Chaos Love: love, life, design and more.

I was a bit anxious about this one. In the last couple of days, I've been concerned that my clinic wasn't really meeting the bar when it came to client service standards. According to a few people who are either expecting or have already given birth, my clinic seems sub-par. Being draped with attention isn't what I demand, but neither do I want to just be treated as a number as I felt yesterday when calling my clinic hoping to get an answer about a mild twang of pain in my lower abdomen. The receptionist answered and as I expected, informed me that a nurse would pull my file and call me back with an answer to my query. I wasn't satisfied with this answer as I had just stepped out of work in order to make the call. Waiting for a call back could take a matter of a minutes to half an hour depending on the rush of calls that they were having and my call would be would be attended to in the order it was received. Being put on hold wasn't an option and the receptionist was not qualified to make an opinion. Annoyed, I didn't leave a message but hung up. I had an appointment the next day and it wasn't urgent. I had just wanted to test the waters of the system and found the results tepid. I just want to be able to call when the matter IS urgent and to speak to someone immediately who can help.

After a fretful night of thinking I was going to walk into my appointment and lose my temper, I thankfully found the whole experience refreshingly communicative. I was thrilled to actually speak to my OB, as opposed to the nurse, who reset my expectations of how the office works. She would never be available to speak to me over the phone unfortunately as she is helping patients all day long. In an urgent situation, my call is bumped to priority and as there are only one or two nurses in this small clinic, they would call me back asap or page the nearest doctor if the case turned out I was giving birth. My OB is the type who is always leaning toward the door unless you can throw another lasso of questions at her so I made sure to quickly verify that she would be able to make it to the hospital when I go into labor. In reply, she explained that within the clinic network was a group of doctors who responded to the page if she was out or off duty. If she was not present for the actual delivery, someone responsible and dependent would be. I understand why the process needs to be done this way, and it has been successful, no doubt, in dozens of instances. However, perhaps the American in me, was expecting to get her cell number from day one so we could be best friends and she could listen to every pregnancy woe I could bray. In the real world, if you want to have your baby in a hospital with insurance, you follow the protocol. In other cases, like a friend of mine who's having a home birth, the personal attention level between her and her midwife will greatly differ from my experience. My friend and this woman are no doubt getting to know each other on a much more personal level. I've chosen my path and others will choose theirs and I should just consider myself damn lucky for having insurance at all with a house to go home to and a gorgeous wonderful husband who cooks me steak for dinner. And for going through the paces of todays appointment without a hitch, with a regular heartbeat, and donating a pint of blood for more tests that I'm sure will come out negative, no wonder I don't get any extra attention. Amen!

So just a run down of what ELSE happened at the appointment. I signed up to do the AFP (Alpha-Fetoprotein) test which is the final step in making sure the bub doesn't have Down Syndrome. Always good to know I guess. Cam and I declined the Cystic Fibrosis test which is an expensive test that may not be covered under insurance. It was explained that either of us could be a carrier of the disease without knowing it and if we were to both have it, there was a 25% chance it could be passed to the baby. It's nice to know that these tests are available but the chances of the CF test being applicable to Cam and I were a bit unrealistic. Although I didn't have an ultrasound at this appointment, the heartbeat was still audible using a small handheld doppler device. I wish they could record that sound for me so I could share it. Next appointment should be a big one though coming up in 3 weeks! The sex should be determined as well as us being able to make sure all the major organs are in the right places! Fun!