I'm eleven weeks pregnant. I started visiting my doctor's office at five weeks, when I had my initial consultation with one of the nurses. We went over every medical concern that was either in my family or my husband's family, and I got my prenatal vitamins, with the nurse, S, telling me that I could switch to Centrum if I had trouble with the prenatals.
Two of my sisters are also currently pregnant, and one is due to pop any day now. When I talked to her a few days later about how the pills were making me feel sick, she mentioned that her midwife put her on Flintstone vitamins, and that she didn't have any trouble after that.
Neither one of us can handle particularly strong medication, and each of these pills is 500 mg. Which doesn't sound like much, but the typical 250 mg ibuprofen tablet can make me drowsy. 500 mg stays in my system for awhile, so all I was doing was building up a bunch of medication, and that's what was causing me to be sick.
The following Monday, I called the doctor's office to ask them about switching to Flintstone vitamins instead of Centrum, and this nurse (J) told me that I absolutely had to take the vitamins that I had been given at the doctor's office.
I chose to ignore that, and mentioned at my first appointment with my actual doctor that "one of the nurses" told me I had to take something that made me uncomfortable. She told me that it was okay for me to have switched vitamins, and that as long as I was taking something, she didn't have a problem with it.
After that appointment, Nurse J had to schedule an appointment for me because the woman that usually handles that sort of thing was on vacation. My husband and I stood there for at least twenty minutes while she kept asking us if we could just call in and make the appointment, and then she realized we were also waiting to pay the bill for the visit. Of course, she couldn't figure out how to do that, either.
The day after that, I got a phone call from the office. It turned out that one of my appointments had to be rescheduled because the doctor was on vacation during that time.
Today, however, it occurred to me that the appointments were too close together, and I wasn't sure they would have enough time after the first one to get the results. (The second appointment was to discuss the results from the first one.)
I called the office, and this happened.
Me: I was originally scheduled for the 8th, but my appointment was changed to the 2nd.
Her: Okay.
Me: But the appointment on the 2nd is to go over results from a nuchal ultrasound and genetic counseling that I'll be having on the first. I wasn't sure if that would be enough time for the results to come in.
Her: I don't know....?
Me: Yeah. I was hoping that I could have my appointment changed to later on in the week.
Her: She's on vacation that week.
Me: No, she's not. She's on vacation the week after.
Her: No, she's on vacation that week.
Me: No, she's on vacation starting the 8th. I want my appointment later on in the week next week.
Her: She's on vacation next week.
Me: No, she isn't. Monday is the first. The Monday after that is the 8th. She goes on vacation on the 8th. Unless....does she have a two-week vacation?
Her: No.
Me: So then I'd like my appointment-
Her: Oh, you want it later on next week!
Me: That's what I said, yes.
Her: Is the third okay?
Me: That's fine. I'd prefer in the morning, if possible.
Her: She's only there on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Me: Then...why did someone schedule me for Tuesday?
Her: She's there on Tuesday, in the afternoon. She's only there in the mornings on Monday and Wednesday.
Me: *getting fed up* Okay.
Her: Oh, they don't have anything available on the 3rd. Ummm...
Me: I'll just keep my appointment on the 2nd, then.
Her: I took it off there already so I could reschedule you.
Me: *sigh* It was at one pm on October 2nd.
Her: Okay! Is that all you needed?
Me: .........yeah.