Sunday, November 9, 2008

PPD Test... is it safe for me?

Well, this seems to be the question of the week for me.  It all started with Part I of my physical exam required for my employment at Samaritan Hospital.  Employees are required to take a PPD (Tuberculosis) test unless otherwise noted by their physician.  I was advised by my future director to discuss the PPD test with my OB to determine if it's safe during pregnancy.  The director has indicated that other employees had opted to wait until after their babies were born to have the test done.  So I went online to do some research and found some sites that stated the test was completely safe and valid during pregnancy.  Other sites recommended against having the test because they stated it was a Class C injection, which meant that animal reproduction testing had not been done for the substance.  I also talked with a friend who is a nurse who told me that she waited with both of her pregnancies to have the test done.  Now, I've always taken a "better safe than sorry" approach to my pregnancies so I decided not to get the test done.  No problem, right?!?  WRONG!!!  I went to my routine OB visit on Friday and everything went fine, despite the rather monotone bedside manner of my physician, until I asked him to write a note excusing me from the test.  He refused to write the note and explained that the test was completely safe and he felt he couldn't lie and recommend that I not have it done.  

Well, needless to say, I was extremely upset when I left the office.  I'd had problems with scheduling of appointments with the practice in the past and was met with resistance by my doctor at another occasion and ultimately felt that I couldn't trust that my doctor would be on my side and communication with me throughout the pregnancy.  So I choose to request my medical records and now I'm in the process of finding a different OB and a different hospital.  I'm so frustrated because I feel like I've gone out of my way to ensure that everything goes smoothly with my doctor's office, yet it seems that no matter how much I try, it all ends up a mess anyway!  I just hope that I can find a doctor soon that will be supportive and informative so that I don't have to worry about all of this crap!  The doctors that delivered Alex and Emily gave me a hard time about WHERE I was going to deliver and tried to scare me into going to Albany Med instead of St. Peter's.  I even had to lie to my OB when I was in labor with Emily because she was arguing with me at 2am about which hospital we were meeting at (despite the fact that I made it VERY clear during the prior 9 months where I would be going).   I had hoped so much that I wouldn't have to deal with that sort of thing for this pregnancy, but sadly, it seems that with the way our healthcare system is run these days, my hopes may never be a reality.


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