Well, this is a round-trip vacation, meaning I plan on heading back to the UAE in about 48 hours. Of course, I will have to obtain a new Fit to Fly note for this return journey since Emirates Airlines requires that it be dated within 5 days of the intended travel. Never did I imagine how difficult it would be to obtain this simple note.
Plan A was to schedule an appointment with either my mom's or my SIL's OB, both of whom work at the same practice. I spent probably 20 minutes on the phone with the main scheduling coordinator, explaining what I needed. She was very nice and as helpful as she could be, but you would have thought no one in all of history had ever dared step on a plane while pregnant until I came along. A nurse later called me back and said no doctor at that practice would be willing to sign such a paper since I wasn't an actual patient of theirs. "If you had been seeing one of our doctors all along," the nurse helpfully volunteered, "they would be happy to do it." I had to suppress an eye-roll because the whole point of me needing a note to fly is that the airplane is headed to where I live, which is not here, where your doctor's office is. QED.
Plan B was to call another nearby practice, to which I have no connections. I talked to their receptionist and then billing specialist for a while and they said they couldn't help me, either, but for an entirely different reason: insurance. She said they do not have a system set up for single appointments. They would only see me if I was a long-term patient who they could then bill insurance for at the end of the whole pregnancy/delivery process.
Plan C was to go to a ZoomCare clinic and have one of their doctors complete the note. I knew they would be set up to handle a one-time, cash-paying customer. A few weeks ago, I took in the Emirates Airlines form and a copy of the policy and asked if it was something they could help me with. They said yes, they could, and to just come in a few days before my flight. Except then I actually went in for my appointment today and they said no. Hmph. Basically, they don't touch pregnancy with a ten-foot pole. At least they didn't charge me for the visit.
At this point, I'm on Plan D, which is to stay up really late tonight and call my OB back in Sharjah to have her fill out the Fit to Fly form and fax it to me. The ridiculous thing is that while this woman is my primary care person for this pregnancy, she has not seen me in a month. I was trying to play by the rules by seeing a doctor in the US so that the note could be an honest, in-person assessment of my actual fitness to fly, but instead it looks like I'll have to try to get the signature of someone who is thousands of miles away.
I'm worried that upon checking my doctor's note at the airport on Thursday, as they are sure to do (it was checked three times when I flew here), Emirates Airlines will ask me how a doctor in Sharjah is able to declare my fitness to fly from the US. And I'll have to tell them that I am persona non grata among OBs in the US. Nobody is willing to see me.
Sometimes I get so tired of being the exception and always falling into these weird loopholes. There is no way that I am the only person who has ever had this happen, and yet, here I am, depending on Plan D but not at all sure that it will work out. Because of course, OF COURSE, we're on the tail end of Ramadan/Eid in the UAE, which means that people are only slowly trickling back into work, and if my doctor isn't in yet, then I am up the creek without a paddle.
Or trying to board an airplane without a Fit to Fly note, as it were.
Update: I was able to get in contact with my doctor in the UAE, hooray! She will email me the note tonight/today (time zone difference). I won't feel at ease until I'm safely on the plane headed home, but I am relieved that I will at least have a note. Now let this be a lesson to you: never, ever leave home while pregnant.