Member- megz06
- 5 years ago
- Wedding: July 2012
I have had very confusing, semi-disappointing appointments all the way through my pregnancy thus far. It seems like my experience is so vastly different from everyone else’s, so I wanted to get some opinions.
I went in for blood work at week 5 to ensure I was pregnant. I also had an appointment with a doctor (she is my doctor throughout the pregnancy but will transfer me out for delivery), and everything went fine there.
She set me up with an u/s at 8 weeks because I was measuring large and twins ran in the family. The u/s tech was a bitch and made the experience terrible. She was very crabby, telling me “You’re not going to see anything anyway so why do you need a picture?” kind of stuff. She was just less than ideal, especially for exited first time parents. My doctor told me to come back for my 12 week appointment for another u/s because my insurance covers a 12 week (and I needed bloodwork done) and 20 week appointment (checking for defects and gender).
We went to that same u/s tech again for our 12 week (we are very rural so not much of an option for techs unless you want to travel an hour and a half for a 10 minute u/s). She made NO effort to get the baby to move into a good position for a picture. She got annoyed when I asked to hear the heartbeat and see the baby again after she quickly left one area to go to another. She also wouldn’t take a gender guess (this is the ONLY one I am letting go), but she was very rude about it. She also complained about getting us a CD of pictures.
In additional to that, before the appointment we found out that we may not be able to have the 12 week covered because we had an 8 week. I was pissed off because it was ordered by my doctor and she TOLD me I wouldn’t have to pay for it. We did the 12 weeks anyway obviously and sucked it up if we had to pay for it, but I cried before my appointment because I already had it cancelled once before due to the doctor being out. It was just a pain.
Given all of that, I talked to my doctor and told her that because my 20 week appointment was more involved (look for defects and detecting gender), I’d like to go to the center I am giving birth at and have them do it. She was completely understanding. The nurse made the appointment.
Yesterday I get a phone call from the birthing center. First, they couldn’t find my paperwork. They finally got that squared away. My delivery doctor’s nurse was super nice about it. She said, “I have you in with the doctor at 10:30. Come 15 minutes before to give a urine sample. Also, do you have an ultrasound scheduled?” I said, “Umm, that was something that should have been set up the day my nurse called.” She transferred me to the receptionist, who was a crabby bitch, and she said very flatly, “You don’t have one scheduled. Do you want one?” HOW THE HELL CAN YOU TELL DEFECTS WITHOUT ONE!!!!! I said, “Well, yes. It was supposed to be scheduled since my doctor technically should have ordered it.” She said, “Let’s see if I have any openings.” Oh, Bees, I almost lost my shit when she said she will “see” if they have openings. She is kind of lucky there was because I would have become UNGLUED. I then asked her what I should expect at my appointment. She says, “All doctors are different, so you won’t know until you get here.” Fan-fucking-tastic.
I just feel like my prenatal doctor explains what I should expect from my appointments, but then either the u/s tech fucks it up or someone else. I mean, do I need to be more involved somehow? Like I thought I could just be like yeah, it’s my 20 week, and they would know what to do. And, compared to everyone else on the boards (and another mommy board I’m on), everyone has had such a good experience. They found out the gender, got the kidneys, bladder, and spine looked at, got pictures and even video, and I didn’t even have an u/s scheduled.
What should I be doing in the future to ensure my appointments go more smoothly? What should I prepare myself to experience or not experience at this 20 week one? What should I be a stickler about at this appointment? If I am not getting what I want out of the appointment do I say something?
Sorry for the frustration, Bees. It’s just one thing after another it seems.
Ours was really nice both times and did poke baby to get it to move and had me get up to pee to see if it would move and printed us out a standard amount of pictures. Also let us see everything and told us what she was looking at. She told us everything looked ok and my doctor said that the tech uploads the pictures online and the Dr. goes back over to look at everything. Since it wasn’t up at our appointment (immediately following) she just told me she would call if anything was wrong.
