Nothing against my last doctor, really, I liked her at the time, too. But I always felt like my last O.B. didn't remember me when I went in, or didn't particularly care about my pregnancy. It's her job and she does it every day and she has a ton of patients, yeah yeah yeah. I still want to feel like she at least cares a little about me, and my particular baby. I thought I saw her at the grocery store once while I was still her patient, and I smiled, and she pretended like she didn't see me (or maybe she didn't see me). I like the women I work with and if I saw them randomly outside of work I'd say hello, but I completely understand a doctor wanting to keep that border clear. Regardless, she could have smiled. It's not like I would have started asking questions about placentas and nuchal translucency in the produce section. But she didn't. And then she didn't deliver my baby because she wasn't on call that day, and then she didn't come by to see me afterward until a full 2 days later right before we checked out. She did, however, circumcise my son and did a fantastic job at that. So, props there.
When we moved from Washougal into Vancouver proper last summer, I switched doctors. I still go to the same clinic (they have a few locations) but different doctors practice at the different locations. Needless to say, I wasn't horribly attached to my last O.B., and I really wanted to see one closer to home. So I made an appointment with my current doctor based on her online profile on the clinic's website for the location that is now closest to my home. Best decision ever. She's amazing. She's funny and witty, easy to talk to, and even though she's matter-of-fact and businesslike, I never feel like she's rushing me through my appointments. She takes the time to refresh herself on my chart's details at each appointment and always follows up with me when I have questions. I really, really hope she gets to deliver me, because I think the whole on-call rotation thing is pretty much their standard at this clinic.
So! After all of the Things looked good we realized it was about time to schedule my Glucose Tolerance Test, aka the Drink The Evil Syrup On An Empty Stomach Then Give Blood Test. Oy. I had a not-so-great experience last time. Short version: I had to drink the stuff twice. You're supposed to drink it in the morning, on an empty stomach after fasting all night, then go to the lab to get your blood drawn exactly 1 hour after drinking the stuff. So I did, only the lab wasn't open at THAT location and I didn't have enough time to get to the OTHER location within that magical window, so that was a bust. The second time it all worked out and I passed the test just fine.
This time, the procedure has changed. It is now a "2 Hour Test" (HAHA). You fast all night, head to the lab at your scheduled time (mine is 8:30), give blood, drink the evil syrup, wait an hour, give blood, wait another hour, give more blood. So all in all, 2 hours PLUS all the time I'll be awake in the morning, not able to eat or drink, taking care of Kawika, then actually drinking the shit, THEN feeling like CRAP for 2 hours until they finish all the blood-stealing. At which point I will likely be light-headed from no food and sick to my stomach because of the evil syrup. But then I get to go in for another routine O.B. checkup!
My doctor was nice enough, however, to reschedule me that day. I had originally had an appt planned for 3:30 pm so as to minimize the impact of time away from work. When we saw that fell right in the ideal window for the GTT, she said she'd squeeze me in earlier in the day so I can come up between blood draws (one of the advantages of this clinic, they have ALL practices in one giant building) to get checked out. So that was nice of her, too. But I still have to miss 1/2 a day of work for this shit.
Here's the obligatory this:
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| 20 weeks aka HALF WAY TO BABY, OMG |
And one more, for the road:
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| Awww, snuggles! |
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