What would you do, (OB vent)

Jbear04

 

 I am 23 weeks pregnant with our first.  I work with children so when a rash started on my hands, i knew (since i had had it before) that it was impetigo.  I had an ob appt that day, so I called my ob, letting them know what it was and what should I take for it.  The OB refused to get on the phone ( telling me that there are pregnant women in the office and it's contagious) I said I know, and that i myself am pregnant. then told me not to come in until it is taken care of, go see your primary.  This is Tuesday at 12pm

  I go see my primary at 4:30 on Tuesday, who said that it's nothing just a rash and to take amoxicillian (sp) I explain that this is how impetigo starts and I have had it before.  So i go get the amoxicillain( she said that it would help if it is impetigo)

Call my ob again wednesday morning to ask if the amoxicillain is ok, the recept says she doesn't know but will ask the doctor, I say ok, ask her, if it's ok to take, my husband is allergic to penicillian, will this hust the baby, I get a phone call back, 1/2 hour later and the recept says "the doctor says "yes"  i go "yes to what, yes it's ok to take or yes that my husband is allergic, it will harm the baby"  the recept said, it's ok to take.  Fine, I start taking the meds, at no time has my doctor spoken to me.,

Friday at 3:30am. I wake up to go to the bathroom, and find that my face is weeping, (that is part of impetigo, your face had a honey color liquid all over it)  So my DH and I head to the ER.  They give me the cream for impetigo, so I start that right away and made me give a urine sample, the Dr., comes back as lets me know I have a severe UTI,  (my ob had been telling me it;s a yeast infection just to treat it with over the counter, but it's been there since January) and that the amoxicillian will handle that. 

 It's now Monday, the impetigo is almost totally gone, (takes 3-5 days for the cream to work) and I have an appt with my ob on Thursday.  I am thinking of switching ob's.  Opinions please.

 

Jenny

dmd3026

IMO, if you don't feel like you are getting the right treatment from your Ob/GYN then I would switch. I would check to make sure another doctor would take you mid-pregnancy and also how it might affect your insurance.

MrsSandro

I never call and ask to speak with my OB. I usually call to ask to speak to the nurse. I realize that the OB is pretty busy. Usually the nurse is very helpful and will get back to me quickly if the doctor has any recommendations other than what the nurse gives me. To me your OB had a bit of a point of not seeing you until had a contagious rash was cleared up. So I don't think I would just drop my OB on that alone.

Sept2009Baby

I would probably switch.  Your OB is supposed to be there for you throughout your entire pregnancy and it sounds like they really dropped the ball on this one.  And what if it had been more serious, I wouldnt risk your health or the baby's by staying with that doctor.

LoveEeyore

Wow.  Until the UTI I didn't think any of it was a big deal... I've never actually gotten to speak to an OB when I've called with concerns, but that is insane.  A few weeks ago I thought I had a UTI and called the oncall doc on a Sunday and she made me go to the hospital immediately to be tested for an infection and monitored for PTL since some symptoms are similar.  A 3.5 month long UTI is ridiculous.  I'd switch.  In a heartbeat. 

peppermintgirl

Yikes. I would have been concerned that the receptionist was relaying messages, rather than having a nurse call me back.  My obstetrician has never gotten on the phone with me, but I understand that she's seeing people in her practice or in L&D. I would not be pleased if I had to wait for the receptionist to figure out what to tell me. I wouldn't drop my OB just for the phone call thing, but I would find out if it's possible to speak to a nurse.

However, the UTI thing would probably send me looking for another OB immediately. I'm amazed that you've had one since January and they didn't realize it. If you were reporting similar symptoms, why wouldn't they check you for it, to make sure? A UTI that spreads to your kidneys and/or bladder is not something to play around with.

Bottom line, if you are not comfortable at that practice, find someone else. Me? I would call the office and tell them about the three and a half month UTI, then I would find another doctor.

afg

It depends on how your relationship was with your Ob prior to this.

I think it's rare for the actual doctor to get on the phone and call you - Ob or Primary - it's usually the receptionist or the nurse that calls.

And again, if it's an issue for your primary then I'd have more of an issue with her for mi-diagnosing you.

blairsgirl

It seemed pretty normal until you got to the UTI part.  For the most part, the nurse calls me back when I need to call the dr.  I had to call once over the weekend and the dr on call called me back.  I would be upset if they missed a UTI.  If you don't feel like you are getting the care you need, then you should definitely switch.  You need to feel comfortable with your dr.

smurfetteinred

Honestly the not talking to the ob thing is pretty standard practice. I love my ob but I have never spoken to her on the phone (also, never spoken to my sons pedi when I've had to call for something) I always speak to a nurse/ receptionist who takes my info and goes and asks my doctor and calls me back with the answer later. So this wouldn't bother me at all.

The UTI screwup HOWEVER would bother me. Are they checking your urine every time you go in? There's no reason they shouldn't have caught that - it's ridiculous. I'm really prone to UTI's and one of the reasons they check your urine at appointments is to catch things like that because untreated infections of any kind during pregnancy can cause bigger issues.

snsgurl728

I guess I would switch. The part that works against me is that this is our first also, so I'm not 100% sure on what I can "demand" (not necessarily speaking in terms of your particular situation, atm). However, we'd probably end up switching because I am sure it is OK to expect to be handled as if you matter. What if it only escalates and the OB ignores your wishes during labor (aside from the uncontrollable), etc? I'd make the switch sooner rather than later.

Good luck in dealing with all that. I hope it gets better for you.

smurfetteinred

Oh yeah, and if you don't mind my asking, what did the rash on your hands look like before the weeping started. I noticed over the weekend that I'm getting some weird tiny itchy bumps on the palms of my hands and around the webbing of my fingers. I was going to bring it up to my ob on Thurs when I went in and see if she thought I should take it to my primary care physician or not but if it might be something that I could pass on to others then I don't want to do that.

jen5-03

I might switch OBs, but I'd definitely switch primary doctors!

I would never ever expect to talk to my OB over the phone unless I was in labor or something very major was happening. However, I would expect to speak to a nurse not just a receptionist. In fact at the 2 OBs I've gone to, the receptionists were not allowed to pass along medical advice like you've described.

I don't think your OB did anything wrong with regard to your impetigo. But missing a UTI is pretty damn hard to do with a simple urine test - and can cause spotting which freaks the crap out of pg women (I had this with my last pg and ended up going to L&D for several hours because of it). So if you feel that that he should have caught that earlier and you don't trust him, then you should switch.

Your primary sounds like a condescending twit, ignoring your experience with the rash. Besides that, most people don't get mystery rashes as adults it's usually something that happens to children - and even then most of them are viral. So I would run from your primary as fast as possible.

ChrissyK88

surely there was a better way to handle that.. id be asking around ab a new ob..

JuliaKL

agree with many PPs... no biggie about not talking to OB directly, but missing the UTI when they check urine every time? ?and, seriously, saying it's a yeast infection once, fine, but when it doesn't get better, time to look further! ?your primary, no big deal... amox should treat impetigo but the cream is just a little faster. ?if you like them, i'd stick with them. ?unless you really love your OB, i think i would be looking for a new one. ?but that is a pain at this point in the pregnancy! ?GL.