room to meet Dr. Guna. He was kind and patient, that kind of doctor that can give you confidence. After a brief chat about my medical history, we proceeded to perform the ultrasound without my husband. I prayed hard, hoping that my husband would rush in in time to see the baby as I knew how much he had looked forward to each session of ultrasound.

The scan was already half way through when my husband finally joint us. Luckily, the baby welcomed the father by showing some amazing stretching of his/her legs. Both my mum and husband couldn't stop laughing when they saw the baby's naugthy gesture. I enjoyed the session too but was having some hard time turning my head 90 degree to the left at all time to look at the monitor, that was placed just next to the bed. I missed the monitor in Dr. Prashant's clinic as the monitor was placed on top of the patient, we just need to look up straight.

Dr. Guna confirmed that the baby was doing good and my pregnancy was stable. We were relieved by his comment. However, the gender of the baby still couldn't be confirmed due to his/her position. We were totally ok with either boy or girl, looking at how long we have waited for his/her arrival.
The whole consultation session took less than 10 minutes. We proceeded to the cashier counter after that. The total fees was RM335, with the breakdown as listed below.

Medical Record Service          RM     5
Consultation                                 RM 180
Ultrasound (no picture given)   RM  150

Honestly, I was a bit shocked by the charges as it was a bit at the high side to us. There was no medication prescribed nor ultrasound picture given. My husband jokingly said that I was 'spoilt' by Dr. Prashant because we were given the ultrasound pictures everytime, without us asking for it. In fact, I went back to Dr. Guna's clinic after the payment to ask for the ultrasound picture (even though both my mum and husband told me not to sweat the small stuff ). Unfortunately the nurse said they will not give the picture if the patient did not request. Thus, the picture was not even saved in the computer hard disk. She reminded me to remember to express my request to the doctor before the ultrasoud next time.

No doubt, Dr. Guna is a good doctor and his vast experience could not be measured by money. However, we reckon that we should start saving some money for the baby's future. Decision was made to look for another gynae and for this we went back to Dr. Prashant for another referral letter.

This time, we were recommended to see Dr. Paul Ng in Pantai Hospital Bangsar. According to some reviews, his queue is shorter (hence very suitable for working woman like me) and his charges is 1/3 of Dr. Guna's.

I will find out more and update my experience when I see Dr. Paul Ng for the first time in week-20. If you have any experience with him, please share it with me. Thank you!