Dr. Office Rant

I'll start with a nice picture of some beautiful flowers, before I vent.

On 3-18 I sent my Dr. office a fax requesting a refill of my progesterone. They called me back on 3-25 saying they got my fax yesterday. My reasoning for sending a fax, was I didn't have to leave it on a voicemail, and rely on some old nurse to write all the specifics down. 

The supposed refill did not make it to my prescription provider until 3/28. It just shipped today ( 4/2 )

I realize having to use an online prescription company is my issue, but their SLOW, reaction time is killing me, so on the 3-28 when I realized I was not going to have my progesterone in time to take it for that cycle, I called the nurses to request the refill on my Femara, cuz now, I'm going to have to use another cycle & will need that now too.  she called me back after hours & told me that she couldn't refill my prescription until I had an HCG test. I said why do I need that? she said, because!  if not no prescription.  & since it was after hours she wouldn't fax a lab slip to my lab & wanted me to call back, another day to request it, since she was going on vacation, but she would leave my chart out for when i called back? Hmmm paperless system is really working for them.

So I call back & they are closed ? I seriously need their work hours. So the weekend goes by & I call Monday morning & ask the new nurse why I need an HCG test, she said, so we can make sure you aren't pregnant, I told her I chart, I know I'm not pregnant. She said, that's only a piece of paper. So knowing I won't ovulate w/out the Femara, I reluctantly go to the lab to have my blood drawn. It's killing me to pay $95 to prove to some dumb nurse that I'm not pregnant.

So  I wait 2 days, because they don't do anything quick, still no call today, so I called there. Of course no one answered. The nurse called & the phone was in my purse, while our contractor was measuring. So of course in true fashion, she says, call back, no other info, just call back,  ( no extension, no nothing ) and oh, we're only open today til 4:30 & it's 4:25 now. So I call back immediately & her extension is busy, so I dial the receptionist, who says, well  I can put you thru to her line. I said I'll wait, til she's off the phone. she said well I..... I said firmly I'll wait.

So the nurse gets on & congratulates me that I'm not pregnant & I can get the Femara refilled. ( WTH ) are you serious you crazy!!.  I tell her, really, that surprised me, cuz I told you the other day I wasn't. & that I chart I know for a certainty that I wasn't pregnant. She states, well we have to be sure. I said. I chart, I know for sure that I wasn't so you made me waste $95 for nothing. I said can you just get the prescription going. ( Mind you I initiated the whole phone call - so who knows how long they would have waited to call me back ) She's like where do you want it to go? Really I gave you all this already. She's like well I didn't know if you want to send to a local pharmacy, I said I can't! So can you please move this along, so then she starts questioning, etc, etc. 

Without reaching thru the phone & strangling her. I said, can you please do what I asked you to do a week, ago, the longer you wait, another cycle I am going to have to wait, because of your slow work. she's like we did everything as soon as we got it. I told her, please don't get me started. Then she tries to say, well this is the doctors orders, I say, well this is not what he & I discussed when I was in there last. I said again, can you just make sure the prescription is faxed in, today. She's like well I don't think you are going to get it on time. I said really, so what day of my cycle am I on? how do you know when I need it. She proceeds to tell me she doesn't know how to chart & doesn't understand it( well maybe you shouldn't be working for a doctor who doesn't prescibe BC & solely relies on NFP  )

Some ladies in the FB group have ranted about the mismanagement of na.pro offices. I don't think it's limited to those practices alone. I think it is a bigger problem in a lot of offices, that don't rely on BCP to fund their office. Last year, I wrote a letter to the practice manager, who never replied to me, not that I excpected her to. Every time I see my doc, I tell him ( beg) him to go off on his own. he would do much better on his own. If it weren't a big thing to me to have a doctor who is pro-life I would look elsewhere & closer to home.

Okey dokey, enough for tonight.. thanks for reading my rant tonight.

Glimmer of hope

My eyes started to sparkle, when I saw the name on the caller ID.

Dr. G at 8:09PM

Only to be greeted by a new nurse, who was working late, because she has tomorrow off. Dang it !

Majorly disappointed!

Is it bad that I saved my Dr.'s cell phone # in my phone, because he called me that one time after a surgery & didn't block his phone #. Just once I wish I would get enough gut to just call him.

This playing cat & mouse with nurses is driving me batty !!

The best part, is she really couldn't do anything for me, because the entire off is shut down, but she was making her last few phone calls so she could go.

This all started 11 days ago, when I sent a fax requesting a refill on my progesterone. Let's step back to, after my last visit with him, I said he had to be ALL or nothing for me, I was sick of calling the NaPro doctor for prescriptions & blood draws & going to him for all the local stuff. I told him he had to be on his "A" game, told him point blank your office people drop the ball A LOT..

When I needed the refill on the progesterone, my mind wandered A) Should I just e-mail my NaPro doctor & have him do it B) make an appointment w/ the New NaPro doctor C) stick it out with Dr. G .  Soo I opted for C.  I wrote everything out on the fax, because he's never prescribed these to me, Dr. P had done it before. 

So a couple days go by & I check my online pharmacy portal, no prescription yet, weekend comes & goes and I get busy. 8 Days after my fax I get a call from the office.. Famouse for calling outside of hours, she called me during their lunch hour, so, I couldn't call back & talk to them.  Her message stated, they got my fax from the day before ( hhmm  well it was a week ago ), and that the Dr. had approved my refill & they would send it to my mail order pharmacy.  So my refill just reached the pharmacy today. I get an e-mail stating that it's not going to ship for another week ! What!  Why I don't know. So needless to say, I don't have my progesterone for when I need it. So who knows what kinda crazy cycle things my body will do without it. So heading into TTC part of the cycle, I figure probably not wise to TTC without progesterone support for it.

So then comes my dilemna that I need to contact the doctor to get my Femara refilled. So I call  the sweet receptionist in the far away office, to ask her if she knows if the doctor has been ill/out/sick/what the heck took so long to get my refill? She says sorry !! She doesn't know, but they have some new nurses. She must have mentioned something to the doc, cuz here I have a call back in a day. 

So the Dr. Won't fill my Femara, until I have HCG drawn, & oh the sweet girl who called me at 8:09 tonight, can't schedule the blooddraw, because she's the only one working, so i'm going to have to call back tomorrow & try to explain this to someone all over again!  I did get the answer to how many cycles can I take Femara.  3-6 cycles of consecutive Femara.  I assume he figures I have been on Femara since December ( becuase that's when he gave me "approval" to DTD after our loss.)  Since he didn't call & they didn't ask,the reality  is that I've only taken it 2 cycles & none of those cycles, were actively TTC, because of hubs working stupid/dang snow storms.

So if you're on this same wave length as me now, catch my drift, I probably won't be having a 2014 baby. The window this cycle is gone.

So yeah, if it is to happen, I will be officially in my 4-0's  if God Grace's us with another child.

Longest Wait

My husband hasn't been feeling good, for like a week, finally convinced him to go to the doctor. Trying to get out of him, what doesn't feel right, is impossible, but he hates the doctors office.

He had an appointment an hour and half a go & I still haven't heard from him.

He's acting like he's bruised his ribs, but who knows, with all the crazy things he does, he could have pneumonia.

Did I mention he hates needles.

He wouldn't let me go with him. He's not even his normal goofy self this week. So yeah peak weekend will likely go unused again, partlly to this, partly to huge snow storm arriving.

Update: Husband called me, when he got to the office, but never sent me a message when he got home, so what I thought was an excrutiating long visit, was short. His doc, who is an expert in Manipulation therapy, did a manipulation on him, to move some ribs back into place, he might have to go for another visit, next week, most likely,because the potholes & snow plowing aren't mixing to well & that's what's throwing him out of whack, he got some pain meds too.

Dr appt today

Thankfully with all the family drama, my blood pressure was normal.

The appointment was to take bacterial samples via a fun, swab! We also talked about myo-inositol. He gave me the ok to take pregnitude & Merry Christmas he gave me. 9 days of samples!!

I took the 2 ladies in the office and my doc dark chocolate gift boxes. The were all in love! 

Happy it's CD1

Yes you read it right. I'm happy it's CD1 !!!

1st and most importantly my body worked on it's own without any meds, and had a 28 day cycle,which hasn't happened in like oh say 8 or more years.

1 more cycle down before we can TTC . Yes it's taking a lot of diligence & SPICE to avoid for another cycle.

In other good news, I called my OB today to see if he had the write up from my MFM consult & they didn't have it yet, so they said they would call & check on it, but there happened to be a cancellation on my doctors schedule..  so I can get in for a follow up this calendar year ( 3 weeks from now )
since my deductibles are met, I would much rather get it done this year.

When I was at the doctor on Nov 8th. the "supposed" first available appointment was January 10th. I was like What.. blown away.. but realized the "new" scheduling girl didn't know what she was doing.  Thankfully when I called today, the  nice fabulous Stacy, got me in much sooner.

MFM Consult

I was able to get a consult with the Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor this coming Tuesday.

The nurse was super nice & said she would get all my records/charts from my OB office, and not to worry about anything, except for showing up.

I read up, the .oogle ratings on this MFM, she seems nicer than the guy I saw in the hospital a month ago. She floats between 4 hospitals. Can you say highl demand. I was lucky to get in within a week.

My doctors theory is I have an incompent cervix on top of my IF issues of not ovulating on my own. I'm hoping she just backs that up & doesn't come up with any more issues.

Prayers are appreciated on the appointment day.

Doctor Follow up.

We had our 6 week follow up with our OBGYN today.  We were to go over all the tests results run after the stillbirth of our son Andrew.

To sum it up simply we do not have any concrete causes for his early birth.

What we do know is Genetically he was boy with the correct # of chromosomes.
All the blood work on me came back with nothing wrong; no blood clotting, no crazy blood disorders, he was able to come back & tell me that at some time in my lifetime I had something ( that sounds like Mono ) but as long as I don't have it while I'm pregnant it's ok.

Testing on the placenta was not back yet.. he was bummed that it was super slow too. We are happy we did not have a placental abruption. Which is another common cause for stillborn. If a placental abruption happens, it is almost 99.9% fatal to the baby, because the baby looses his lifeline to mom.
The placenta tests may key us into infection of the baby or infection in me.

We won't have an explanation of why my water broke early.. & I think we have accepted that fact.
** to clarify** with my son Andrew's birth, my amniotic sac completely ruptured, at his gestation(21 weeks) it was not repairable, and he was not matured enough to survive outside the womb. Had it been a pinhole type leak/or a slow leak, I could have been put on bedrest, fluids, and they can in most cases repair themselves.

Our doc has consulted with two other doctors and they want me to have a consult w/ the local Maternal/Fetal doctor, for a pre-conception consultation, to make sure they are not missing anything.  I am awaiting a call from their office to schedule an appointment.

I need to start charting ( yeah I'm on CD3 ) yeah AF arrived already.. I was kinda hoping she might stay away for a while. Considering I had Lochia bleeding for 3 weeks. then milk tried to come in, now this.. I just want a break !  Charting to determine if I ovulate on my own.

He asked if we can avoid TTC for the next 60 days..

He talked with us about how we are emotionally doing. like did we name him, did we have a funeral, etc. He was happy that we were doing well emotionally. He was very appreciative that we sent him a Thank you" for St. Luke's feast day. He said what I wrote him in the card, tells him that WE are doing better than most.

We talked about what a Next Time scenario might look like. Simply.. Lots of Ultrasounds! He said we could have them almost weekly if it makes us feel better. ( probably wont' cuz i'll go broke doing that )  He said as soon as we find out we are pregnant, we can come in immediately for one(which his office has never let me do, they always made me wait)  and for sure from 12-20 we will be weekly . The theory is I have a incompetent cervix, which with weekly monitoring will show us when it gets shorter and then at that point, I will get a circlage ( little stitch as he likes to say ) to keep it closed. *Insert my research, could lead to bed rest, or time off of work. We have to talk & decide if this is how we see our pregnancy going & if we can physically, emotionally, financially afford me to be laid up potentionally for 4-5 months.

We had a long talk about the Maternal Fetal specialist we saw in the clinic the day Andrew was born. I asked if there was someone else we could see. He asked why, he was the "best'. I said well in our book, when he offers us an Abortion as his best form of care, that's not who we want caring for us. He asked us to recount the conversation w/ him & both my husband & I said recalled that his exact words were, to best handle this we can take you up for an Abortion right now &  you can be on your way home later. My doctor was shocked. He said this doc doesn't do selective reductions, or reductions for genetic abornmalities. We both said, the ultrasound tech was even shocked & turned away too. We both said, this guy never told us our child was still alive & still had a heart beat, but we both know that would be the only reason for him to mention abortion.  I told our doctor, that this haunts me still, that this 'expert'  wanted us to choose to let him kill our son.  Thankfully we know better & told him absolutely no. I had my chart in hand, when I went to see this specialist, & I read the first page of my chart. In big bold letters it said : HYPNOBIRTHING Patient  and PRO-LIFE. So why this guy suggested this as the "best" care will boggle my mind for days. My doctor deeply apologized for the specialists lack of sensitivity & proper use of medical terminology. Needless to say, we are seeing a different MF specialist for our pre-conception consult.

This lead to a discussion about the medical terminology used by the doctors. Our doctors wanted us to be prepared for other people that might care for us & them not using pro-life friendly medical terminology. He said in medical world the patient friendly word is miscarriage, but in medical land it is called an abortion; wheter spontanious , missed, or elective.  I said yes we know that, but willingly killing our living child was not appropriate, nor acceptable to us. He again apologized.

So another question we had was who would be our care provider if we get pregnant again, our doc said as long as things progress "normally" we would continue w/ him. He could do the circlage if necessary. The only reason I would have to see the MF specialist is if I develop gestational diabetes, develop pre-eclampsia or go into labor early. Our docs hospital does not have a NICU, so we can' t deliver a preemie there.

I go back in 2 months to look at charts, see if i've ovulated & discuss medications.

Thanks for all your prayers.  I do feel our appointment went well, we got ample time to ask all our questions & discuss all our concerns.

Billing

First of all, I apologize to anyone who works in a doctors office, if I sound super critical, but these people just drive me BONKERS!!

So today, I got a call from the billing dept. at the OB's office. I've talked about these fine folks here before. Apparently yesterday, they made me sign something that said I'm going to start paying them XXX amount each month.. to pay for ???? for unexplained, unbilled costs. I said I'd rather not sign it, she said well you can sign & just say your not paying it, so I said fine. Well the billing dept. thinks otherwise, so she called to "explain" it better.. I said well explain away, but I'm at work right now. What I was told yesterday by the receptionist was NOTHING, but sign it.

So she tries to convince me that paying them upfront, before they bill the insurance, that it will be better for me in the long run. I said, well why don't you bill the insurance & I'll pay my copays as I have been, and whatever is left I will pay at the end of the month. She tells me they don't bill the insurance til the end of the pregnancy and then I will get a massive bill. I said well I differ & that I have been paying them fairly so far.. & then it dawned on me, if you aren't billing me til the end of the pregnancy, what I have I been paying you for the last 3 months. She says.. oh well you just found out you were pregnant Aug 15.. I said.. NO.. I found out in June.. I've been in for 3 office visits, & 1 ultrasound.. ( billed as a OB pregnancy ultrasound no less) she says.. no we didn't know you were pregnant til Aug 15.  So I told her again that I was at work & didn't have time to discuss further.. & she wanted to continue I said I'll call you back.( yeah right, like that's going to happen NOT!)

So I called my baby nurse care coordinator at my insurance company.. she tells me when they office declares me "pregnant" ( my office Aug 15) & start billing it as global maternity coverage, I don't get to take advantage of any of the maternity coverage ( no copays, no copays on ultrasounds) Which so far, I've had to pay 100% of these. She tells me that their is no set time that they are required to start billing as Global Maternity. So I fell these billing ladies just completely took advantage of me. Add this to the fact, that they keep transferring billing to the hospital for certain billable services( labs) and it is all screwed up & they take no responsibility, don't apologize, & don't help fix it. I literally spent 2 hours earlier in the week, going back & forth with her & the hospital billing dept. To which I have no resolve yet & she doesn't feel that she did anything wrong/incorrect , to which she tells me wait for your bill to come & see if it's fixed.  First, myself being a business owner & Second working in customer service, I can't fathom telling a client/customer/person wait & see. ( unless we're talking about the rain) I mean for real, you either fixed the issue or you didn't, but don't leave me in the lurch.
I've wrote the practice manager a while back, but never heard back, which tells me their behavior is acceptable, but I don't really want to waste time telling the doctor again, that I wish he was in an office with like minded staff.  The other 6 doctors in the practice are much much more liberal & the staff, from what I gather are more concerned with which "pill" prescriber is bringing lunch in today & what freebies they are giving them.

Sorry all over the place here.. but just very frustrated today.

Warm Fuzzies -Not **update**

Could use your ladies prayers today.

I have my 8 week appt this afternoon/evening.
It's an hour drive for me to go to the appointment, Hubs can't go, cuz it's a short week ( Holiday)
so they have to work late everyday to make up for the Holiday.

After contacting my NaPro doc a week ago for my initial lab results ( and I gave her the dates) so that I could walk in with them, they just sent them a half hour ago ( after I called & left ANOTHER message on top of 2 faxes last week ). So what do they send ( lab results from 2012  & only 1 of the last 2  from this month.)  I give up.  The nurse doesn't answer the phone ..

Also I hadn't heard from my local doc --confirming my appointment.. you know those annoying phone calls. I still wait for them, cuz this place is sketchy & I always like to know that we are both on the same page.
I called about 2 hours ago to confirm my appointment.. She was like well why are you calling. I said simply, cuz I haven't got a phone call confirming my appt time.. she was like, yeah we have you for a follow up at 4:30..  ( follow uP)  this should be interesting. She was like what's it a follow up for..  I just said.. I'll see you at 4:30.. I'm at work.

Pray I don't bite someone's head off for being stupid. + I will be disappointed, cuz I wont' get an ultrasound (this office doesn't have the machine) so I'm flying solo on this. & Oh yeah.. doc's going to get to see my poison ivy in full effect, cuz it's still flared up.

**Update** everything went perfect, well except for the traffic, which was horrid. Going in 2 weeks for an ultrasound to check it all out. He said if I wanted I could go sit in the ER tonight or tomorrow to get one, I said if everything looks OK to you,, I'll pass. He said go enjoy your weekend. Instead of the 12 week nurse visit, i'm going to see the doc again( bad news, is I still have to see the nurse at some point, but calms my fear of missing something from not seeing him ( when my miscarriage happened last time)  Have  a good weekend everybody!!

Some cheese with that Whine

The last week I have been miserable. ITCHING!!  Poison Ivy,  you are invited to leave.

I tried almost every home remedy, I could, since the OB nurse was really unsympathetic to my plea for something to help with the Poison Ivy.

I've washed 50% of my body in alchol.
I've made a baking soda paste & put it over my body. ( pretty messy when it dries )
Taken Oatmeal baths,

 I called back & begged & they said, I could call my dermatologist & get a prescription for a mild, mild topical steroid cream.  So i've  been using that all weekend.. which has helped.. it seems to be helping with the itching..  It's like liquid gold though. The pharmacy didn't have enough to fill the entire prescription. so i got a small bottle. ( with the price of the big bottle)

But then it's been like 95 degrees here today.. & with my luck our AIR is not working.
So i have taken like 3 showers today.. to cool down. double duty cuz it helps w/ the itching too.

I am hoping to sleep better tonight.. I didn't fall asleep last night til 4 am.

Poison Ivy

Yep, I caught it.. Usually not so bad. I went to the dermatologist today, to find out he can't give me the miracle steroid shot.. Uggghhhh.. what !! He says call the OB. Called the OB.  OB left surgery for the day.. So I wait til tomorrow to find out what the OB says I can use. For now I can use topical b.enadryl cream & hope I don't spread it even more.

update

I had labs drawn 8 days ago.
Progesterone was 25.7
HCG ?  ( they didn't give it to me )

Went in again 3 days ago  --haven't heard back.

At this point I don't have to take progesterone supplementation, when i talked w/ the nurse, she apologized for the cryptic message from the receptionist.

from my calculation I am 5w 4 days. ( from LMP ) if I calc from ovulation I think I am 5w & 1 day..

I should probably call & make an appt w/ my local dr.. cuz @ 8 weeks it will be the holiday.. who knows how easy it will be to get in. & then the next week I'll be on vacation..  I really don't want to wait til 10 weeks for a first appt.

?????????? WHAT

I am flabergasted that we may be having a honeymoon baby.  Well --7 years after the fact.

Long time ago. like 9 months ago, I posted about finding out about our little peanut. Sammy decided that he wanted to forgoe his earthly life & join the saints in heaven.    +++

I just pray that this precious gift decides to join us in 2014.

2014 would have probably been the end of me trying. I would be having a milestone birthday & finally accepting & willing to end the endless pursuing treatments & popping pills.

Now I need to write my doc & have him call in blood work..

++Update++ I wrote my NaPro doctor on 6/4 he wrote back instantly & said he would send in a lab slip for me.  Its now 6/6 & the lab still does not have a request from him.  I guess I'm going to have to write him again. My local doc, with the steel clad nurses won't let me in until i'm 8 weeks, I can't get past them to even get him a note..Don't these people realize I don't need any stress over this ++ Hubs & I have agreed to not tell anyone til we both see it on a screen & make it past the 1st trimester.  Now I have to figure a way to bully myself at the doctors office to get out of their 12 week required "nurse" visit. (So I can have a  visit w/ the doctor instead)

Frustrated

I really need to learn some relaxation techniques, cuz stress is getting the better of me.

Unfortunately our appraisal came out worse than we expected, so no refiance here.  Hubs wants to shell out more money to have another appraisal done, cuz we didn't like the lady who came out. She didn't appear to be experienced. The other thing that doesn't help at all, is we live 2 blocks from a city line. This appraiser, said she couldn't use any houses in the other city.. Well why didn't you tell us that before you took our money. Cuz I would have sent her packing.  Our mortgage guy feels so bad, he said check back in 90 days & if we end up being able to then, he'll refund our money that we paid to the bad appraiser..  But because of all the stupid changes in the mortgage industry.. Thanks "no.bma" is what screwed this all up.  Every comparable this chick used was "short sale" Hello. that's not the true value of the house, that is a distressed person, desperate to sell, sells their house for.

 Soo frustration # 2. I have my 8 week ( and 6 day ) appointment at the doctors office tomorrow. with a Nurse OB ( whatever the heck that is ). So in true fashion from the office, I got a reminder call at 11:15 am confirming my appointment. ..( called me at work)  at 1:45 someone from the office called my cell phone. My cell is in my purse during the day. She says, I need you to call back before 4 pm.. or other wise call at 8:30 tomorrow morning. 1st I can't understand her name. 2nd she doesn't leave her extension. 3rd She called back at 3:30pm but didn't leave a message then.  Let me say, I had to take the day off tomorrow to make this appointment, to convenience their scheduling.. If she is calling,  to cancel, After they already confirmed the appointment I will be royally PISSED.  So much to the effect that I might tell them I am leaving the practice. I totally love my doctor, but I've had enough of  the B.S. from the office, mind you i'm only 2 months into this. I have to go to the office I don't like for this appoinment.. I can feel my blood pressure is high after these 2 stressing things back to back.. Ugggghhhh !!!