it shouldnt be so hard

Get a copy of your medical records before your appointment.

Sounds easy right? Wrong! Now I'm not a novice at medical run-around, but this is just ridiculous.

After our less than thrilling appointment with our RE on Monday, DH & I debated various options. Since I'm the one enduring the daily hardships during treatment, DH is pretty much leaving the final say to me. So, I decided that we needed a second opinion. I already had an RE in mind since I've done plenty of research on the topic since our initial IVF education back in December. Dr. Meyer is in Raleigh at a new clinic that just opened last year (yea I know, it's new.. are they good enough, can we trust them... I'm not going into all that right now, maybe another post, you can read all about their clinic & make that call for yourselves. I will say the co-founders used to be directors of both the Duke & UNC IVF programs). I was thrilled to find that Carolina Conceptions could get me in to see Dr. Meyer in less than a week!

Okay so that all seems good so far. Here's where it got frustrating. I need to take my medical records to CC in order for the RE to give a second opinion. So I call NCCRM yesterday trying to get the process started (only 3 days after the appt that led to our decision to try another clinic). Finally today I get instructions on how to get my records. First I need to fill out a release form. Done. Then, NCCRM contracts out their copy service to a company that comes only once a week (Wednesdays of course, so the day before I called). So I have to wait until next Wed. Oh and by the way, then you call the contracted company on Friday to find out when you can get the copies. So that would put us at 7 business days later & still no copies. Then, you finally get the copies the next week around Wednesday. So I called the contract company hoping I could get some sort of expedited service (and expecting an extra fee, thats okay). Nope, they don't have anything like that and they wouldn't even commit to the Wed date that the dr office gave me. So I made the initial request on 3/22, and by sometime around maybe possibly 4/4, I might have my records for a doctor appt that is on 3/30.

And what really gets me - my file is sitting in a filing cabinet right now. No one is using it. And they have a copier.. I've seen it. I'd even make the copies myself & still pay the copy fee.. I just want the information they are holding hostage.