Dr. Tchabo

[Anonymous]

Does Dr. Tchabo send his patients out for blood work, ultrasounds, nonstress tests? If so, where? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Depending on insurance, he may send out for bloodwork. In my experience he send you out for ultrasounds and non-stress tests to Dr. McLaren's office, in the hospital. I've had bad experiences at Dr. McLaren's office. Dr. Tchabo will send you wherever you want to go, however. So if you want to go elsewhere, just tell him.

[Anonymous]

By default, he usually tries to send you out to LabCorp for blood work, etc, which I have found to be quite gross (it is in an office building near Ballston and the people are unfriendly and the place just seems dirty). However, assuming your insurance covers it, the hospital (VHC) can do most blood work and tests and it is much nicer although there is sometimes a long line. Ultrasounds and non-stress tests I had done by Dr. Maclaren and my experience was fine - also a long wait, but the tests went fine.

[Anonymous]

I was sent out for lab work to Lab Corp - but I went to one in Alexandria (closer to my work) and it was fine.

I also was sent to Dr. McLaren for ultrasounds and never had a problem with those visits.

[Anonymous]

Can I ask a follow-up (without hijacking!)? When does Dr Tchabo do the first ultrasound? I have my first appointment with him at 8 weeks and am not sure what to expect.

[Anonymous]

First ultrasound is 20 weeks with Dr. Maclaren unless there is a reason to do one beforehand. Dr. Tchabo does not have ultrasound equipment in his office.

[Anonymous]

To add to my previous post above - at 8 weeks he will probably just do an internal exam to confirm the pregnancy. He did not try to find the heartbeat with either of my pregnancies until 11-12 weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can I ask a follow-up (without hijacking!)? When does Dr Tchabo do the first ultrasound? I have my first appointment with him at 8 weeks and am not sure what to expect.

Definitely not a hijack - if I thought of it, I would have asked initially. I switched to Dr. Tchabo quite late in my pregnancy, so I was trying to understand what he normally does early on.

[Anonymous]

Hijacker here (!) How often do you see him early on? If he doesn't check the heartbeat until 11-12 weeks, do you just assume all ok in the meantime? Its my second pregnancy but for some reason, this time I am really worried even though there is no reason to be! And my last OB (different area) did a heartbeat early on & an U/S around 12 weeks.

[Anonymous]

He did an early ultrasound for me. But I requested it because I was traveling internationally and wanted to rule out an ectopic. But if you do the nuchal screen, that includes an ultrasound at around 11 weeks.

[Anonymous]

With my first pregnancy, I saw him around 9/10 weeks and did not get an ultrasound at that visit or a check for the heartbeat but did an internal exam. I miscarried about 2 weeks later and it was a bit hard having never seen or heard "proof" that the baby was actually in there.

With my second pregnancy, he had me come in at 6 weeks and did an ultrasound then. I also had some bleeding at 10 weeks and he scheduled me for another ultrasound. I also had the routine one around 18 weeks (normally 18-20).

[Anonymous]

I think it really depends on the pregnancy. I am the pp poster who did not hear the heartbeat until 11-12 weeks both times. I was lucky in that both my pregnancies were very uneventful and he didn't see the need to do anything else earlier than that except for the internal exam. I think as far as the heartbeat goes, it can sometimes backfire to try to hear the heartbeat too early, because sometimes the dr. can't get a reading even if the baby is fine and that can (obviously) be very upsetting for everyone involved.