Tuesday, October 17, 2006

My visit with the cranky nurse practitioner...

...was, well, very cranky. I was sitting there waiting for her to come in when she opened the door. She must have forgotten to say goodmorning or hello, and she started shuffling through my file. She asked if I'd had a pap last visit. She couldn't find the results. "Hold on," she said as she left the room and sighed.

She came back and shortly after one of the medical assistants came in, gave her the results, which she told me nothing about, so I'm assuming I'm OK. Then she placed them in my file, mumbling about how she can't stand it when they do that and they need to initial when they file so when it goes wrong she'll know who to put the smack down on.

So she did an ultra sound, found the baby - YAY! We saw the heartbeat, but couldn't hear it yet. I was really relieved because I so haven't felt pregnant the last couple of weeks. I had a bad dream the other night that there was no baby too, so I am very happy to have gotten a snapshot of our little sprout.

As she was wrapping up, I was giving myself a pep talk in my head about bringing up the VBAC issue. So I did. It didn't really go very well. I just asked, "So is the hospital and the dr. still not doing any VBACs?" She looked at me like it was the most idiotic question. She went on about how she delivered her kids vaginally and it wasn't worth it. She also said there has been a new study that showed the risk for uterine rupture was actually quite higher than the .1% thought previously. I haven't heard of said study yet, so I'd like to see what the findings are. She pretty much tried to scare me into thinking that if I wanted to have a VBAC, I have a death wish. I told her briefly how, If I did have a section again, I'd like to get to hold my baby sooner than last time, was there any possibility of that? I felt like an hour and a half was just too long. She snorted something about an hour and a half wasn't long at all, and pretty much all I heard after that was, "BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH, you are wasting my precious time."

I feel bullied. Why are so many medical professionals so rude? I'm always nice to them. I shower and clean up really nice before I go. I say hello. I smile. I think I'm being pleasant. Why can't they be decent? Why can't they at least humor me, and pretend to care that I didn't have the best birth experience, and would like to have an option for something different this time?

Yes, Lord, I know, she could have just been having a bad day. I'll pray for her.

2 Comments:

Blogger Xenia Kathryn said...

Hi there Lauren!
So nice to meet you, thank you for reading my humble blog and for leaving a comment! I'll have to add you to my "to read" list for blogs :)
Gosh, that n.p. sounds like such a grinch. I would seriously request you ask to be seen by someone else. Seriously. YOU deserve much better, and even if she WAS just having a bad day, she wasn't being very professional at all. Next appointment you make, make sure you tell the receptionist "I don't want so and so." I'm shy, and I'd probably feel bad for about, oh, 5 seconds, but it'd be worth it.
Take care!

1:15 PM  
Blogger Lauren S. said...

It's a small practice. It's just her and the dr. and guess what, they are married! The thought of picking a new doctor, and rearranging everything for my insurance gives me a headache, but is probably necessary. I actually like my doctor though. He's very nice. I have seen the NP before, and she's never been impressive, but this time took the cake for grumpiness.

1:57 PM  

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