
11-18-2008, 09:38 PM
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Junior Member
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 2
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I was a patient of Dr. Brandeis back in 2004/2005. He was highly recommended by a friend who had 2 successful pregnancies with him. This is what I can say about Dr. Brandeis: he absolutely loves and is dedicated to fertility. He is gentle, calm and very knowledgeable. He is somewhat scattered and his Columbus Ave office is not definitely not modern. The wait in the office, regardless of the appointment time you make, sometimes went quickly (about an hour wait) or seemed endless (as many as 2 hours ). He keeps very odd hours but makes himself available whenever is most convenient for you. He does return phone calls... eventually and usually very late in the evenings (and sometimes past midnight!)
After my first IVF cycle and egg retrieval, I developed a severe case of OHSS. I was hospitalized in ICU and throughout my hospitalization, Dr. Brandeis was available and checked in often overseeing my care in the hospital with the resident doctors. After my discharge however, Dr. Brandeis suddenly became unavailable. I almost felt as though he was avoiding me. We finally set a date for the transfer, and at this point I was very uneasy and was not confident with Dr. Brandeis. He transferred 4 eggs (out of the 12 that were fertilized and cryo-preserved) and basically disappeared. I, in turn, ended up in having to see my regular OB/GYN because suddenly, Dr. Brandeis was on "vacation". After 6 very emotional weeks and 2 embryo sacks growing, the "heartbeat" sonogram produced no heartbeats and led to a D&C. I never heard from Dr. Brandeis again.
A year later, my husband and I decided to give IVF another try with a different doctor. Dr. Kreiner of East Coast Fertility. Friendly, knowledgeable, modern and ORGANIZED . Wait times, if I'm recalling correctly was no more than 45 min to an hour and in the morning hours there was a massage therapist on hand giving FREE massages! WOW what a difference.
He reviewed my medication journal that I kept and was amazed at the HIGH levels of medication that was administered and was not surprised that I developed a severe case of OHSS (almost 50lbs of fluid in my abdominal cavity). The medication that Dr. Kreiner prescribed was a mere fraction of what I was taking the first time.
Although I did get experience OHSS again (only 14lbs this time around), it was nothing like the first time. My husband and I are fortunate to have insurance that covers 75% of the cost of IVF but allows only 3 cycle attempts. We have not yet transferred any of the 8 very strong embryos, we feel more confident than we did with Dr. Brandeis.
Hope this helps ... if you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me: MrsMdrnSamurai@aol.com.
Best of luck to you all 
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