Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Dr. Appt Update

This is gonna be a long one, so just a forewarning!!

Since the Dr's office is across town from where we live, I left with plenty of time for red lights, construction, or the occasional accident which results in backed up traffic and detours through side streets. Lucky for me, I didn't have any problems with any of those! Once I arrived at the hospital, I stopped at the registration desk because I wasn't sure what exactly I needed to do or where to go. The lady pointed me towards the elevators and gave me the office number. Boy did I get a strange look from her when I asked if there were stairs I could take! Most people probably would take the elevators going to the 4th floor, but honestly, stairs are an amazing leg workout and as odd as it sounds, I miss walking the stairs at my old job.

But anyways...I arrived at the office 20 minutes early. I got signed in, handed in all the new patient paperwork and grabbed a seat in the waiting room. Thank goodness I brought a book because it was nearly an hour and 20 minutes after my appointment time that I got called back. The receptionist didn't bother to let me know the doctor was running behind or anything (thanks lady). Needless to say, I got through about 1/4 of my book that I just started reading this morning. I mean I understand that doctors get behind and that offices can run late. But for no one to tell me anything seemed a little strange. I mean seriously...it was past lunch time and I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast at 6:30 this morning. Over 6 hours with no food is a long time for this little girl! I need my calories!!!

But I digress once again. Sharp turn back towards the real subject matter....

The nurse finally called me back and apologized a bagillion times about the long wait. Her and I got to talking about "those patients" that always seem to want to sit and talk about every little thing and how the internet is doing some horrible damage to the healthcare system. How many times do we hear people say things like "well, I was looking this up on the internet and..." or "I checked my symptoms on Web.MD and I think I could be dying." [Nothing bad about WebMD. In fact, I'm a very avid user and visitor to the website. I just don't think I'm going to die just because it says my abdominal cramping could be appendicitis.] So yeah...she got my weight (104.0!!! honestly...), height, blood pressure and all that other stuff. We sat and did a brief overview of my health history and all the usual nurse things that they have to do. A few minutes later the doctor joined me and we got to talking about everything too.

Dr. S is an older gentleman, but he definitely knows his stuff and cares about the patients he sees. I could tell that just from the first few moments with him (big difference from Dr. W). We basically went over my complete health history (my GI issues, my IF problems, etc.). He even took the time to go over the copies of my FF charts from the past 2 years and basically came to the same conclusion - we need medical intervention to help us have a baby. We discussed doing an HSG and a post-coital test and continuing on with the Clomid. He suggested doing OPKs (still not quite sure if I want to spend the money on them yet again) to help us time BDing better. He gave me a script for 3 months of Clomid and he said we'd probably evaulate things again after that time period to see what would be best for us. He did make the comment, however, that I was a perfect patient. Not only was I intelligent, prepared, and organized, but I also had a little bit of a medical background and understood and knew what my past healthcare has entailed. I think he was quite suprised at my understanding of all the medical things we discussed.

He also basically is pushing me on to another physician in the practice because she loves working with couples dealing with IF. I was a little bummed about that because he was a really great doctor and I can tell he wants to be there and help the patient as best as he possibly can. Now to basically go through things again with a new physician isn't all that great. I questioned him as far as when he wanted me to do the Post-coital test and HSG and he told me to wait until I see that other doctor and she can decide what to do next. So once again...in limbo.

So once again it's going to be another month or so before we can do anything IF treatment related. I'm hoping that I O on my own this cycle though. I know that if I do, once FF confirms my O date, I'm going to call the office and set up an appointment to see the other doctor so we can get the ball rolling as far as the PCT, HSG and anything else she wants to do. It's such a headache. And to think that IF is hard enough...now to add switching doctors (not at my request) to it all doesn't make it any easier.

Maybe I should have just taken the Clomid on my own. At least then these past few months wouldn't have been wasted...

6 comments:

Misty Dawn said...

Be careful with that clomid! I'd hate for you to keep taking it and loose your lining.

I'm glad that the DR is being helpful. Does the military not have RE's?? Geez. One thing IF does teach us is to be prepared and knowledgable when going to the DR. (((HUGS)))

congrats on the WL, man what I'd give to be 104 again. LOL

gabsy said...

Unfortunately, no. The military basically has the typical clinic type doctors but nothing as specialized as REs.

As far as the 104...that's definitely not a good thing for me. I'm 5'6"-ish, so I should have about 15 more pounds on me than I do. I've lost 1.5 pounds in the past 2 months (don't ask me how), so I'm getting a little concerned. Heck, I weigh less now than I did when I graduated high school 6 years ago, but I feel like I eat way more!!

Caitlin said...

Sounds like a good visit - besides the long wait! I'm sure if your doctor recommends this lady she must be just as good as he is. And taking a special interest in IF patients is definitely a plus!

Do you get AF regularly? I was just wondering because you mentioned your weight and I know sometimes that can play a factor in fertility. GL hun!

gabsy said...

Caitlin - my weight does play an issue in AF's visit. My cycles are so irregular I never know when she's going to visit (thank goodness for charting!) But then again, I've never been anywhere near a healthy weight for me, so it's something I've just dealt with.

And I have a call in to the GYN I saw yesterday to find out when he wants me to see the other lady.

Erin said...

Sounds like great news with the doctor. I know it's a pain to do all that waiting but it will be worth it! I just glad you got away from that other jerk!

Hopefully this new RE woman will get the ball rolling for ya ;-)

woah 104 pounds? gosh, I wish!

Anonymous said...

Thats unfortunate, we are military and we were referred to a RE. Thats hard about all the waiting. But sounds like a good visit.