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February 12, 2001
Well a lot has happened since my last entry. I am not sure where to begin so I will just begin where I left off last with my last entry.
I woke up on Wednesday morning 2/7/01 with a terrible pain in my uterus. It was like a sharp stabbing pain that I initially figured was ligament pain. Once I talked to several of my friends on the Internet I was reminded that ligament pain usually just lasts a few minutes. I knew this was a new pain I was feeling so I started to get a little concerned. With my past experiences I don’t like to take anything that is different to me for “normal”. I ended up calling my Dr. office to which I was told, “come in right away so we can check you out”. So off I went to the Dr. I got there and had to wait for almost an hour – I didn’t really worry about it as I was an “add on” and knew it would be a little bit to fit me in. Once I finally got in the room the nurse checked the baby’s heartbeat and that was perfect – 150 bpm. The Dr. came in a few minutes later and examined my cervix. She said that my cervix felt normal and my uterus didn’t seem to be tender. She said that she wasn’t going to put me on any monitors because at 16wks they wouldn’t be able to detect any contractions that I was reporting anyway. She proceeded to tell me that if I developed a fever that would need to be reported to them and she turned to leave. I had to stop her and ask her what she thought might be going on as she gave me no indication what so ever! She said it is most likely ligament pain or I could be developing an infection surrounding the baby and if that is the case then I would end up going into labor. She said that there was nothing that could be done to detect an infection or get rid of it at that point. Then she just left me there! I was so upset! First of all, this particular Dr. is not one that I have ever seen before, I doubt she even read my chart or knew anything about my history or me! When she came in the room I got the feeling that I was bothering her or something. Her attitude was less than professional and her bedside manner leaves something to be desired. So needless to say, I left the office feeling very upset that there was possibly something terrible going on with my pregnancy.
Later that day when I got home, I read in my “what to expect when you are expecting” book that the same pain I was having could last up to several hours and is described as round ligament stretching pain. What a relief!! I also read that the infection she was referring to is called CHORIOAMNIONITIS and that it is diagnosed in 1 in 100 pregnancies, but that the true incidence might be much higher than that. This particular infection is believed to be a major cause of premature rupture of membranes as well as premature labor. In some cases there are no symptoms but symptoms would be a fever of 100.4 or higher and uterine tenderness. Diagnosis is COMPLICATED but not impossible like this Dr. suggested to me. There could be a foul odor in vaginal secretions originating in the cervix. It goes on to say that LAB WORK would indicate an increase in white blood cells indicating that the body is fighting off an infection. It also indicates that the course of treatment would depend on the stage of pregnancy and the condition of the mother and fetus. Large doses of antibiotics could be administered if the fetus is very immature and would be monitored closely.
Having this knowledge makes me really wonder what that Dr. was doing telling me that “there is nothing that can be done.” What the hell kind of thing is that to say to a pregnant woman who has lost 2 pregnancies in the past?
After dwelling on this for the day and night I decided that I was going to switch to a new practice. This particular incident was just the icing on the cake to several other incidences I have had with this particular practice in the last 4 months. This practice has gone from GREAT (when I was PG with DD) to TERRIBLE. They use to have NP’s who would see the patient on every other visit. They also use to have 2 or 3 satellite offices. Now, they have no satellite offices and have all of a sudden gotten rid of ALL of the NP’s. The woman who works the check out desk told me that “something really bad happened and they are all gone.” Makes one wonder what’s up. Now that they have closed the other offices they have a full waiting room all the time. If you have an appointment at anytime you can expect to wait at least 45 minutes to even be called to the back because they don’t have the nurses to see patients any longer. It is just ridiculous. I have had a bad experience with 2 other Dr.’s in this practice as well. They just seem too busy for your problem or concern and give off a terrible attitude when they are seeing you. The Dr. that I had chosen to be my primary Dr. is so popular that it is almost impossible to get in to see her unless you book well in advance. So the cons outweigh the pros in a big way and I figure I have nothing lose and everything to gain by switching to a new practice.
So on the search for a new Dr. The good news is that I was able to find a new practice that is right next door to the hospital that I plan on delivering at. I talked to the receptionist on the phone and they were very helpful and answered all my questions. I found them by calling the hospital referral service. I really had no other starting point and figured that as long as they met my criteria then I would go for it. They are an almost all-female office, I think they have 3 women and 2 men, they are connected to the hospital via a bridge, great in case of emergency. I am sure that this practice will be better than the one I am leaving. I am looking forward to getting in there and starting off a new relationship and continuing on with this pregnancy feeling confident that my Dr. (s) will give me the care I deserve, or that any pg woman deserves. Hey, if they actually take my concerns as valid and at least reassure me that nothing is wrong or do a simple test to ensure nothing is wrong I will be happy! My first appointment is scheduled for 3/1/01 and it is my 20wk ultrasound! I am going to meet with a Dr. first and then go in for the ultrasound. I plan on meeting all the Dr.’s in the practice, as you never know which one will actually deliver the baby. I just hope that they will agree to let me schedule my c-section on 7/12/01 like I had already planned to do with my other Dr. I am sure that with my history of delivering DD 2wks early they won’t have any trouble with it.
Ah, what a stressful thing to go through!! I hate the thought of switching to a new Dr. in the middle of my PG but, after talking to many of my Internet friends I am convinced that it is better to go through the hassle in order to have a more relaxing experience for the remainder of my pregnancy. I know that once I meet this practice and start to meet all the providers there it will all be fine. It is the unknown that stresses me out. I just need to take it easy until then and I guess the worse case scenario would be I change again, which I think is very unlikely. I would prefer to go the route of consultation visits to find the perfect Dr. for me but our insurance company charges $100 for those types of visits and we can’t afford that. Also, being this far along in my PG doesn’t allow for much time to “interview.’ I am trying to be certain that everything will work out just fine.
I just had my last appointment with this particular practice today 2/12/01. Of course, the Dr. that I saw today was very pleasant so I started to rethink the switch. After some thought I decided to go through with it, as I can’t take one appointment as an indication that I might become happy with this practice. The baby checked out fine and I had my AFP done. Once I get those results back I will have my medical records transferred to the new practice.
Well, if you are still reading this saga I appreciate it! Please feel free to come by and “talk to me” anytime!! I would love to meet those of you who are following along with my journey, the ups and the downs.
Best Regards,
Gerri K
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