Week 6 - Sept 14th - Not all Dr's are the Same

(Sept 18 ultrasound)

What a rollercoaster. I called the Dr's office and told them I needed an ultrasound. Their technician was out that day and so they sent me back to the radiology lab at the hospital. The technician that did the ultrasound was so kind and sweet. But she hmmm and hawwed for the first 20 minutes as she was taking the pictures. After finally inquiring to what she was seeing, she told me legally she shouldn't say what she was seeing. I brought my friend who is a nurse with me and somehow we were finally able to get information out of her. She said what she was very confused at what she was seeing but thinks she may have seen an empty ectopic sac. My heart was completely broken at this point.

She took a lot of pictures and called in another technician to look. I usually can hold it together when I'm with other people and I was already trying to convince myself how lucky we were just to be able to conceive. I was wondering at what point will she suggest scheduling the procedure to remove it and hoping she will be sensitive about it. She still wasn't satisfied with her conclusion and so finally was able to get a hold of a Dr. on the phone as he viewed the screen in his office. Suddenly her eyes got big and she says, "Wait a minute, where did this come from?" I had to go in with a full bladder and ended up in the bathroom twice in between all the confusion. The last trip was right before she was talking with the Dr. and she swears up and down I must of had a twin because she is not looking at the same picture before. She was able to see a fluid sac with a yolk sac and supposedly it was in the right place this time.

All I could say was "OH, please don't do this to me, really?"! She calls my Dr's office and they schedule another round of hcg blood tests just to make sure it's all still on track.

Unfortunately, this week I also found that there is a lack of sensitive ob/gyn's in Utah County. My Dr. called the next day (mind you, I hadn't actually met with him at his office yet) and all I needed to hear was some positive good vibes. Instead, he starts questioning me about what was seen on the ultrasound and if they saw this or that in very medical terms. I didn't want to get the technician in trouble but I also thought it was very strange that he was asking me to tell him the results. He says, "well, I wouldn't rule out that you miscarried". I say, "Then why would my hcg levels still be going up?". "They are?" I'm thinking that he hadn't even looked at my chart before or anytime during this conversation. Then he says "Well, it would be folly to do any more ultrasounds right now for how short you are into the pregnancy. Just take Tylenol for the cramps and we'll schedule another ultrasound in two weeks." And hangs up.

I felt like I had just been in a drive by. Why would he be thinking it was a miscarriage? Was what she saw really not what it was? Could I really wait 2 weeks in hopes that the worst doesn't become reality. I was in tears again (man, these pregnancy hormones have turned me into a bawl baby!). Yes, I understand that these Dr's deal with hormonal pregnant women all day but my situation is not the usual, normal pregnancy. I went ahead and did the next two blood draws and my hcg levels were continuing to rise - 20,102 for the first and 27,127 48 hours later. What a mess of confusion and anxiety! Fortunately, the bleeding has stopped. Of course, I stopped with the exercise as soon as the bleeding started up and I was relieved it had subsided.

I was so happy to get a phone call later that week from my friend (who is friends with the ob/gyn her daughter is with). She insisted that situation was completely wrong and I should fire that Dr and find a new one. She called her friend (who is the Dr's wife) and found out that he was high risk and was taking new patients. What a relief! In fact, I called his office on a Thursday afternoon and they wanted me to come in that Friday morning! Now there's a practice who not only considers their patients needs but wastes no time!!

He had everything set up to do another ultrasound. When he came in, he not only remembered the conversation we had at the shower but was very kind. And in no time flat, he was showing me on the screen the baby, how it was measuring exactly 6 weeks, 3 days and then pointed at a little pulsating part and said, "There's the heart beating"!

I could finally start breathing again! He packaged up nearly a month's worth of prenatals including some Omega-3's, wrote a prescription for progesterone (in hopes of alleviating the pain from the endometriosis) and sent me with several precautionary warnings: don't overdue your exercise (heartrate no more than 160 and no more than an hour a day), don't get the swine flu (he even thought I should pull Jackson out of preschool until we all get our shots), and rest if your body tells you to. Next appointment in two weeks.

OK. Now, previous cranky-don't waste my time-silly-jerk of a Dr, was that so hard?!! I went on RateMD and found that I wasn't the only one who had been blown off by him. There were so many not so nice things said about him. Soooo glad I have good friends who are looking out for me!!!