Can you fire your gyno?

I don't know if that's the right way to put it but that's basically what I've done.

I've been with Dr. L. for the last 7 years and our relationship has been good. She's got a directness, a certain 'je nai say whatever the hell she feels like saying' that I'd really come to appreciate. While I was fibroid-free, her attitiude was fine. We even joked about her bluntness and mine and how ours was a good patient-doctor fit. Once we discovered those nasty little things though, all that changed. All of a sudden AF was rearing her ugly head in ways she never had before. Now she had a hammer and had commenced to bludgeoning my insides with cramps the likes of which I've never experienced in my life. And the good doctor went from being blunt to being downright mean.

When I started having issues, Dr. L. sent me for a bunch of tests - BW, a couple of U/S's. Then she referred me to a specialist, Dr. S., who was going to figure out whether or not we could take the fibroids out since their placement seemed a little iffy. Dr. S. suggested I have some additional BW done, another U/S and an MRI which showed the exact location of the fibroids and would dictate our next course of action. Oh and let's not forget the lupron to shrink the fibroid before surgery AND a visit to the hematologist since "the hammer" sucks about a pint of blood out of me every month so now I'm hyper-anemic. Nice.

Anyway, as a lot of you can attest to, insurance has a way of throwing a wrench in the works and it did so in this case for me.

Because of insurance restrictions, Dr. S. is unable to do the actual op to remove the fibroids so he referred me back to Dr. L. so she could do the procedure and he would assist. This is the only way insurance will cover him being in the room. Don't understand it, don't really care. Bottom line - he can't be the primary on the procedure. Some back and forth between the offices about who would be performing the procedure commenced, but I hadn't been directly involved in it. When I had spoken to Dr. L. about my MRI results, she'd mentioned that she wouldn't be doing it but she didn't answer me when I asked her why. In subsequent calls from Dr. S.'s office, she did the same thing to them.

In the meantime, my PCP, Dr. M., requested a referral for the procedure with Dr. L.'s name on it as the operating doctor. I didn't ask him to do it. He did this on his own. Again, don't understand it, don't care. Bottom Line - Dr. L. almost lost her mind and asked me if I asked him to do it. When I told her no, she said "Oh well, we'll get it changed so it shows Dr. S. as the primary." So I told her that Dr. S.'s office told me he can't do it. She yelled into the phone and said "Well, he'd better do it, cuz I'm not", then basically hung up on me.

HUH?!?

In that moment I realized a few things:

1) I've had it with her attitude. I don't want to deal with a doctor who's going to treat me like that. I'm a woman who's TTC. I'm fragile. Handle with care.

2) If she's that adamant about not doing the operation, I don't want her anywhere near me with a scalpel.

and 3) She's Fired.

I didn't call her back and get verbal on her butt but as soon as she hung up on me, I did call my medical group directly and get hooked up with another, more accomplished, better-rated, more popular OB/Gyn. The only downside to this is that I have to wait until November to meet with the new doc and then the process has to start all over again. New tests, new referrals, etc. - all of which will push my goal of TTC back until after the start of the year instead of in January like I'd hoped.

Whew!! That was a mouthful, huh?

All right. So now you have the backstory and we can get back to real time.

1st comes love, then comes marriage...

then comes me and my ever-expanding medical file under one arm as I enter the doctor's office for yet another flippin' test.

Ok, so here's the deal:

I don't know if I'm an actual IFer just yet. What I do know is that I went in to my gyno's office way back in March to see why it was taking so long to get pg and I came out with a womb-ful of issues. In a nutshell, I have fibroids. Not too many according to the MRI I just sweated through, but one large enough to protrude into my uterus, effectively blocking the lil guys from getting anywhere past my cervix. Oh, and let's not forget the notorious AF, (or The Hammer as I like to call her), who, in my world, shows up packing lotsa luggage and is always in for an extended stay.

UGH!!

I know what you're thinking. It should be ez enough to have these suckers removed and get on with the business of frying my eggs. But I'm also AMA - "advanced maternal age" for those of you who're just starting out - and I just fired my gyno.

Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's backtrack a bit...