Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Jan
21
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“…I Can Tell Just By Looking At You That You Don’t Have An Ectopic Pregnancy.”
“No, you can not have a test done. I can tell just by looking at you that you don’t have an ectopic pregnancy.” – OB who refused further testing on the mother when she suspected an ectopic pregnancy.
There are 36 comments to this post.
An OB with x-ray vision? That rocks!
This is so infuriating! And if the pink link comes up to say that the Mom did indeed have an ectopic pregnancy, my head is going to explode. Just wanted to let you all know so that you don’t get concerned if you hear a loud bang coming from the deep south of Mississippi.
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Can you put that in writing? Because I’m sure my estate would like to have that information after my tube ruptures and I bleed out.
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The Deranged Housewife had this to say,
Jan 21, 2012 @ 8:30 pm (Quote)
I know, let’s wait until my uterus explodes to find out, shall we? *dumbass*
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That’s funny, when I look up symptoms of ectopic pregnancy, almost none of them are symptoms you’d see just by looking, unless it’s advanced and the mother has gone into shock. In that case, if he’s refusing further testing, he needs to be booted from the practice as of yesterday!
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I had an ectopic scare when I was 8 weeks with my twins. It turned out to be an ovarian cyst. The ER doc told me it was unlikely to be ectopic because it would have shown up before 8 weeks, but that I absolutely did the right thing by coming in and she’d get me to sono ASAP to make sure.
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Nicole Reply:
January 22nd, 2012 at 7:45 am (Quote)
The ER doc I had with my ectopic told me that it WOULDN’T cause problems before 8 weeks. I was 5 1/2 weeks when it happened.
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Augie Reply:
January 22nd, 2012 at 9:47 am (Quote)
I was 6w 5d before my ectopic was seen (in the ER). I’d had a vaginal ultrasound just two days prior in the OB’s office where they looked extensively at the tube as saw nothing. (By 6w 6d, my tube had ruptured. Not only was the tube bleeding out, so was my uterus.)
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No way. I really hope the OP got another (real) doctor to check her out, who respected her concerns.
Amazing. When we ask for less interventions, they treat us like we’re at risk for every problem in the book. And when we ask for a bit more testing or interventions, they suddenly decide everything is okey-dokey.
So…. basically, whatever we want they won’t give us. Did I get it right, now?
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Alyson Miers had this to say,
Jan 22, 2012 @ 7:15 am (Quote)
Doc, you are just cruising for a wrongful death lawsuit.
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I had something similar happen. I went in to the ER because of intense one-sided pain and fainting. By ambulance because I passed out in my hallway. I knew immediately what was going on, I had had a bad feeling the entire pregnancy. Got there and the ER doc kept saying “I don’t think this is ectopic, ectopics don’t have this much vaginal bleeding, ectopics don’t cause problems this early, this is a miscarriage.” Left me in a cold exam room in the stirrups for a full half hour before he bothered to come and examine me. Even after I exhibited symptoms of ectopic (pain with cervical manipulation, rebound tenderness, etc) he kept saying it was a miscarriage. I insisted on having an ultrasound. It took him three hours from the time I was admitted to when I finally got the ultrasound, the whole time I was having excruciating pain. Even the ultrasound tech told me it was ectopic. I had emergency surgery 2 hours later. Thankfully my tube was still intact, but I had been bleeding internally. It was really scary.
I’m so sorry that happened to you, OP, even if you didn’t have an ectopic. Just suspecting one is scary all by itself 
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This one is actually really scary to me.
My closest friend had an ectopic and was told by a doctor that the bleeding and pain just meant a miscarriage. She went back to the hospital a couple of weeks later because she was in so much pain she was passing out and another doctor tried to prove to her that it wasnt an ectopic by HITTING her in the stomach a few times.
The on call surgeon decided NOT to come in because it didnt seem serious enough. A few hours later when she FINALLY went into surgery she had so much blood in her abdomen from a RUPTURED tube that after the surgery they admitted that another 2-3 hours and she wouldn’t have lived.
Sometimes it seems like if you already think you might know what the problem is the doc is offended because he/she wanted to tell you what the problem is. So they tell you it cant possibly be what you said.
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Alyson Miers Reply:
January 22nd, 2012 at 9:15 am (Quote)
and another doctor tried to prove to her that it wasnt an ectopic by HITTING her in the stomach a few times.
This person should be doing time. Not even exaggerating. Aggravated assault, grievous bodily harm, reckless endangerment…
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Heather Reply:
January 22nd, 2012 at 11:20 am (Quote)
My gasp prompted my husband to want to know what I’d just read. He was just as horrified. His mom lost a tube to an ectopic pregnancy when he was a boy and he still remembers how horrible it was for her.
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Tee Reply:
January 22nd, 2012 at 11:40 am (Quote)
Your story just gave me a flashback to one of my least favorite memories. I had started losing sensation in my body, from the legs up. (Long story short, it was a spinal cord injury but you usually lose sensation from the top down.) I had even had an EMG done to show that I didn’t have sensation but one neurologist just refused to believe me since it was an unusual progression. He took a tongue depressor, put it between two toes and then held toes and tongue depressor in his hand and twisted them. He was trying to hurt me, trying to make me wince or cry, anything to prove that I was lying. My foot was swollen and bruised for days but I felt nothing. And he should be thankful for that because I would have kicked him if I did have sensation.
So it doesn’t surprise me at all to know that there is a doctor cruel enough out there to punch a woman in her stomach in an attempt to prove he is right. I’m just so very sorry that your friend had to do that.
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Knitted in the Womb Reply:
January 23rd, 2012 at 11:50 am (Quote)
Sometimes it seems like if you already think you might know what the problem is the doc is offended because he/she wanted to tell you what the problem is. So they tell you it cant possibly be what you said.
Yep, BTDT, I really do think that is true.
And yes, the Dr. that hit her in the stomach should be charged with assault. Where in the heck is the protocol that punching someone in the stomach is diagnostic for ANYTHING?
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Robyn Reply:
January 24th, 2012 at 11:39 am (Quote)
Yep, the docs definitely get offended. When I was a child I had a sore throat. My mom looked at it and saw a white spot by my tonsil. You don’t need a PhD to know that white spots in the back of the throat typically indicate strep throat. She got me in to be seen, which meant keeping a doctor late on a Friday afternoon.
He looked at my throat, but claimed to see nothing (my mom said that my throat had swollen around the spot). My mom insisted on having him do a culture. He swabbed the right side of my throat (the spot was on the left) and did a quick culture that came back negative. Monday morning, we got a call saying that my culture came back too numerous to count and that I needed to come pick up my antibiotics.
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God, this scares me. After my first ectopic, I joined an ectopic support group, and there were SO MANY stories like this- including mine. I started having left-side pain and bleeding 2 weeks after my period. I assumed my period was back and just being weird, but eventually the pain got bad enough for me to go to Urgent Care. They told me my pregnancy test was positive, but since I had had my period 2 weeks before, they assumed I was 2 weeks along and would not order an U/S(I found out later on my support group that NOT missing a period isn’t that uncommon with an ectopic- I was charting, and had no idea I was pregnant at all) They told me I was miscarrying, and to go home and take ibuprofen. That night, I was screaming in pain, and went to the ER, where they discovered the ectopic and my ruptured fallopian tube.
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Britney had this to say,
Jan 22, 2012 @ 2:17 pm (Quote)
I was told almost the exact same thing at 6 weeks with my second pregnancy. Than again at around 8 weeks and that my pain was miscarriage related. The next day I had an emergency surgery to remove an ectopic pregnancy and half of my tube.
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What somebody passed up the opportunity to use the vaginal u/s!!! When I had my scare which turn out to be nothing more thatn round ligament pain, I was seen by a local OB/Gyn that day during a snow storm. I wasn’t even bleeding an they had that wand in me with 3 hours of my call! More than happy to bill for a first time visit and use of the fancy machine. I couldn’t have gotten faster service at the ER.
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SculptorAlison Reply:
February 13th, 2012 at 12:18 pm (Quote)
Bleeding must make the vaginal ultrasound too icky to bother with.
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That’s insane! My was undiagnosed until 8.5 weeks because they did the u/s too early and then wouldn’t do another one because my HCG levels were rising(very slowly and not doubling like they should have been). Thankfully I got fed up, went to a different doctor, who sent me straight to the ER. I had surgery that night to remove my right tube. I was bleeding, but not having much pain. And I knew in my heart something was wrong.
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Mel Reply:
January 22nd, 2012 at 6:13 pm (Quote)
What the #&$^@*#^$!! No, no, no! That’s CLASSIC ectopic, the whole HCG rising very, very slowly.
Auugh. So dangerous. At least my OB practice was on top of things when I had my ectopic, and it never got to the point that my life or health was in danger.
Can’t believe they did that to you, Janice. Good for you going to the ER. I’m sorry the idiots cost you your tube.
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Did the woman have an ectopic? Why would you want further testing if it is not indicated?
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jaed Reply:
January 23rd, 2012 at 2:34 pm (Quote)
We don’t know whether the OP had an ectopic pregnancy because she has not yet posted here.
Ectopic pregnancy is difficult to rule out without an ultrasound. And in no case is “looking at you” a test for the condition. A doctor who tells a patient that he can tell where her pregnancy is implanted “just by looking at you” is not operating on any known medical standard. The OP, presumably, wanted testing because there were indications of ectopic pregnancy. It’s a life-threatening condition and needs to be properly diagnosed (or ruled out), not dismissed by a doctor who thinks he can diagnose it by looking at the patient.
This shoudn’t be difficult to understand.
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Tee Reply:
January 23rd, 2012 at 2:55 pm (Quote)
While I could have done without the last line of Jaed’s post… I found that to be rude… the rest of it is correct. There is absolutely no way to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy simply by looking at someone. Odds are that the OP had symptoms that concerned her and asked for testing because of that. An ultrasound is the common diagnostic test for this and while there is some debate about the safety of repeated ultrasounds, there is certainly no immediate danger to having one. Should the ectopic pregnancy continue, a woman could rupture a tube and even bleed out. It’s just not worth the risk when an ultrasound is easy to do and fairly safe.
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jaed Reply:
January 23rd, 2012 at 9:42 pm (Quote)
Well, I didn’t intend to be rude. Perhaps I was too irritated; the answers seem obvious from a reading of the topic. Maybe not.
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Tee Reply:
January 23rd, 2012 at 9:56 pm (Quote)
I didn’t think you meant to be rude, Jaed, and I should have said that upfront. Yes, it seems obvious to me as well but that doesn’t mean it’s obvious to everyone. I know there have certainly been times that I say something that I don’t even realize sounds impolite until someone points it out to me. Especially when it comes to the internet… tone can be so freaking hard to read online.
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Wow! A doctor with x-ray vision. How cool is that!
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