Bad Experience

So our insurance is through this giant HMO in California called Kaiser. Most of the time they are good. Yesterday they were bad. Very bad.

Oh, and before I go on with this story, I should let you in on a minor detail. I'm pregnant! We are excited. And yes, we're crazy. We'll have 3 kids ages 3 1/2 and under. Our house will be a zoo. Who-hoo! :)

Anyway. I am about 9 weeks along. Yesterday I started having some spotting and cramping. I didn't think alot of it but then the cramping started getting worse. I know it can be normal in early pregnancy, but my doctors appointment wasn't for another 2 weeks. I called Kaiser simply to ask if I could get in a little earlier. The appointment lady asked why, I told her, and she immediately puts a nurse on the phone. The nurse tells me I had to go to urgent care "TODAY."

Not exactly my idea of a fun Friday night, but I figured some peace of mind would be nice to make sure I wasn't having a miscarriage.

Scott and I drive to the urgent care that is close to us that is operated by Kaiser. AFter waiting for FOREVER, the nurse comes out and very nicely tells me that they don't have an ultrasound machine and that they would need to do an ultrasound to make sure the baby was ok. She told me we needed to drive to the urgent care at the hospital in Riverside, 30 minutes away. Ugh. But again, I was cool with it.

We drive to Kaiser in Riverside where everything went downhill. After I left last night I was wondering if I had just recieved medical care from a California medical facility or from Tijuana.

After waiting for FOREVER (they categorized my situation as a NON-EMERGENCY- if I was losing the baby, I was losing the baby- nothing they could do about it. Therefore, the every guy with a runny nose got to go ahead of me.) I FINALLY get back and the doctor walks in the room. I was relieved that she was female. Not so relieved when she opened her mouth to talk and I couldn't understand a WORD she was saying. Oh, and did I mention she had food stains all over her white lab coat? Sick.

She kept saying "If you are having an abortion, there isn't anything that can be done to stop it." I was like- what the heck are you talking about lady? Come to find out- abortion means miscarriage in her language. She then tells me she wants to do an internal exam to make sure my cervix was closed.

Oh happy day. She does the exam when all of a sudden I feel a PINCH from the speculum and the she starts fumbling with it for forever. After about 5 minutes, she tells me "Um- I sorry. The speculum is stuck. I go get help. I be back." So there I sat, legs up in the air, speculum STUCK inside. I guess you have to twist it to open and close it and the twisty part was stuck. SO a nurse comes in and she cant figure it out either. The nurse is like "I don't know. I don't know what to do. It's stuck." I was mortified. The doctor then tells me to take a deep breath and she is just going to have to yank it out (all the while it was pinching me). She yanked it out, it hurt, and we moved on. She goes throughout the rest of the exam and she tells me my cervix is closed, and that usually means I'm not having an "abortion" (a.k.a.- crazy doctors word for miscarriage). So she starts to leave and Scott said "You guys can't do an ultrasound to make sure everything is ok? We really don't know that everything is ok, do we?" The doctor said that unless I had symptoms of an ectopic pregnancy, they wouldn't do an ultrasound.

She said "This is urgent care. We're not an OBGYN's office. If you want an ultrasound, go to your OBGYN." I was so angry. Hello crazy doctor- I did not WANT to be in your office on a Friday night. You crazy people are the ones who told me to come in the FIRST place.

And here is the kicker. As she was leaving, she checked something on the computer and turned to me and said "Oh- you no pregnant." I was like "Huh??!" She said "Pregnancy test is negative. You no pregnant." After everything else I had been through I looked at her and said "Yes I am. Unless I had a miscarriage, in which case, you said my cervix would be open." She said "Do you think you are pregnant??"

SERIOUSLY? Did she just ask me if I thought I was pregnant? I started tearing up out of frusturation and said "YES. I KNOW I am pregnant. That is the WHOLE reason I am here. I thought you understood that. Isn't that why you did an internal exam????? Yes. I am pregnant." She said "No, you're not pregnant. The test was negative."

By this point, I was in tears. I looked at her and said "Can I take another test then? Pee in another cup? What do you want me to do? Can you do an ultrasound? I am pregnant. I don't know why the test was negative."

Then Dr. "Fresh off the boat" started getting rude and said "Ma'am. You either pregnant or not. There is no debate. Test either positive or negative. You test negative. You no pregnant. I'm sorry. If you have questions, you go to OBGYN. This is urgent care. This is no OBGYN."

Scott said a few things, I don't remember what. I was full on crying out of frusturation. I finally said again, more firmly, "I want you to do another pregnancy test." She opens the door and I followed her out, in tears, and she tells the nurse "This lady wants pregnancy test. She no pregnant, it negative, but she says she pregnant." This nurse looked at me (knowing 10 minutes prior I had a speculum stuck in there) and looked mortified. She turned to the doctor and said "Dr. she is pregnant. The test was positive." She then goes and looks in the computer and turns to me and says "Oh sorry, I typed it in wrong in the computer. I typed it in as negative, but it was positive. Sorry about that."

Oh I'm angry at them. I've never had a bad medical experience until then. And if they were going to do NOTHING for me except get a speculum stuck and tell me I'm not pregnant, why did I have to drive 30 minutes to Riverside to do that? Why couldn't I have stayed at the urgent care here? The urgent care here are the ones who told me they would need to do an ultrasound and Kaiser at Riverside were the only ones who could do it.

So what did I get resolved yesterday? I got a speculum stuck in me. Then, after being told I wasn't pregnant, I was told I WAS pregnant. Which I have already known. For over a month. I guess it was good news to know that my cervix was closed, so the doctor said she didn't think I was having a miscarriage and she saw nothing alarming. She just said cramping is normal at this point in pregnancy when your uterus is growing. This was all, of course, before she told me I wasn't pregnant. What an idiot.

So for today, I hate you Kaiser. Cross your fingers that the rest of this pregnancy goes smoothly! 3 more weeks till I'm "out of the woods"... if all goes as planned, this baby will grace us with it's appearance in August.