Meeting the Hematologist

I made an appointment to see a hematologist for this morning. My mother's second brother had hemophilia, and my mom was never tested to see if she's a carrier. I want to find out 'cause... it's always better to find out. I never thought meeting a hematologist could be this entertaining.

Dr. Chen, the hematologist, was very excited from the get-go. When he came out to greet me, he shook my hand (which doctors in Taiwan almost never do), gave me his business card (which was very unusual for doctors in Taiwan), and fixed the height of my chair for me (Nah~~ doctors in Taiwan definitely don't do this for their patients). I felt a bit overwhelmed by his hospitality and wondered if the fact that Dr. Liu told him I'd be coming had anything to do with his strange behavior (I still can't figure out if Dr. Liu is well-liked or feared by other doctors in this hospital. All I know is he seems very well-connected).

During our 90-minute meeting, I told him everything I know about the family history with hemophilia:

My oldest uncle (who died of a heart attack) and my youngest uncle (who died in a plane crash) didn't have hemophilia; however my mother's second older brother had it, and he died before he turned 20. Back then, hemophilia was viewed as a fatal illness, and families usually kept it a secret. My grandmother, who was educated during Japanese occupation, did not tell anyone in the family that my second uncle had hemophilia. Therefore, my mom didn't find out about the family history with hemophilia until she was 7 months pregnant with me. My aunt didn't find out until after the birth of my younger cousin.

My mother told me the family history with hemophilia when I started puberty. I never had myself tested to see if I'm a carrier for this genetic defect 'cause I wasn't going to have kids until very recently. I was planning to get tested before we started in-vitro, but then we were blessed with this rather unexpected natural pregnancy.

Then Dr. Chen (still in a very enthusiastic manner) started asking a bunch of questions to pre-determine the likelihood for me to be a carrier. These questions mostly involved how much I bled after "injuries to the body". He started with cuts and bruises and slowly moving to dental procedures and broken bones. I thought I'd save him some time by telling him about the two laparotomy surgeries (in detail) and that I did not need blood transfusion during either surgery.

"VERY GOOD!" the excitement in his voice made me feel like he was going to reward me with one of those Bambi stickers in the jar on his desk. I gave him a big smile in return (perhaps deep down I wouldn't have minded getting a Bambi sticker?). Dr. Chen turned slightly toward the back of the room and said, "Do you have any questions for Ms. Chang?" Then I noticed the two interns sitting in the corner; both were staring at me like I was from out of space.

Seeing that the interns were non-responsive, Dr. Chen looked at me, "Do you have any questions for me, Ms. Chang?"
"How long have they been sitting there?", I asked. The interns were still staring at me.
"Since the moment you sat down. This IS a teaching hospital, Ms. Chang." Dr. Chen answered almost too happily.

After the meeting, They took me up to the lab on the 3rd floor and took out 7 tubes of blood for DNA testing. We're going back for the results on March 12th.