Resolution: Dr. Take-a-Breath

So, I've told you this before, but... my wife rocks. She is the greatest when it comes to making pushy phone calls and pretending to be me.

We finally called the pulmonary specialist while someone was there and they wanted to give us an appointment for next week. If I had my Pulm*cort in hand, that would've been fine, but it's been 2 days and my PCP has not yet bothered to call my pharmacy back and tell them which dose of the Flexh*ler to give me. Given that my PCP erred and told me Flov*nt was Cat B when it wasn't thus creating this crisis and then gave me a scrip for a phantom turbuh*ler that no longer exists, I am not at all pleased that she didn't call my pharmacy back for 2 days. I might write a letter.

So, no longer counting on my PCP to deliver, I wanted a sooner appointment. I need a safe scrip, dammit! So, Lo played the "but I'm pregnant!" card and they fit us in same day. Hurray!

Dr. Take-a-Breath was exactly what I needed, not because I needed a pulmonary specialist, but because I needed a doctor who would be nice and reassuring and not treat me like the first asthmatic ever to get knocked up. She thought it was good that I'd switched from Adv*ir to Flov*nt before getting pg because she said she would've been more concerned about me taking Adv*ir while pregnant because it has Ser*vent in it and that is known to make asthma get worse and cause deaths in rare cases. I told her what I knew about the animal studies involving Flov*nt and how since I was 4 mos. pg, any damage was probably already done. She just smiled and told me my baby was going to be fine. I know she can't possibly know that, but I liked that she just wasn't worried at all. She basically kind of saw the sitch for what it was... this is my first baby, I am anxious and want everything to be okay, and my PCP got too flustered by fears of malpractice to help me so she passed the buck to a specialist, but I didn't really need to be there because my asthma just isn't that serious and is easily controlled by inhaled corticosteroids and a rescue inhaler and all I really needed was for someone to write me a scrip for a medication that actually exists and stamp it with the letter B to make me feel better. She told me she wasn't concerned about the Flov*nt I had already taken. She said, "I want you to take some breathing tests if you have some time tonight to do that, but after that, I will write you a scrip for whatever category of med you want. There are a lot of meds that are completely safe to take during pregnancy. Don't worry. We'll take good care of you."

Being taken care of instead of being made to feel anxious? Really? Doctors can DO that even while you're pg?

So, I took the 4 breathing tests. It was more than I've ever done before. I've done the one where they make you blow into a tube as hard as you can, but the tests I took last night involved a weird glass booth and pinching my nose shut with a clip, and of course blowing as hard as I could through a tube at times. The tests were probably unnecessary but I didn't mind her being thorough as long as I was there.

Anyway, 30 minutes later, the weird breathing tests were done and I met with Dr. Take-a-Breath again. She told me my breathing test results were good and showed that my asthma was well-controlled by the Flov*nt and we should keep it controlled during pregnancy with a different inhaled corticosteroid. She told me unequivocally that Pulm*cort was completely safe during pg (unlike my PCP who said it was Cat B/C, not Cat B) and gave me a scrip for the highest dose of the Flexh*ler. She gave me enough refills to last the duration of my pregnancy and told me I didn't need to see her again unless my asthma got worse. She wished me good luck and sent me and Lo on our way.

So, finally, a resolution. Finally, I can breathe.