Asking for references on Dr. Jean C. Bolan / High risk pregnancy

[cgarza]

We recently moved to DC and I am 10 weeks pregnant. This is my 3rd pregnancy, had health complications in my other 2, preclamsia and gestational diabetes (both cases were succesfully conducted and I gave birth to 2 beautiful daughters). I am really desperate trying to find a good high risk pregnancy doctor in DC that could understand my worries and concerns and help me accomplish a healty pregnancy and a happy healty delivery. Sice I am new in DC, I feel lost in the doctors field. I don´t know how to find the right practice. Went to Reiter Hill but was not lucky, some of my lab results got lost. I was very upset. Tried to make an appointment with Dr. Landy in Georgetown but she is no longer taking new patients. I have an appointment with Dr. Jean C. Bolan, can anyone share with me any references/experiences regarding Dr. Bolan? Any advice? Any recommendations? Thanks for taking the time, I would really appreciate some help here

[Anonymous]

I have seen Dr. Bolan a few times while in the hospital on bedrest and after delivery. She is not the warmest person but is a great clinician. I think you would be in great hands with her- she just is not very warm.

Dr. Collea is great. Still not very warm but I liked him a lot.

I wonder if you started as a patient of Dr. Bolan, you may be able to switch over to Dr. Landy mid pregnancy. Also, if you are a patient you may end up with Landy/ Collea when it comes to delivery and any other hospital time.

[Anonymous]

I saw Bolan and Landy for my high pregnancy and liked them. For us, the most important thing is having someone who knows the research and can answer questions accurately in scientific terms. We could not deal with generalists who tried to gloss over details or misstated things. For Dr Bolan, she is very quiet and reserved and someone who will answer in yes or no terms. You have to be prepared with follow up questions to draw her out. She is very fact oriented and not opionated or ego centric at all nor does she in any way get offended by questions which was great for us. Landy has more communication skills but she is busy and can be blunt which again we are fine with but some people may be taken abake by it. What I like most about Landy is that she does not push c-sections unless they truly are necessary and doesn't see high risk as an automatic there can be no natural birth elements. She recommends and supports you having a doula, doesn't get ticked off if you have a birth plan, and is pretty balanced.

Collea is strange and IMO patronizing if you do not stand up about it. He actually started walking out the room once while I was on the examing table asking questions. Rather than just sitting there being humiliated and angry, I sat up and said stop I am not not finished. He turned with surprised look and I told him I expected him to listen to my question and answer it. He had no problem answering my question then.

[Anonymous]

Dr. Bolan's competence more than makes up for her lack of charisma. She's profoundly decent, thorough, and knowledgable. Look elsewhere, however, for the soft touch. I found her very reassuring because of her focus on solid research and her lack of emotionality.

[Anonymous]

I like Collea more than Bolan. They are both a touch odd but very smart people. Collea is fine if you aren't shy.

[Anonymous]

I agree completely. You really should not go to the high risk doctors at Gtown if you are looking for hand holding, etc. You should go there to get extremely competent care and an amazing NICU in case that need arises.

My trust in Collea and Landy made up for all of the negatives associated with them.

[Anonymous]

I think a good question to ask is based on your review of my history what is you game plan for monitoring?

You may want to ask about doing the nuchual (NT comes up around 9-11 weeks) as the blood test for one of the proteins came sometimes indicate a correlation (though not enough to be a screening test) for PE. I would also ask about baby aspirin which was recommended to me with my second pregnancy after severe PE. You could ask if she wants to do a baseline 24 hour urine to ensure you are not someone who normally spills some protein (this can be helpful down the road). If you had IUGR with previous pregnancies you may want to ask about frequency of scans after 20-24 weeks.

I know the risk profiles for PE but not GD. You may want to ask about risk against each condition and your other factors. GD increases the risk of PE but not the other way around. If you have had PE twice you could also ask about other testing for pre-existing conditions (MTHR etc) though the outcome may not affect your care if they are already monitoring you closely.

I heard that GU high risk doctors have stopped seeing patients as the primary doctors and are seeing patients as consults with a generalist. If this is the case, as much as I like Bolan and Landy I would find a practice where you can see an MFM as your primary doctor. For my first I had the generalist/MFM combo and hated it. The generalist was not as informed and gave wrong answers. She was always being overridden by what the MFM recommended which is how it is supposed to work but really nerve wracking to the patient.

[Anonymous]

Consider Dr. Tchabo, head of OB/GYN at VA Hospital Center in Arlington

[Anonymous]

Thanks to all of you for your responses. I went to see Dr. Bolan, and I liked her. She is a bit quiet, but still, she spent a lot of time with me, allowed me space to ask my questions, and kept me very calm all the time. I go for an ultrasound next monday, will see her again. I think I found peace here. Thanks again for your messages and taking the time to share.