New Doctor...

Insurance is a bear sometimes...Andrew and I have enjoyed a wonderful insurance package through the state since getting married. The plan was affordable, but allowed us (and Payton) to see whatever doctors we wanted. Unfortunately (though no one will admit that companies are bracing for Obamacare), the state no longer offers the same plan anymore. Our options weren't pretty. We could keep our current doctors and pay double our previous cost, or we could cut our cost by more than 1/2 and switch to Kaiser. With a new baby on the way, state furlough days for teachers, and no more overtime pay for police officers, you can image that we had to choose the latter option...

Because I am not a high risk pregnancy (that's a good thing) and not in my third trimester, we weren't sure that a "transition of care" (which would have allowed me to stay at Maternal Gynerations through delivery) would be approved. Plus, MG got rid of their midwives effective January 2010. Since I would have had to get used to a new doctor anyway, we chose to go ahead and switch care with the new year.

I've been a little anxious about switching care, not so much because I'm afraid that the doctors and midwives aren't competent at Kaiser (I've heard good reports about their midwives especially)...just that the logistics can be overwhelming - and I didn't want anything important to be overlooked or missed.

My first appointment was today, and I'm happy to report that I am relieved!! Andrew and I decided that the facility is pretty dumpy (it's an older building in Duluth and not the luxury I was spoiled with at MG), but that we appreciate their efficiency and felt really at ease with the staff. The midwife I met with today was especially wonderful. She was very conversational, down to earth, and seemed truly interested in our pregnancy. She even asked for Jackson's name! What I liked most about her is that she let me do a lot of the talking about my prenatal care up to this point. I told her what tests had been done, how the ultrasounds were measuring Jackson, etc. She had the reports in front of her, obviously, but she didn't treat me like an idiot, which I appreciated.

My original blood work back in September revealed that I have a low blood platelet count. A normal platelet count is 150 or higher (that's in thousands, by the way). Mine was 108 then and 90 a week later. Basically, no one knows why platelets are low, why they often occur during pregnancy, or how to improve the count (except via blood transfusion if it gets super low). All that to say, there's no known cause or "cure." The good thing is that it only really impacts my ability to have an epidural during labor. While having that option would be nice, it's certainly not a bad complication to have. I just have to deal with the pain...women have been doing it for years without help, right?! MG wanted me to see a hematologist to more closely monitor the situation, but their office made me mad and I never went (long story...also I knew that I would have to redo everything with Kaiser anyways). I spoke with the midwife about it today, and she had more blood work done to see if things had changed since the last test. From there, she said she would speak with a hematologist (or something) to decide if further monitoring was needed.

What's really cool is that I already have my blood work results from Kasier. I can log in to my account and see exactly what tests were run and what the results were. I can't interpret anything but the platelet count (which was 95, btw), but I think that's pretty cool to see so soon. At least it's not any lower than before!

All that to say that my appointment and initial experience with Kaiser was very positive. I go back in three weeks for the glucose test (yay) and will hear from the midwife if my blood work requires anything further. I left there feeling much better than I felt all week about it. Yay!

Now, I need to go to bed...