Wednesday, March 5, 2008

OB DOA?

I haven't seen MY actual OB in 4 months because I am in a rotating practice and there are 6 doctors in it. 2 appts ago I was supposed to see her because she was up next on my rotation. The morning of the appointment I get to the office and find out she was on call that day and someone was having a baby so she was at the hospital. Luckily they had another doctor squeeze me in so it wasn't a wasted trip (I drive 45 minutes one way to get to this office. The length of time is so long because of terrible traffic). When I talked to the lady at the appointment desk I told her it would've been nice to know that I wasn't seeing my doctor that day. She flips me an attitude and says, "Well, I DID call your house at 8:30 to tell you." My appointment was at 9:00 am. I tried to explain to her that I have to leave at least 1 hour ahead of time to make sure I get to my appointments, especially during rush hour traffic. So, calling me 30 minutes before the appointment is supposed to start doesn't do anything for me.
So they schedule my next appointment with my OB. 3 days after I schedule the appt they call me to tell me that my OB won't be in the office that day, so I need to see another doctor. I guess my doctor decided to be out of the office for a week, so it isn't possible to see her. Now, I am getting pissed. That is 2 reschedules in a row and it has been months since I have seen my actual OB.
Finally, they just skip her on the rotation and schedule my appointment for today with another doctor. I figure it is annoying but once I reach 36 weeks I will see her only every week so I decide not to say anything about it. I get to the appointment desk and schedule my appt for 2 weeks from now with my OB (finally).
I am on my way to the park today with Angus and my cell phone rings. It is MY F*&KING OB'S OFFICE CALLING TO RESCHEDULE MY APPOINTMENT!!!!!! Apparently the front office staff messed up and my doctor has JURY DUTY the week of my appointment. My 36 week appointment! Where they will be doing my Group B Strep test and also possibly scheduling my c-section. I was waiting to talk to MY doctor to really discuss in depth the VBAC and now I won't be seeing her until I am 37 weeks (if I make it that long. Hey, you never know) unless they reschedule me, of course. I was so pissed off that I asked the appointment scheduler if I should just change doctors right now because I am wasting my time driving 45 minutes one way to an office that I have only stayed with because I love my OB so much (when I see her). Luckily the scheduler was nice and let me pick my next favorite doctor to see and any time or day I wanted (which probably means somebody else got bumped but at this point I don't care).
The hospital that she has privileges at is also 30-45 minutes away and there are two hospitals that are a 20 minute drive away. There are many things that would be more convenient about finding a doctor closer. I don't know how impossible it would be to find an OB this late in the game but after today I am considering it. It just seems like it would be more of a hassle than its worth right now and to be honest I am scared of picking a new doctor right now when I might be having a repeat c-section. I don't like the idea of a doctor I have only known for 5 appointments doing major surgery on me.
If you have made it this far please tell me what would you do? Would you change doctors? Would you mention any of this to your regular OB? What exactly would you say? Am I just being hormonal or does 3 rescheduled appointments seem like a lot?
Oh, and my appointment today went well. Dippe is healthy, I am a cranky whale...its all good.


4 comments:

Adrianne said...

You have every right to be pissed! I told you a couple of week ago to switch. Now I think it is too late... Stick it out, I say go with the #2 person. They sound nice! Dippe is almost here and this will all be a distant memory!!

Nicole said...

I would most certainly be enraged by all of this. And, I would like to recommend that you talk to your OB, if you ever see her again, about the issue. However, I know that in reality I wouldn't actually be bold enough to say anything. I would just silently seethe.

Ann said...

My OB's office always calls the day before when she's on call to tell me I should check on her availability beforehand. It's very nice.

I would say don't worry about switching anything at this point. Remember--you're hormonal. Irritating things seem even more irritating to us right now. :)

UnrulyArchivist said...

I know this is late but I would probably go to the office in person, plant myself at the front desk, and tell them I wanted to see my OB IN PERSON. Or, barring that, I would call and have a huge fucking fit on the phone until they promised to have the doctor herself call me back personally. I HATE the receptionist/scheduler roadblock at doctor's offices!

I have no idea if you could switch but I'd probably be looking into it if I were you. Also, when I read that you were nervous to have a doctor you'd only met five times do the surgery on you...I wondered if, all told, you had seen the other doctors in the practice any more than 5 times, because the way things are going, you might end up with one of them anyway.

Infuriating. Good luck, let us know what you do!