Thursday, January 21, 2010

9 Week Update

Yesterday I had my first appointment with the OB/GYN's office. I met with a nurse who seemed more interested in filling out the form than asking how I was doing, and insisted, contrary to the RE (who I think is a BIT more knowledgeable) that my due date was over 2 weeks later. Apparently even though my cycle wasn't "normal" thanks to it being medicated, they still want to use my last period as the starting date. NO. NO. NO. (If you could see or hear how hard I'm hitting the keyboard on those no's you'd be able to understand my frustration with this thinking.)

A urine pregnancy test which (by the way, it came back positive...shocking!) seemed just slightly redundant after 3 betas and an ultrasound, and 7 vials of blood taken were the extent of the the testing done at this appointment. I didn't even get weighed, a UTI test, or a doppler check.

Maybe I'm spoiled, or at least just used to the RE routine - bottoms off, on the table, quick poke with an ultrasound wand, people who are at least semi-familiar with your chart - but frankly, I'm a little shocked that they don't do a first ultrasound until 12-13 weeks, and I have to go to their satellite office where they keep the "certified ultrasound technicians." (Actually since DH wants to be there, that location works out better as it means he doesn't have to head so far into town, but that doesn't mean I understand why they don't have the u/s techs in the main office.)

And I'm disappointed that the nurse doing the intake treated me like I'd never been to the practice before, even though my chart is at least an inch thick and many of the questions that she asked had already been answered on prior visits, completely disregarded the letter sent by the RE, and also didn't give a flip that I had brought the ultrasound printout with the dating that the nurse I had originally spoken to in making the appointment had told me to bring.

As I mentioned last week, DH has been after me to contemplate changing practices. I've been resistant, feeling despite some hiccups with the GYN in terms of how some early testing was approached, that I was comfortable with the practice. But after this visit I'm not sure that I am as comfortable as I thought I was. Unfortunately there are only two other practices in town - one seems to cater to the menopausal set and the other (recently opened) is a satellite office to a practice in a town I avoid as much as possible. The only other option is to go the other direction, towards Richmond, but that means a bunch more travel time for appointments, and I'm not sure I want to drive forty-five minutes to an hour to a hospital when I'm in labor. Feeling between a rock and a hard place I am.

For now, I've got an appointment with an actual doctor next week who I assume will do a pelvic exam, pap smear (though I don't know what would have changed since October), and go over the lab results. I'm hoping they'll throw in a doppler, but I'm not holding my breath anymore. My ultrasound isn't scheduled until Feb. 16th, so I should be (by my and the RE's calculations) at the end of week 13. They tried to schedule it for the following week and I'm afraid I threw a bit of a hissy fit regarding the difference in opinion on dating.

They also sent me home with a goodie bag with things like pre-natal vitamin samples (hello, the carbon of the RX your Dr. gave me for prenatals is sitting in my file right next to your arm!), pre-baby shopping guides from Babies-R-Us and Target, the December issue of Fit Pregnancy, a flier about Folic Acid (see prenatal RX comment above) and the office printed-and-bound guide to pregnancy. Which is only concerning because the front cover lists the nurse-practitioner I used to see at the practice. The thing is, she left the practice over 2 years ago. (Warning, Will Robinson, danger!) Now I know that forms don't always get updated quickly, but that seems a little ridiculous.

After getting home from Bunco last night, I started to flip through the magazine and other paperwork. Holy baby care Batman! Looks like I'm going to have to do some intensive cramming over the next 7 months.

Still with the morning sickness and general nausea when I haven't eaten recently enough. Still with the fruit cravings - currently satisfied by applesauce, cherries, and tangerines. I'm back on Caffeine Free Coke and enjoyed a large glass of 2% milk last night, but water is still only good for a short time after events of stomach eruptus. Not so much with the tomato products any more - but I haven't picked up any other desires though a Wendy's frosty can still rock my world.

Oh, and, surprise, I'm down a couple pounds from before I got pregnant.

8 comments:

  1. Ugh, your OB's office sounds way lame. Hopefully when you get to meet with the actual doctor he/she'll be a lot more friendly. That nurse sounds like a total jerk!

    Anyone who deprives a pregnant woman of the opportunity to listen to her baby's heartbeat at a prenatal check-up is evil and malicious and bad at her job.

    We got the baby swag bag too. Kind of fun, I guess, but ironically it was the pamphlets in there on newborn vaccinations that turned me off from having my baby in a hospital.

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  2. First of all, congrats. And I am pleased to meet a living urban legend. ;-) See, you just needed 'to relax'. ;-)

    And wow, the OB office is, erm, unbelievable (I had to wait for a couple of minutes to get to the bottom of strong words list and find a rather neutral one).

    There are many differences between the US and European health system, but really, this is ridiculous! Why is it that US REs are so cool generally, and OBs are so pathetic? I am very blessed to have such a dear doctor to take care of me and, of course, such a stellar insurance. But even without the stellar insurance, I know that the regular, public insurance grants women u/s at least every 4 weeks. Ok, they don't tell you here betas or HB/min, the level of progesterone and so on. But I think this is due to the mentality, because in Germany you expect a doctor to be competent and tell you what to do or don't, not to explain with numbers and charts what is wrong with you. But anyway...

    Perhaps you could shop for another office, even if it's a bit further away, just to find someone who actually listens to you and reads your chart instead of telling you they know better than your RE.

    Looking forward to hearing how it goes.

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  3. Ugh, don't you hate when they treat you like every.other.pregnant.lady.... when you are not, you are an infertile, an infertile that knows more about her body and her cycle then I would bet most any other woman out there.... don't they get that!

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  4. @kmina - I don't know that I relaxed so much as figured our chances were nil based on prior experience and said "fuck it, I'm doing what I want."

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  5. congratulations on your pregnancy!! this is the first time i have commented on your blog, I know you had commented on mine, but for some reason I could never find yours. Well, I am so glad I found it because there was good news on this end. I think its quite funny that even though you KNOW exactly when you conceived, Dr's still want to go by the date of your last period. You go with what you believe, baby will come when its ready anyway, they don't understand due dates :)

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  6. Sorry your first visit was anti-climactic. Another blogger you may or may not know -IF Crossroads (http://ifcrossroads.wordpress.com/)-
    just had almost the exact same experience and is considering changing practices. Hmm. Maybe we are just spoiled by our R.E.'s who are up our asses every other day (no pun intended)

    Hope your tummy feels better soon.

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  7. Hi there - I got your comment and I wanted to pop over here. Believe it or not, I think we might live in the same area too! So not only do we have similar crappy OB experiences in common! I live in Fredericksburg :)
    But yes, your experience was almost identical to mine. At my first OB visit I had to painstakenly make my point that I did IVF and I didn't have a LMP. I didn't get the dopplar or get weighed! It was such a non-event. Anyway, I've decided to go to Northern VA instead of Richmond and deliver at Inova Fairfax. I think it will save my sanity but I had the same fears as you!
    I'll definitely be following your story! Feel free to email me at ifcrossroads@gmail.com if you want to chat further!

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  8. My doctor was wonderful, but he only gives care up to 20 weeks where he then shipped me off to the OB. She was also wonderful, but so busy I was little more than a number. She delivered 200 babies in May 2009 (there were over 400 born in total) so I guess it would be a little hard to keep track of everyone.

    A lot of the time here, you only get one ultrasound - at around 20 weeks. If everything looks good, you don't get another one. Sometimes there's a question of dating your pregnancy and they send you for an early ultrasound. I got to have an early one at 7 weeks and what a sight it was to see that little heart beating! It was a long 10 weeks to wait for the second ultrasound.

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