Yesterday was hard. For me, for Jay and for our journey. I mentioned in yesterday's post that Jay had an appointment to get lab work done. Well, that was a bust.
First let me start with, we live in a small town, on a small post that does not have an extensive medical facility. We have a clinic, not a hospital. Almost everything outside of basic care is sent off post. Jay had to be sent to Fort Lewis, WA to get the vasectomy reversal done since Fort Huachuca does not have a urologist. The specialist at Fort Lewis told Jay that he needed a "semen analysis" done after the reversal to insure it was a success and we will more than likely have to keep getting these analysis done until we are done TTC. Because, at any time Jay's surgical site could scar over and then he would become infertile. The only way to correct that would be for him to go through another surgery.
Yesterday, Jay went to his PCM and asked for a semen analysis. I suppose the Doctor or the Nurse decided that this was a simple task and that Jay did not need to speak with the doctor in order to get the order for the lab work put in. The nurse was the only person Jay saw. **This was my first red flag, but I was able to ignore it and still hope for the best.** Jay was told that he could call the clinic and speak with the nurse at the end of the day for the results. AWESOME! Jay had decided he'd call around 2pm so that we had plenty of time before the lab closed to insure we got the results before everyone ran screaming from the building an hour before CoB.
At 2pm, Jay attempted to call the clinic and no one answered. He called around 2:30, spoke to the nurse and was told to call back in 15 minutes when she was done screening a patient. He called back at 2:45 and she explained that she made a mistake. She thought that the lab work was for a count after a Vasectomy. His count is 26 mil per mL. That's wonderful but uhm... what are the motility, morphology, pH, vitality and fructose levels? **Jay is messaging me on facebook as he speaks to the nurse and I'm LIVID** So he gets off the phone with her with no real answers. So I ask him to call them back to reschedule the correct lab work for later this week and to speak with the actual DOCTOR this time. So he makes the phone call, the doctor is in with his last patient of the day and will call you when he's done. Then Jay gets the phone call, he explains that he needs a semen analysis and the doctor says that he only has the option to order a count in the system so he'll have to call the lab to see if they can even do a full blow semen analysis. They end the call and the doctor does his limited research. He calls Jay back to tell him that the lab here on post does not have the capabilities to do the SA and Jay asks what his other options are. The doctor says that they can't send off for the actual SA because of budget cuts and it costs money. **Uhm, since when did the army pay for medical, I'm pretty sure that's what TRICARE is for!** But it gets better, the doctor then says Jay can come back in 2-3 weeks for another count and if it hasn't improved then they can refer him to a specialist. Wait, WHAT?! You can't afford sending a sample off to a lab but you can refer him to a specialist. I'm not a doctor, or a nurse... I'm not even medical office personnel but that sounds freaking ridiculous. "I'm sorry we can't get the test you want done because it costs to much money, but if you come back for another simple test, we'll refer you to a civilian fertility specialist, who cost 100 TIMES more than a lab analysis." Am I insane? How could a fertility specialist cost LESS than a semen analysis?! It couldn't possibly. That's just incomprehensible for me.
Now of course being me, when Jay got home I grilled him intensely about the conversation so that I could pin point where everything went south. The only time Jay said that he was a vasectomy reversal was to the nurse. So now the doctor is making decisions based on something he wasn't reminded of. Jay also neglected to inform the doctor that his vasectomy reversal doctor (a SPECIALIST) gave him instructions to get a SA done after the surgery. Of course, yesterday I was angry with Jay and it resulted in us fighting but it's since been resolved and I have to remember that Jay doesn't think the way I do. Today he'll call the doctor and explain his situation and the instructions from the reversal doctor and hopefully we will be able to just get a SA done with out any more trouble. If that doesn't work, then we will be contacting Patient Advocacy and the vasectomy reversal doctor in Washington.
I think everything happening yesterday just made it worse. Yesterday was the day I realized there was no hope of a pregnancy for the June cycle and as much as I prepared myself for the disappointment, it was still hard to take. Which made the news of the "screw up" hard to take. I don't believe yesterday was any one particular person's fault. Everyone made assumptions about what the others wanted or knew. Jay assumed the doctor knew it was post reversal because it's in his record, the nurse assumed it was just a count because that's the only option on the system. The doctor assumed Jay was just being demanding and requesting a specific lab because of his desires not because of medical need. At least this is me hoping that's the case. I suppose we'll find out today if the doctor was just misinformed or if he is just going to refuse the lab work even though it's requested by the specialist.
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