I am going to FIRE my OB.
Filed under Health
grrrr!
Almost 3 weeks ago, I was walking a dog in the late afternoon heat, and I fainted while chatting in someone’s driveway. Fortunately, the lady I was chatting with was an RN, and she got me to a chair in the garage before I hit the ground. after a cold cola, and sitting under cold blowing air for about 30 minutes, I was able to get the dog to it’s home ( I work as a part-time dog walker), and drink some cold water. I began to throw up, and rested for another 45 minutes. I called my ex and told him I knew I could drive a short distance to the medclinic, but not all the way to the hospital or back home(he told me I needed to be at the L&D, and that the medclinic would send me there anyway). At the medclinic, my heartrate was high, 135, and my blood pressure was really low (don’t remember the numbers now, sorry). They tried to get a standing blood pressure, but I got fainty and the cuff couldn’t pick up a blood pressure reading. By then ex-bf shows up, and they sent me to L&D, and did some tests- the baby girl was fine, and moving a lot. They did a ekg and it was ok, and apparently some blood tests came back ok, too. The OB on call for my practice (not my reg. OB). She told me to take some time off from my regular job at Starbux, and not to do anymore dog walking assignments unless they were in the cool part of the day. So I was off from Thursday til my next regular OB appt on Tuesday.
I did not see my regular OB on that day either, I saw the oncall OB from the Thursday night. I was still unable to stand, and my heartrate is still high, but bloodpressure is low. We determine that I am unable to work my regular job, and that I shouldn’t return to work until more tests come back. She wanted to know if I could get a desk job. I then flunked my 1hour glucose, passed the 3 hour glucose, and my TSH was tested ( I had a total thyroidectomy in 2004) & I was told to lower my thyroid hormone dose some more, and come back in 2 weeks. I call my boss at work, and he is concerned that I will lose my benefits if I am missing a lot of hours (we have to work so many hours each quarter to maintain health insurance), but he tells me that if I go out on Short term disability, I will be waived from the hours worked requirement. So I call the OB’s office to find out if they will sign the attending physician’s statement, and of course they say yes, they have filled out this type of paperwork before.
Today, 2 weeks later, I have another appt, and my reg OB and I chat about the paperwork, and I remind them that it is due tomorrow. He says yes, he’ll have faxed in the morning, and that he’s going to put “pending further testing” on the return to work date, but that it is a possibility that I may not return to work before delivery. I say that is fine-if I can get better and able to stand on my feet for and period of time, I would like to return to work, so I don’t use up all my paid FMLA. He says he would like to send me to a cardiologist, and he orders more blood work to be done.
Everything is hunky dory, until I receive a phone call at 5:30 pm today from a nurse telling me he is NOT going to sign off on the paperwork, and would I like to come pick it up. What? I’m really confused, and I’m asking the nurse what has changed, and why he would do this. His office has had the paperwork for 2 weeks! She said she didn’t know, except that he was not wanting to have me out on leave, and then I get better and not return to work since he signed off for me to be out, plus that he didn’t know what was wrong with me, so he didn’t know how long it would take to fix it.
I asked the nurse to please convey my confusion and disappointment, and would he please call me back to better explain this.
I’m so angry! I’ve done everything he has asked me to do, and yet I’m still having trouble. Now if my leave is unapproved, I am in danger of losing my job AND my health benefits, and I am not able to do my job, so I can’t go back to work! I’ve had a headache for 3 hours now, and I’m so angry I cry!
