December 04, 2009
I am 36 and have been trying to conceive my first for 12 months. After trying clomid and femara through by GYN, I finally caved and saw an RE who prescribed Follistim. My RE, Dr. M, is located 2 1/2 hours away, so I am monitored by a nurse practitioner who is an hour away. The nurse practitioner is with a different RE, Dr. L (who I did not know about when I found the one that is 2 1/2 hours away), but Dr. L has some sort of agreement with my clinic to monitor their patients. But all of the decisions are made by Dr. M at the clinic, and his nurse, Trish, calls me with instructions after every ultrasound and blood test. Confused yet? Me, too. This is hard enough without a middle man.
Anyway, after my first round of follistim, I miscarried two weeks ago at 5 1/2 weeks. When I called my RE's clinic to report bleeding on that Friday morning, I explained to the receptionist what was going on, hoping that the urgency of the situation would keep her from dumping me into Trish's voicemail. Not surprisingly, I was still dumped into the voicemail, but shocked to hear the voicemail say that she was out of the office for the day. I was panicked so I called my GYN, and she got me into her office right away. When I got out, I had a message from Trish (who was supposed to be out of the office). She asked me to call, and I did, getting her voicemail again. She called me back around 5:00 that night, and explained that the voicemail was from the previous day when she was out of the office and she forgot to turn off the message that morning. I told her that I had seen my GYN, gave her my results, and she said she would call me on Monday.
When she did call on Monday, she said that my Dr. M said that I had to pick a doctor. I had too many irons in the kettle (isn't it "fire?"), and that they would not continue to serve me if I kept going to my GYN. I was in the middle of a miscarriage and completely shocked by their insensitivity. I called Trish first that Friday morning; because of a mistake on her part, I then called my GYN.
So, after that long winded story, here is my question. Do I switch REs? I have thought about approaching Dr. L's nurse practitioner who is an hour away and seeing if he will take me on. I am worried, though, that he has a non-compete contract with my current clinic. Plus, he doesn't do IVF, so if it got to that stage, I would have to eat crow and go back to my original, insensitive RE, Dr. M. And then I think, "Well, Dr. M was able to help me get pregnant after 1 round of follistim---he's good at his job, so don't switch." But I don't want to feel like a hostage, either. I am allowed to have a dentist and an orthodontist at the same time, just as I should be able to have a gynecologist and and reproductive endocrinologist at the same time. Am I overreacting to their treatment of me? I have had a few instances where I felt like they were trying to suck money out of us (for example, they are visibly upset I insisted on timed intercourse with the follistim. They wanted me to jump right to IUI, but my DH's sperm analysis was excellent and the little guys obviously have no problem finding my eggs. I cited religious beliefs and promised to try IUI after a few cycles just to get them off my back, but I felt like their concern was based on their desires rather than on my needs).
So again: Do I try to switch REs? Or am I overreacting?
Anyway, after my first round of follistim, I miscarried two weeks ago at 5 1/2 weeks. When I called my RE's clinic to report bleeding on that Friday morning, I explained to the receptionist what was going on, hoping that the urgency of the situation would keep her from dumping me into Trish's voicemail. Not surprisingly, I was still dumped into the voicemail, but shocked to hear the voicemail say that she was out of the office for the day. I was panicked so I called my GYN, and she got me into her office right away. When I got out, I had a message from Trish (who was supposed to be out of the office). She asked me to call, and I did, getting her voicemail again. She called me back around 5:00 that night, and explained that the voicemail was from the previous day when she was out of the office and she forgot to turn off the message that morning. I told her that I had seen my GYN, gave her my results, and she said she would call me on Monday.
When she did call on Monday, she said that my Dr. M said that I had to pick a doctor. I had too many irons in the kettle (isn't it "fire?"), and that they would not continue to serve me if I kept going to my GYN. I was in the middle of a miscarriage and completely shocked by their insensitivity. I called Trish first that Friday morning; because of a mistake on her part, I then called my GYN.
So, after that long winded story, here is my question. Do I switch REs? I have thought about approaching Dr. L's nurse practitioner who is an hour away and seeing if he will take me on. I am worried, though, that he has a non-compete contract with my current clinic. Plus, he doesn't do IVF, so if it got to that stage, I would have to eat crow and go back to my original, insensitive RE, Dr. M. And then I think, "Well, Dr. M was able to help me get pregnant after 1 round of follistim---he's good at his job, so don't switch." But I don't want to feel like a hostage, either. I am allowed to have a dentist and an orthodontist at the same time, just as I should be able to have a gynecologist and and reproductive endocrinologist at the same time. Am I overreacting to their treatment of me? I have had a few instances where I felt like they were trying to suck money out of us (for example, they are visibly upset I insisted on timed intercourse with the follistim. They wanted me to jump right to IUI, but my DH's sperm analysis was excellent and the little guys obviously have no problem finding my eggs. I cited religious beliefs and promised to try IUI after a few cycles just to get them off my back, but I felt like their concern was based on their desires rather than on my needs).
So again: Do I try to switch REs? Or am I overreacting?
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December 05, 2009
However, what I can tell you about my GYN's office is that when I called the on-call doc about my own bleeding at 5½ weeks, he said, "that early, there's nothing you can do other than blood tests, since you can't see anything on ultrasound. If the bleeding gets to where you soak a pad in 1 hour or less, go to the ER. Otherwise, call the office on Monday and get a blood test." Funny thing is, THAT on-call doc delivered my daughter and is now my doc-of-choice at the clinic! And he's cute too!
I suppose I do not know how to approach Dr. M. It sounds like these might be your only 2 options "locally", so I just don't know how to handle this, other than to say, "If my GYN was not the appropriate call, I need to know who to call when I feel like I NEED to talk with someone quickly." It sounds like you made the proper attempts.
Sorry you're in this pickle.