Switching Doctors

I was planning on writing about this topic since it has been on my mind a lot lately, just wasn't sure when I would. But, it turns out it is no longer an issue and simply a concern I had and is now finally resolved. If you read my recent facebook post today you probably know all about it, but I am going to blog about it here anyway! :)  Plus, after thinking about it a lot lately and discussing this thoroughly with many today... I am all hyped up about this subject and might as well write about it now! Comments and advice are always welcome! :)

So...I have not been exactly happy with my current doctor. At first, it wasn't really a big deal, but then again...  I've only had 3 appointments with her... and him. When we originally moved back upstate and I finally got my health insurance working this is how I went about my doctor decisions. I've seen a doctor under my family's plan before, so I kind of knew SOME doctors around here. But basically, I wanted someone who is not too far and someone who is obviously good and trustworthy. With my primary care provider, it was really a random pick, and with him I am so far happy. I ended up going to Slocum Dickson. For several reasons. First of all, because I went to Slocum Dickson before and I liked it. Secondly they have two offices... one is in Ilion ( which is where we live and a 5 minute walk from our apartment) and the other office is in New Hartford, a 20 min ride. Depending on what doctor you have and where the doctors work, sometimes only in one office, sometimes in both. The thing about Slocum Dickson, it's a "medical group" it has tons of tons of doctors, and to keep it simple I thought I would try to keep everything organized and keep all my doctors in one place. So before I even became pregnant I know I needed a gyn in general, so I basically tried to do some research on my own. Thought I'd try the guy my mom went to (but he doesn't accept my insurance.) Then, I tried to basically look for a female. I know for some this may seem like no big deal, but I honestly rather have a female. And I couldn't find any at all!!! So, I just ended up calling up Slocum Dickson and asked if they can recommend a female gyn. The secretary I spoke to said no problem at all, and referred me…

I had an appointment scheduled with Julia Ross (if this means anything to anyone around here who knows local doctors.) My first visit with her was very pleasant. She kind of looks like that country singer …. Dolly Parton, there you go. Seriously, I was scared at first! :) She is this thin, elderly woman with thing pumped up dyed blonde hair and SO much make up on. Seriously, Dolly Parton’s twin!  Despite how she looked she was very kind and nice and took her time talking to me about everything and I got a very good first impression from her. When I found out I was pregnant, I was scheduled my first prenatal appointment with her. Turns out, she is not a gyn really. She is a nurse practitioner I learned. Which basically means (they have a lot of these I learned in Slocum Dickson) she works in partnership with a doctor, and can see his patients for him in a way. She explained to me, that during my pregnancy I would take turns every other appointment seeing her and seeing the doctor- Dr. Schlair (of course my luck – a MAN.) So this was a surprise… of course not a big deal and not worth leaving right away, maybe this doctor is amazing, but this was the first thing that I frowned upon.

The second thing that caught my attention was my second appointment. I don’t remember if I briefly touched on this in my previous posts, so if I did, I’m sorry for repeating myself :) I arrived at my second prenatal appointment and I meet this Schlair guy. His personality seemed nice… but… he rushed through the whole appointment in a matter of 5-10 minutes. Seriously. It was basically like this “Hi, nice to meet you. Here’s the baby’s heartbeat, here’s your blood pressure, oh by the way we found two infections, we’re prescribing you antibiotics. Alright, we’re all set, have a nice day!” I didn’t even get to process anything at all, and it was only until I left the doctor’s office that I started to process everything and remember the questions I wanted to ask him.

What he told me, was that they found ( sorry if this is TMI) a yeast infection and bacterial vaginosis. He ran through it so fast like it wasn’t really a big deal, one thing I did get a chance to ask was about the yeast infection. Because if you’ve had a yeast infections before you know they aren’t exactly pleasant, and if you have one you usually KNOW you have one. But to me this was news, and I asked him why I had no symptoms and his test results said I have it, and he says sometimes there are noticeable symptoms and sometimes there are not. Alright, I’ll take it… after all he IS the doctor. This is what I did not realize until I left the office… Exactly one month before this appointment I had my first prenatal appointment. At this appointment they did a TON of testing on me. I remember aside from urine and other samples they took 12 tubes of blood out of me! 12!! I had such a bruise after that didn’t go away for about 6 weeks. Anyway, beside the point. They did all this testing and as typically they do, they told me don’t call, if we find something we will call you, if you don’t hear from us everything is okay. I didn’t hear from them, so I assumed everything was okay. Silly me. They did not call me. They apparently found I have these 2 infections but did not bother to call me or to tell me or to put me on treatment. I unknowingly walked around with these 2 infections for a whole MONTH before they told me about it and decided to put me on antibiotics and give me a cream for it. What the heck?!!  That really ticked me off right there. And I did some research, both of those infections are very common during pregnancy and are usually caused by chemical imbalances down there, but bacterial vaginosis can be a risk factor for miscarriage. Oh, wonderful. And they let me just walk around with this for a whole month not treating it. This was really one of the BIG things, and started to get me thinking about changing doctors.

With the thought of wanting to change doctors, I shared my thoughts and opinions with a few friends and got some insight on what other options I have and learned a lot of valuable information that really pushed me to make the final decision to switch.

The hospitals.

This is the big thing that really just made me say “I need a new doctor ASAP!” If you know the area, you know that there are a few hospital options as far giving birth. I chose Slocum Dickson because it was close to me, like I mentioned and I knew it was associated with St. Luke’s Hospital which is only a 20 min drive from our apartment. My mother also gave birth in St. Luke’s twice and I don’t remember her complaining about anything and she seemed to have good labor experiences then, so I didn’t see the big deal in going to the Cooperstown hospital ( which is a 45 minute drive from me and everyone, just EVERYONE seemed to go there.) With having second thoughts some people started telling me why they prefer Cooperstown. I mean, after all it does show something when the majority of people choose one hospital over another one.

The policies.

So, what is that I don’t like about St. Luke’s? First of all, you don’t get your own room, you have to share. Maybe not such a big deal to others, and I wouldn’t base my decision SOLELY on this, but it is kind of an inconvenience. Secondly, your husband, spouse, significant other… cannot spend the night! He has to leave at like 10 or 11pm. Now this is a big one for me! Even Zhenya was like… what???? I mean, we aren’t sure yet if he is going to spend the night… probably YES, and  I would LOVE for him to… and what if even he isn’t spending the night but wants to stay later than 10 with me? He can’t! Big no no. Thirdly… another big one. St. Luke’s takes your baby to the nursery from like 12-2 (minimum) mandatorily whether you want that or not! Before I even heard this one, another friend of mine told me that (she gave birth in Cooperstown) even if they suggest taking the baby, they can’t just do that. You are the mother and you make the final decision and if you want the baby there, they can’t take the baby from you. They are required to go by your requests. Apparently, it aint the same at St. Luke’s! The woman who was telling me about  all these fun policies at St. Luke’s, had a bad labor and delivery experience there herself and her friend recently encountered this problem with the baby being taken out of her room when she wanted the baby to stay. They say it’s “hospital policy.” Oh, BS. Seriously.

With taking the baby away, a question arises for me. I asked, what do they do with the baby if the baby is hungry? Feed it formula? What if you’re breastfeeding? Apparently St. Luke’s doesn’t feed the baby during this time. Baby is supposed to be fed before. Not every baby eats every two hours! Some babies eat every 15 mins, some every 30 mins, some every hour! What if the baby wants to eat before the 2 hours? They will not bring the baby to you. Even if baby is crying, hungry… they have to wait the minimum 2 hours… then they will bring the baby to you. This is the part when I was like, ok what is Cooperstown’s number I’m calling NOW . Note: everything I mentioned obviously Cooperstown is the opposite. You get your own room, your hubby can spend the night, and they definitely don’t take your baby from you if you don’t want to! And the reason St. Luke’s takes the baby is because they are afraid the tired mother after labor is too tired that she will fall asleep with the baby in her arms and DROP the baby( ridiculous!) or she won’t respond to the baby. Regardless, the picture became a bit clearer and I started to understand why everyone goes to Bassett in Cooperstown.

Now, okay… So, I make my decision that I obviously need a new doctor… should be easy right? Call up Bassett; pick a doctor or midwife and BAM problem solved. NOT! Nothing is ever simple! :) Life just gets boring apparently if you don’t have obstacles!  I called Bassett, and was completely honest (didn’t see the harm in it) and told them I want to switch care and all that jazz. The woman I spoke to, who is in charge of new OB patients, told me that Bassett has a high volume of pregnant women right now and because I currently have care I need to send them all my records from my current OB and they overlook my situation and make a decision whether to accept or deny me. And this lady emphasized on the fact they HAVE denied people, so it’s not a sure factor I can switch yet. Talk about a bummer! I started to really freak out and worry. At this point, I rather give birth at home than in St. Luke’s. I was really unhappy with my current doctor mishap and the hospital policies and just wanted out. I didn’t know what to do really, but I wanted to get into Bassett whatever it took.

I started thinking… The vibe I got was that because I currently HAVE prenatal care, I can’t just pick and choose what doctors I want to switch to because they have a lot of pregnant women ( whateverrr!) But I am pretty sure they get new pregnant women everyday that find out they are pregnant and they accept them without any issues because they don’t have care to begin with. To me- this was totally unfair. I didn’t want to take the risk of getting a “no” and then never being able to switch, ha... And knowing my luck that is exactly what would have happened! So, I decided to take a different approach and…. Well… basically… LIE. Go ahead judge, I don’t care! :P

So this was my plan. First, I wanted to see if I could go around this and get an appointment another way. Bassett has gyns in Herkimer (10 min drive for me) that I could see but still give birth in Cooperstown. Originally, the first phone call I made was to Cooperstown. So, I thought let me call Herkimer directly and see if I can schedule an appointment there. That was a fail. I called, they transferred me to the women’s health department in Cooperstown, who transferred me back to the original lady I spoke to about switching providers, ha. Luckily this was a 2 week window, and she was not available when I called the 2^nd time (about 2 days ago I believe) so she was supposed to call me back. She did, the next day (yesterday) but this time I was unavailable to pick up. We were basically playing phone tag :) Today, I got the chance to sit down and call her back. I was really nervous about this, because I knew this was the same lady I spoke to 2 weeks ago and I really did not want her to recognize me or remember me, and didn’t want to be put in the uncomfortable position to lie, but obviously I would have if I was put in that situation. When I called her today, I played it cool and basically pulled the “Oh, I just found out I’m pregnant” card on her, kind of. I technically didn’t really lie, I just disclosed information and told her as little as possible to avoid any additional questions. And thank GOD- she scheduled me an appointment with a doctor in Cooperstown without an issue. She asked me if I have a blood test to prove pregnancy, I said I did, and she asked me how far along I was and I said “ I THINK I’m about 15 weeks” heh…so that was my little fibbing part. But other than that, I didn’t say anything extra to her and she didn’t ask any questions. Problem solved!

I can honestly say I was SO excited today and beyond happy that it all worked out. I was really stressing out about this and worrying about not being able to get into Bassett, but honestly this wouldn’t have happened without God’s help that’s for sure.  It’s a big weight off my chest, and I can easily, calmly breathe! My appointment is scheduled for the 15^th this month, and it actually works out because my 3^rd prenatal appointment was originally scheduled that day, but obviously since I am switching doctor’s that won’t be a concern! Ha!

Overall, I am very relieved. Today I started getting a lot of opinions and advice from my mommy/pregnant community on facebook about what doctors are the best in Cooperstown. I got A LOT of opinions!  Which is great because you can’t try out all the doctors out there using a trial and error course on your own. Sometimes you need word of mouth advice to see where to start off. Opinions varied though, some people really liked one doctor, and others didn’t. Regardless I am still open to all opinions and appreciate all the help everyone is giving me! Right now I’m not super concerned about doctors, I mean I know should be… I’m just so happy to have successfully scheduled an appointment with Bassett. Having that peace of mind is already enough!

Well, I am done blabbing. This is my story as far as doctors go. I am hoping I won’t encounter anymore unpleasant situations with doctors and hopefully my experience with Bassett will run more smoothly from here on!