10 Weeks

I went for my first official OB visit today, which was with a nurse.  It involved a bunch of boring paperwork and a pee test and a blood draw.  I tried to whine my way into a quickie doppler evaluation, but it didn't work.  After posting this, I'm going to buy a doppler.  

There were a few really awkward moments during my appointment.  The IVF part of the clinic is highly coordinated and I felt that everyone always knew everything about me without me having to explain repeatedly.  I sort of expected something similar for the OB half of the office especially considering that they have my actual IVF file available, a rarity in this situation.  I will not judge my upcoming OB experience based solely on today's visit, but I was not impressed.  

First, the nurse put today's weight as my "pre-pregnancy weight".  I said, I actually know my pre-pregnancy weight (138 pounds), and it's also in my IVF chart.  She said that "because today's visit is the first documented OB visit, I have to write that this weight (148 pounds) is your pre-pregnancy weight, because we have no prior documentation". What? Does this make sense?  I'm 10 weeks pregnant through your IVF program, and you have my DOCUMENTED weight right in front of you in my IVF chart.  Okaaaay.

Then the nurse insisted that I had to have a repeat STD panel, which I had about 4 months ago as part of the IVF process.  She couldn't find those results in my IVF file, because she didn't look thoroughly enough and said that I had to have it done because she couldn't find the results right then.  She works in an OB/IVF clinic, and told me repeatedly that she has done so for years...so why doesn't she know that I had to have had these tests done pretty recently to even initiate IVF? Same with the PAP smear, which I just nodded about today, but plan to refuse when the time comes.  

The icing on the cake was that my mad scientist Turkish RE accidentally wrote down that my embryo transfer was on 9/22, not 9/27.  Who cares, right? There are other supporting documents...right?  But she wouldn't believe that he could have written the wrong day, and wouldn't believe me, and wouldn't look in the chart, saying she could only "look in the computer some other time".  So on every form, she put my due date and weeks a little off saying she'd "fix it later if it was wrong". If? GRRRRRR.  Insanely though,  she kept saying I was only 9 weeks, and at that point, instead of pointing out sternly that if my embryo transfer was almost a week before I said it was, then I would be a week more pregnant, not a week less, I just went within, avoiding eye contact for the rest of the visit.  She had my chart right in front of her, and I almost took it out of her hands.  My conclusion is that she is 1 card short, if you get my meaning.  

I know that this is not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, and it will all be fixed, but I was underwhelmed by the 'I can't trust the patient' attitude after the can-do IVF crew.  I just decided to stop resisting the way the appointment was going and call the clinic in the morning to talk to my IVF nurse so that she can help me correct the dates and ensure I'm seeing who I'm supposed to see at the correct times.

All of that BS evaported though when I found out a phenomenal thing during my meeting with the biller's office today.  They told me that we only have to pay one 25 dollar co-pay to have these babies.  Including hospital costs, even if it's a c-section.  I asked them to repeat themselves about 3 times, and I still plan to call tomorrow to ask if this is really, really, really true.  They kept saying, "just make sure you pay the $25 when you see the OB or they won't schedule your follow up appointments" as if it was too much.  M-kay.  I practically wept.  I was like, "$25? Come on, how about 5G?". Such is the financial mindset of the self-pay IVFer.  I completely forgot that I actually do have health insurance.