Erica Hoke shares three tips for your first fertility appointment: bring a partner to listen, review your lab results beforehand, and write down questions so you don't forget them when you're nervous. She describes how persistent questioning led to discovering her uterine fibroids.
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Hello, hello! I wanted to hop on here earlier and talk to you guys, but this is what you get. You get this, uh, later in the evening edition of me. But I wanted to come on here and talk to you guys about 3 ways to make the most of your medical consultation. So whether it's a reproductive endocrinologist or a fertility specialist Um, whatever your consult is, um, you want to make the most of it so that you can keep progressing, that you can keep moving that needle, and so that you can also, um, just shorten the amount of time that all of this takes, right? And some of these tips are going to help you shorten the amount of time that it takes because if you're prepared for your meeting, just like if you were going into a business meeting— and let's be honest, that at some level this is a business transaction, right, between you and your doctor— if you're prepared up front, everything is going to go smoother. So the first thing that I want you to do, and this is not one of the top 3, but I want you to really identify in your body, like, how you respond to doctors and how you respond to meetings like this. First of all, too, if you're able to take your significant other or your spouse with you, I would highly recommend that because I don't care who you are or how old you are, when a doctor starts talking to you and you start processing things, some of your brain cells just go in this direction and that direction and all sorts of directions. So have somebody there as a second set of ears to help you process the information. That's not one of the top 3 tips. Though. And just think about how you're going to feel. Does it make you nervous? What kind of coping strategies? So do some visualization and walk through that so that you can have some confidence. And then these tips are also going to help you have confidence. So my number 1 tip is, is if you have already had your blood work drawn, and if you've already had your blood work done, make sure prior to your appointment that you check with the office and that they have your lab results ready. Nothing is more disappointing than going to see a physician and expecting lab results and they didn't pull them or they, they don't have them. If they are supposed to be getting them from another doctor and you have your own copy of them, I want you to go ahead and sit down and review those yourself prior to going to the doctor. Now, none of us are doctors, right? I'm not a doctor, but most of the time the lab results are written within a range and your number is going to fall within that range. If normal is between 40 and 200 and you're at 60, then, you know, you have a pretty, pretty good idea that that is going to be a problem for you, whatever that reading is. So be familiar, educate yourself on yourself. Make sure that you have some kind of an understanding of where your own levels are at, and take a look at that copy and kind of process that. Um, sometimes doctors don't get the opportunity to spend a lot of time digesting that, and they might not even pick up on some of your numbers being a little bit out of range or borderline. Or, and this is my point number 2, so today we're talking about the 3 ways to make the most of your medical consult. So this goes back to, um, the first one. So the second point is how are you feeling? So if you know you have a doctor's appointment coming up, um, I want you to start taking an inventory and even write down some notes about how you're feeling. Um, case in point, many, many people, um, after an extended period of time their thyroid function is in range, which is enormous, like football field size, right? It's in range, meaning it's in the realm of normal, but they're really symptomatic for a thyroid disorder. They're constantly tired, they have dry skin, their hair is falling out. Like, Google it. There's lots of different symptoms for thyroid disorder. Um, and so if you notice, you know, you have an appointment coming up and you're taking an inventory, you're taking a mental inventory, and you're like, hey, I don't really, I haven't been sleeping that good, or I feel really, you know, bloated. You know, talk to your doctors about those symptoms and ask then the question, and this is getting into number 3, so we're just flowing along beautifully tonight. Ask the question then. So, you know, take an inventory of your symptoms, and then point number 3 is write down your questions. Ahead of time. It's really, really hard when you get into a conversation and maybe the doctor is directing it to a different direction and you don't get a chance to ask those questions. They go out the window because you don't have them written down. So please, please write your questions down ahead of time. Write your notes down about how you're feeling and the questions that you might have about your lab results. Write those things down and make sure that when you are sitting with your doctor, that you don't allow them to rush you. I know that sometimes that's a thing, but especially when we're paying out of pocket for these services, we really should be able to get our, our questions answered and the attention that we, we need and deserve, right? So other questions that you want to ask as you're talking through what's going to happen, um, what your prognosis looks like, what your outcome looks like. Um, questions like, is there another procedure that would be less invasive? Um, is this the only approach to addressing this issue? Um, could it be something else, right? So I know, uh, for example, in my case, and, uh, I'm going to use this as an example because I'm really hoping that this will help somebody also. I had a lot of uterine fibroids. Now the thing about that is they could only see a few of them on the normal ultrasound, so they, they thought they had a hand of a few, just a few small fibroids. Well, I ended up having a surgery done, a conventional surgery. Okay, here's surgery A over here, conventional surgery where they would just go in, um, and, uh, trying to remove the fibroids without doing anything else. The second surgery, the more complicated or the more, um, the, the better approach for this is that they fill your uterus with saline, and then that allows the fibroids not to pull back into the uterus. So when they did that surgery for me— now this was the second surgery I had had the one conventional surgery. They weren't really able to see much or address much, and I still continued to have the heavy, heavy cycles, the uncontrolled bleeding, clotting, and things like that. So when they did the second surgery and they did the, um, the saline infusion with the surgery, they literally took out a handful of fibroids out of my uterus. It looked like aquarium gravel. There was so many fibroids in there. And so had I not pressed on and said, hey, I understand, but I'm still, I'm still symptomatic, I'm still having a lot of this pain and a lot of this bleeding and things like that, is there another procedure? Is there another way that we could do this? If we didn't persist, then I wouldn't have had those fibroids removed And, you know, thank, thank God for the skill of my surgeon, who is very skilled. So anyway, that's a really good example of the kinds of things that I'm talking about. So ask your questions. And if you happen to be watching this on YouTube, go ahead and hit the like and hit the subscribe button so that when I go live next time, that you will get notified. And if you're watching on Facebook, go ahead and drop your questions, or YouTube, go ahead and drop your questions below. Health and blessings to you guys. I will catch you next time. Bye-bye.
