Run, run far away.
Summary: super judgy, very conservative doctors, Novak has TERRIBLE bedside manner and is an all around mean, cold person who will make it clear you are not worth her time. The nurses will give you incorrect information, follow up with the doctors if they give you any medical advice. Read the rest of this if you want the facts leading to my conclusion.
I've gone to Dr. Erlich most of my life, she's very nice but clearly judgy about number of partners. I had an issue and when I called for help their recommendation was to get a sitz bath + some treatment that actually worked. I later asked my friend who is a gyno in another state about the sitz bath and she laughed so hard at the treatment suggestion, let alone the fact I actually purchased one. *My first red flag* that the doctors and their treatment recs are old.
I then went to Tammy Novak because Erlich wasn't available. After I'm already in the room for this appt, they tell me I need to call my insurance since it's been less than a year (11 months) since my last appointment. Shouldn't they have brought this to my attention, I don't know, at any time before this moment? Minor inconvenience of 20 minutes but adds to the proof this is a place to stay away from.
This next part is painful to write and I've waited 3 months to deal with what happened so I can warn you to not make the same mistake. I was looking into an IUD, and she was super confident in how great she is at putting them in. I scheduled an appt to get one a month later. She told me to take 2 advil an hour before the appt. *Red flag 2* I didn't look too much into what to expect in getting an IUD since she seemed so chill about the whole procedure.
I came by myself they took my vitals. Blood pressure was high - which it never is. Nurse said "oh you must be nervous" and walked out. *Red flag 3* Now I'm sitting here panicking there's something wrong with me.
Novak comes in, asked if I took advil. She sticks the freezing cold speculum in me. I'm ALREADY in pain. She takes such a long time just leaving them up there that I ask her to take them out since I need to calm down and they hurt so bad. Now I'm really freaking out there is something wrong with me, asking her a million questions and she keeps saying that I'm fine, not taking into account and looking pretty annoyed by how freaked out I am.
She puts them in again and I'm able to breathe through the discomfort. Please note I've never had a baby before and I'm 27 years old. Then she puts the thing in that opens up my cervix. I am SCREAMING in pain. I only know after the fact that this is the thing that opens my cervix and not the IUD, I thought the IUD was going in and tearing through me it was so painful. After about a minute and a half of me wailing and screaming and her yelling over me "you're fine!" I tell her stop and take it out. I felt like I just fainted and I'm shaking. She takes it out, snaps off her gloves, and says "you're not meant to have an IUD, stick to birth control" and storms out.
I can hear her telling the nurse right outside my door that I just can't handle pain and I'm fine. The nurse comes back in. They offer me apple juice since I'm laying down crying and hyperventilating by myself. The nurse says "since you didn't get the IUD, you shouldn't have any discomfort". *NEVER LISTEN TO THE NURSES WITHOUT CONFIRMING WITH THE DOCTOR, THIS WAS INCORRECT*
I ask the nurse if Novak can come back in, which they pushed back on relentlessly. I wanted to make sure there was nothing wrong with me, since it felt like there was something wrong up there. During this waiting period, I call my friend who is a gyno and tell her what just happened, and she said it was very normal to be in that much pain and that they should offer muscle relaxers or a wide variety of other things that could help with the pain.
She finally made time to come back in, though you can tell this is extremely inconvenient and I'm not worth her time. I was not giving up on getting an IUD (and still shaking and crying). She told me maybe I could go to a hospital and get sedated to get one inserted (what?) I asked if there was something she could prescribe to help me relax, and her eyes widened like I was insane and said "oh, well I don't believe in that". *The final red flag, I went to a crazy old conservative lady*
I finally asked "am I going to be in pain tonight?" And she said yes, since she opened my cervix. I let her know this is the exact opposite of what her nurse just told me and now she's mad again saying "I'm the doctor, you should listen to me". I told her I understand that - the nurses shouldn't be giving advice on things they don't know about. She finally was able to convince me I wasn't dying so I let her leave.
They made me calm down in a different room until I was ready to leave. No follow up call. read more