I have to tell you guys about the awesome visit to the
gynecologist I had last week. (And yes,
I am well aware that this might be the first time in history that the phrase “awesome
visit to the gynecologist” has ever been used.)
But I’m going to tell you about it tomorrow, because first there’s a lot
of background to get through.
See, to fully understand the awesomeness of this visit and
how everything came together just right to make it happen, we have to go back
in time to when I was 22, fresh out of college, and children were far from my
mind. I was looking for a gynecologist near
me who would take my insurance, so I went to the Blue Cross website and picked
someone at random. It turned out that her
office was nice, her nurses were friendly, and best of all, I liked her – she was
unflappable, a little bit mannish, and of an indeterminate age that made her
seem experienced without seeming old. I
stayed with her through several insurance changes and even came back to her
during breaks from grad school.
But, like so many relationships, this one soured. It happened, ironically, when I was
recommending her to a friend who asked if I liked my gynecologist. I Googled my doctor’s name so that I could
send along a link, and there the paragraph was: “Dr. Roenneburg specializes in
the treatment of urinary incontinence in women of all ages, as well as pelvic
prolapse, pelvic reconstruction, fecal incontinence, and the special
gynecologic needs of senior and handicapped women.” And, since at that point Henry and I were
starting to seriously discuss kids, something else stood out: nowhere on the
page did it list her as an obstetrician.
It was like a scene from a movie – suddenly I realized
that I was always the youngest person in the waiting room. Suddenly I realized that my doctor always
seemed happy to see me and my uncomplicated gynecological issues. Suddenly I realized that I never saw any
pregnant women in the office.
Needless to say, I felt very awkward and self-conscious
about the fact that I had been going to a doctor for incontinent old ladies for
years. But I still liked her, and I tend
to feel irrationally loyal to people I like, so rather than just finding
someone new I tried to gently bring it up at my next appointment. “So, we’re thinking about getting pregnant
soon. Should I start seeing an OB and is there anyone you would recommend?” But my attempt at a break-up was thwarted
when she assured me that she could do the pregnancy test in her office and then
send me over to an OB. Dammit. As I left her office, I defeatedly made the
appointment for my annual visit a year later.
In the meantime, though, I had done some Googling and
found my dream OB/GYN office. It was an
all-woman practice, they had an office near my office, and they did their
deliveries at the hospital near my house.
They seemed young and friendly.
At one point I even bravely made an appointment with them, but something
came up and I had to cancel and never rescheduled.
So that pretty much brings us to when I was starting to
worry about the fact that Henry and I hadn’t gotten pregnant yet. I decided to call my doctor and see if I
could move my annual visit up a month or two so that we could run the first
round of tests asap. When I called,
however, I learned that my doctor had left the practice. I could switch
guilt-free! I quickly called my dream
office to get an appointment. They made
a “pregnancy consult” appointment for me right away with one of their doctors, and
I felt good about it.
When I went in about a month later, I loved the doctor –
she was cute and energetic and positive even in the face of my tears. But rather than ordering tests, she gave me a
referral to the doctor who is now my RE, explaining that he could do more than
she could. “He helped me get pregnant,”
she said. So I left, a little bit
frustrated that I had just spent $30 to be told it sounded like I was ovulating
just fine, but at least with the name of her trusted RE in my hand. I made an appointment for my annual visit
with the same doctor, and that’s the appointment that I had last week.
I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.
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