BERJAYA

Finally got through to Dr. G’s office yesterday. She remembered me and was quick to grab me the appointment information. We meet with Dr. G on March 22nd at 10:30am.

We have been waiting 3 years to get to this point because of incompetent doctors and we are finally going to move onto the next stage. We are finally going to be in the hands of doctors who are trained to deal with our situation. It’s a relief. But at the same time, its so fucking scary. I’ve bounced back and forth so much between extreme excitement and gut wrenching fear that I’m starting to resemble Tigger from Winnie the Pooh on a strong caffeine rush. I hate being where we are at now, but its something I’ve come to adjust to, while on the other hand, I’m scared of whats to come because its the unknown. One minute, I’m fine just to be in the middle of panic induced shakes because of fear just minutes later.

We have to travel for the appointment so as soon as I had the information I called my mother-in-law and told her. She’s going to come over everyday to feed the cats and make sure the litter gets cleaned. Chris’s best friend and his girlfriend that live downstairs have our spare key and they have already come up to visit to let us know that they will check in on the cats in the evening. I’ve already cleared my time off from work with pay (thanks dad!) and we confirmed with Chris’s Aunt Moe’s son and daughter-in-law about staying with them during the trip. (Aunt Moe is technically his mother’s best friend so they really aren’t his cousins) We’re going to go up on Wednesday, stay til Saturday and hopefully get some visits in with Moe, Moe’s daughter, grand daughter and son in law, and hopefully do some shopping. I miss Aunt Moe and her kids and their spouses. We are pretty close to them and I haven’t seen her daughter in a couple of months and its been almost 2 years since we seen the son and his wife.

So things, for once, are looking up. We have some info, we have a timeline and we will make the best of it. At least that’s what I’m chanting to keep myself sane…

First of all, thank you for all the heartfelt comments on my last two posts. It has helped ease my mind. ICLW is a wonderful thing and I’m so grateful for everyone who has embraced Mel’s wonderful creation. I went from feeling alone and scared to feeling accepted and like I wasn’t walking this fight alone. Seeing all of the comments left from those stopping by have helped me emotionally and reignited my love of writing in my blog. It’s a breath of fresh air.

Secondly, I finally got the results of my internal ultrasound with “Wandy”on December 20th (the delay on the results is because my doctor was away for a month on vacation and it took a bit for the secretary to get through all the build up of paperwork when they got back, so its cool, I can be patient). All reports came back NORMAL! This may be the only time I can qualify myself as normal but I’ll take it. No signs of cysts or any other abnormalities. It’s been a great relief to get this news because its simply one less hassle to deal with when it comes to us getting pregnant. I still have to do blood work to check my hormone levels and to see if my thyroid medication needs to be adjusted, but I take what good I can get from any situation at this point.

And finally, if things had gone how they should have gone, I would have been in Halifax with my husband today for his urologist appointment. An appointment that has been 2 years in the making. So what went wrong? A lot. Of course in the past I told you all about Chris’s family doctor being completely useless. She waited 2 months to give us the results of his first semen analysis. She previously sent the referral for him to go to the urologist to the wrong doctor…Twice! Then when we got the paperwork from Dr. G (finally the right doctor!!), she waited 2 months to give us the slip with the requirements he wanted before scheduling an appointment. So its no surprise that she screwed up our chances of getting to our first appointment. Right?

After my last post, I felt more confident and relaxed. The next day, I called Dr. G’s office. I got through right away to the secretary. (She was incredibly kind and sweet on the phone.) I told her who I was, that I was calling on behalf of my husband and she had no issue with dealing with me directly. When I gave her our names, she actually was surprised to hear from us. This is what I can remember of the conversation we had:

Me: Hi, I was wondering if you could help us. My husband was referred to Dr. G just before the summer. We eventually received paper work from your office requesting blood work and semen samples. The last of the samples were completed and supposedly sent back to you a little over 2 months ago and we have yet to hear from your office. I’m just wondering if you could let me know if you got the results and if there is any hold up? We’re getting a bit anxious…

Secretary: Hello Kimberly, funny you should call me today. Your husband was actually scheduled for an appointment 2 days from now, but I had to cancel it when I was unable to contact him to confirm the appointment.

Me: WHAT?!?!? Seriously?

Secretary: I’m so sorry that I had to cancel. But yes, we tried calling the number listed on the forms that came from his doctor. I have this number (his old cell #) and this address (our old address).

Me: That’s funny. We no longer live at that address and husband has a new number.

Secretary: Well that explains why I couldn’t contact you.

Me: Did you receive any other paper work since the middle of December from his family doctor?

Secretary: I have the file here and the only paperwork that was faxed to us was the original referral and the paperwork sent from his tests. Nothing else.

Me: Ok, that’s funny, because when Chris got his new phone and we had our new address, he went to his doctor immediately to update his phone number, our new address and my number as backup with his doctor and asked that the information be faxed to your office immediately. They told us that they would fax it that day.

Secretary: I’m so very sorry Kim. Had I been aware of any of this, I would have contacted you personally to make sure you knew about the appointment.

Me: It’s not your fault. His doctors office does this ALL THE TIME. They sent the referral for this to the wrong doctor twice and only finally sent it to your office when my husband flat out demanded it. That’s why its taken 2 years just to get to this point.

Secretary: I’m so sorry that you both have had to go through this. This is a stressful enough time for you as a couple, you don’t need this added stress. I’m gonna try to schedule you in as fast as I can but still give you enough time to make travel arrangements. What time frame works best for you? Because I know you are traveling from Cape Breton…

She continued to apologize through to the end of the call. She genuinely felt bad for having to cancel our appointment. Even though she wasn’t at fault. She offered to put us on the cancellation list but we both realized we have at least a 5 hour drive to the appointment so we need some notice. Plus work, setting up pet sitters for the kitties and all that fun stuff.

But it baffled my mind because this woman was apologizing for the acts, antics and stupidity of Chris’s family doctor. And the family doctor and her receptionist? Yeah, I wanna choke them with my bare hands. Seriously? We intentionally went in and asked them to fax that information to Dr. G’s office right away because we were waiting for a call for an appointment. Only to find out that they didn’t send the info. Lied, saying that they did. And now we are missing the appointment because of it. I want to just call them and yell at them til I lose my voice. Maybe fuck up her office a bit. It’s amazing the difference in protocol and mannerism between the two doctors offices. One can’t be bothered to do their work, the other is apologizing for others fuck ups.

But as frustrated as I am that right now we should be relaxing with family after we finished the appointment, I’m still a very happy girl because we should be in to see the urologist within the next 6 weeks or so. The secretary is waiting for Dr. G’s calendar to open up for the next two months. Once its open for appointments, she will schedule us and call us right away with the date and time of the appointment. That simple call and her help on the phone suddenly made me go from feeling lost in this sea of medical professionals who don’t care about us, to feeling like we matter, like our concerns are real and that they truly want to help us. We’ve had so little of this for the past 3 years, so this is a breath of fresh air to feel confident about the next move in our infertility journey.

I really hope this communication with our new doctors will become a regular standard from now on, instead of an isolated incident. Here’s hoping!