First Consultation with Dr Roland Chieng

After KKIVF called to inform me of the negative beta-HCG result, I called Dr Roland Chieng's clinic at Mount Elizabeth Novena. I could have gotten an earlier appointment last week if not due to my work schedule. In other words, the wait between the call to book an appointment and the actual appointment could have been only one week. There has been many good reviews of Dr Roland mentioning that he is patience and has good success rate. Anyway, I've already used up all the government grants for frozen cycles, hence cost wise, there's not going to be any difference between continuing at KKIVF and going to a private practice.

My original appointment slot was at 2.45 pm yesterday but a staff called a day before to change it to 3.30 pm because doctor need to perform a surgery. The traffic along the 2-lane roads leading to Mt E Novena was terrible (as usual) and we arrived 10 minutes late because we made a wrong turn. There wasn't anyone else in the waiting area and I jokingly told my friends that the clinic staff outnumbered the patients. We waited about 15 minutes before we were called into his room (after he's done with another patient).

Doctor took down our IVF history and did an ultrasound scan. His first comment was why not just continue with KKIVF with the remaining 4 blastocysts? But of course, he understood our frustration of repeated failures. His conclusion: (1) check for sperm DNA damage and (2) check my abdominal for abnormality. When we were in his room, I didn't hear him use the word laparoscopy, but his staff told us to check if my insurance covers laparoscopy procedure. At this point, I was confused because I thought he was referring to hysteroscopy! (Read about laparoscopy and hysteroscopy in this NUH article.) Today's consultation took less than half an hour and it cost us $150 (1st consultation) + $100 (scan) + GST = $267.50.

DH has been scheduled for the sperm analysis on Saturday and it's going to cost $320+GST. As for me, I guess I can still ask him about the laparoscopy procedure in the next consultation after the sperm analysis result is out. I didn't expect myself to be so disturb by the idea of having to go for laparoscopy, so much so that I couldn't sleep well last night. The procedure seems very scary because it is done under general anesthesia and the camera will be inserted through the belly button!