Not least at the end, when she attends a doctor's waiting room only to watch each of the other expectant patients called before her, leaving with soft glances backwards: it turns out she had no appointment anyway, but was there simply for some company.
Dr. Jeffrey L. Ecker, the chairman of the committee on obstetrics practice for A.C.O.G., acknowledged that doctors used to take a "directive approach of 'Do this, don't do that, end of story.'" But now, he said, relationships with expectant patients have evolved into more of a "shared decision-making model".
It is very time-consuming to have a good discussion with an expectant patient about utilitarianism in healthcare versus the rights of the individual.
And so, in the end, there may be no one answer for my expectant patient, for not surprisingly, our diagnostic system can not accommodate such complexity.
The treatment was successfully completed in all expectant management patients.
In the expectant group, patients will be monitored until the onset of spontaneous delivery.
A widely used US protocol recommends that if hCG levels increase or plateau over three consecutive weeks, immediate assessment and treatment for post molar disease are indicated (Berkowitz and Goldstein, 1996. In the UK, treatment is expectant and patients may be followed with serial hCG levels for up to 6 months (Gillespie et al, 2000).
Behind these square mirrored windows, human beings were writing and discussing and preparing cases; and on other floors were performing biopsies, CAT scans, drilling out cavities, delivering news both welcome and unwelcome to all sorts of other expectants — clients, patients, partners, spouses, children.
Her queries mirror millions of those captured in AOL's database, which reveal the concerns of expectant mothers, cancer patients, college students and music lovers.
Markets became ghost towns, children could not enter their schools, and expectant mothers and patients were told to stay at home.
Expectant management of patients with preterm rupture of the amniotic membranes during this gestational age interval was associated with improved perinatal survival, even though it may increase the risk of pulmonary hypoplasia.
