It's a bit of a story but we had to change OB/GYNs.
By now, most of you have read the post about the HIV test catastrophe. Well let's just say that when we started out at the new OB office that was going to be seeing us the rest of the pregnancy, we were slapped in the face with that whole nightmare again.
See, the in vitro place recommended a DR office for us. So, thinking that they knew what they were talking about, we mindlessly called and set up an appointment.
The first appointment was the regular routine, blood work, pee in a cup, quick ultrasound, and talk to the Nurse Practitioner. We had a couple more visits all within a few weeks time. Nothing special, just filling out and answering questions, yada yada. Then, they schedule me to do another round of blood work. A few days later, the Nurse calls me and says they need me to come in THAT day and get some more blood work. I asked her why and she wouldn't tell me. She claims she wasn't able to talk to me about it over the phone. I immediately knew what it was about. So I told her (I had already told her about the chaos we went through at Jones with the HIV on the first meeting we had) that I knew what it was about and that I already had the confirmation test to prove that I did not have this disease. She demanded that I needed to have yet ANOTHER test.
I made an appointment to go in. Up to this point... 5 visits in... we had not actually even seen a DR let alone spoke to one. So, I figured, I would go up there, ask to talk to a DR and have them explain to me why the last test, which was supposed to be a do-all-end-all test, "doesn't count". I got there and asked to talk to a DR. They refused to let me talk to one. Now I am on the verge of punching someone in the throat. That day the Nurse wouldn't even come speak to us. We walked out without giving blood. (there are some funny bits in this part of the story, but I don't know if i could portray them as well as they played out that day) Just know that we left extremely frustrated and kinda ticked.
Later that day, I got a call from one of the desk nurses telling me that they made me a consultation appointment at EVMS Maternal Fetal Medicine. So they could "explain to me the implications of not having this test done".
**SN... EVMS MFM is the secondary OB office that I had to go to because the place that Jones recommended was not capable of supporting a high risk pregnancy such as TWINS. (I AM HAVING TWINS... WHY WOULD JONES RECOMMEND THIS FREAKIN PLACE???)
Anyways, I thought about it for a couple days and talked it over with John and we both concluded that I didn't need to have a consultation. I am educated enough to know what the implications for these babies would be if I did in fact have HIV. So, I called the DR office and asked them if they would cancel they consultation with MFM. The desk jockey said she would have to talk to the Nurse and call me back. OK i say.
I got a call back within the hour. Desk jockey tells me that if I cancel the appointment that they will drop as a patient.
WHAT!?!?! They would drop me over a consultation visit?
Then she decides to tell me that I was supposed to be going over there for THEM to draw my blood. That didn't sound like a consultation to me.
Ok. We went to the appointment. As soon as we got called back an actual DOCTOR came to talk to us. We were in shock. Anyways, we laid out the scenario and tried to give him the quick, quick version of how we got here.
As soon as we were done, he agreed with us in thinking that ANOTHER HIV test seemed like over kill. Well, we walked out of there (our first visit ever) feeling like we made a poor choice in OBs.
He did write me a prescription for another test. He said he was going to talk it out with some colleagues and make some calls to Labcorp (the place that has done all my blood work at this point) and then let me know if he thinks we should go ahead and do the test.
OK, at least he gave us some kind of reassurance that it wasn't "just because".
After a bit of talking, John and I decided that we no longer wanted to be seen at the DR office from Hades. We go in and request all of my records and tell them bye. I guess it happens often, because they didn't seem too worried about it.
We have never been happier with any decisions that we have ever made. The staff and doctors at MFM have been absolutely wonderful. I wouldn't have it any other way.
**SN... Dr Hill (my DR at MFM) did recommend that we do one more round of blood work. So I did. It came back negative, just like the other one. He apologized but said he just wanted to be on the safe side. I didn't care at this point. I just wanted to end this nightmare with the HIV testing. Come to find out....... get this.... the hormones and fertility drugs that I had been on for two months prior to getting pregnant, are some times responsible for creating a 'false positive' for an HIV test. I don't understand why they couldn't have taken that into consideration. But anyways, we are happy now.
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