gw monitoring

[Anonymous]

how do people feel about the monitoring process at gw

[Anonymous]

I remember it being fine unless they have changed the process recently? It all depends on who the doctor is at the time of monitoring! Some rush you or don't know anything about you and some take their time explaining and answering any questions. Obvious where my preference is.

[Anonymous]

what are you asking specifically?

[Anonymous]

i guess i feel that everything is done on the fly with their monitoring process. i wanted to make sure i wasn't the only one who felt that way. or maybe it was just the few days that i went they were off days for them??

[Anonymous]

I generally like the system. The doc doesn't always know exactly where I am in my protocol, but they measure everything and then discuss the results as a group looking at my chart...and then the nurse calls to give me the analysis/next steps.

What I think is weird is the system with walking to and from the changing stalls with a paper wrapped around your waist. It kinda works, but is super weird! I ran into a colleague in that space!

[Anonymous]

what do you mean "on the fly?" isn't that kind of the point of monitoring -- you see what's going on, then adjust accordingly?

[Anonymous]

so true! that changing area is awk! that thin sheet of paper!
i have often walked in for an appointment and not been on the schedule and no one knows why i am there.
sometimes they just hand you a sheet of paper with no instructions and say "you can go back now"

[Anonymous]

GW feels like a cattle call - standing in the hall, walking around with a sheet of paper around your waist. No bueno

[Anonymous]

Other than that it was efficient to get in and out quickly when I was just having blood drawn, I didn't care for their process. Having all monitoring patients for the day show up in only a 45 min window of time, despite their very small space? My anxiety was regularly heightened by standing in the line or sitting in the waiting room when there were lots of other women there and when I was dependent on the receptionist to be paying attention so she could tell me when it was my turn to go back to the changing area (she was always on top of it, but it still made me nervous every time). Blood draw process was so public and everything was so impersonal (i.e., "Next patient, come in when you're ready." Then enter sono room from changing area trying to keep the thin, ripping sheet of paper around your waist with one hand while carrying your order form from the front desk in the other, then hand it to the nurse so they finally know your name.)

I personally found it demeaning that, once I was pregnant, the OB sonos were also during morning monitoring. The first ultrasound(s) is nerve-wracking but should be a potentially amazing experience, but it was so awkward and impersonal having my husband fetched in from the waiting room, having the sono as part of the mechanical-feeling process in the few minutes allotted to me during monitoring, knowing there were 10 women in the waiting room in line behind me needing their follicle scans before they could also get on with their day. Worse yet was if/when the OB sono doesn't show good news. Unless you are the last monitoring patient of the morning, there is not really time for you and your partner (if they are able to be there with you) to have a few minutes to collect yourselves before you have to go back to the changing area then navigate back out past the line in the hall. My friends who were successful with IVF at clinics in Dallas and Chicago were speechless when I told them that my OB sono at GW was during morning monitoring and described this process to them.

I didn't appreciate how much less stressful monitoring could be until I switched to Dominion. Patients were spread out over 3 locations each doing monitoring for a couple hours every weekday morning so there weren't more than 1-2 women in front of me at the time I arrived (maybe that was luck). A nurse called me back to draw my blood privately in one room, then put me in one of the multiple sono rooms to wait for the RE to come to me, already knowing my name. And all my OB sonos were scheduled as regular appointments with my own RE. Calmer and so much more personal.

[Anonymous]

I was a patient of GW for 2 years. Here are my thoughts on this:

Positive: In and out in 15 minutes. Since they rotate doctors, I liked meeting all of them prior to having my egg retrieval, so I could establish some rapport.
Negatives: Hardly any time to ask questions, OB appointments during regular monitoring hours (I got pregnant 3 times while at GW, but miscarried each time. Being told there wasn’t a heartbeat to then go stand in a line for blood work behind the other women was absolute torture)