Follow Up Frustrations turned Freedom

My wife is pregnant.

She made that image to share with family.

And now, I’m showing baby imaging here with my follow up fam…

Waddaya doin’ Manny?

Let’s go.

One thing I want to point out, as we’re closing in on one year of this newsletter hitting every single Tuesday at 9 am PST, and mind you we have not missed one week…is that my writing preferences have evolved.

No BS.

Each previous newsletter has had some AI usage, and rightfully so.

Who’s not using it nowadays.

And that has bothered me starting more recently.

Because I want to write from a place of story, experiences that are happening in the real world, from our world that translates well into a lesson in follow up.

Before the tech takeover there were a few things:

A brain, hands on a keyboard, and real thinking (the work few do today)

Not press a button and then everything, POOF! A full piece of work from a prompt.

Anywho, that’s what I intend to do moving forward and as a preface to this today.

And for the main story.

Don’t mess with a pregnant woman (my wife), who also has to watch her almost three year old toddler (Legendary Lincoln) with a growing baby in her belly (Maverick Alexander) while dad (me) goes to the office and puts in the work daily.

But that’s exactly what happened recently, someone pushed my wife tooooo far…

And she let em have it.

Let me be blunt.

Some people suck at their damn jobs. Period.

We’re all for optimism, seeing things positively, and having a good outlook toward situations, but sometimes people just fail.

And you have to take matters into your own hands.

Precisely what my wife had to do.

Last Wednesday, I got a text from her, saying she was in tears because she had just got off the phone with the doctors office and that a time sensitive appointment for the following day was canceled.

This appointment was for our anatomy scan of the baby, which is obviously very important and we were slightly behind on timing because of availability at the limited options for high risk pregnancy here in Vegas.

So, a very important appointment.

They called the day before and tell us the one very important detail which was supposed to be disclosed at a much earlier time rather they didn’t know they could disclose…so they hadn’t.

Now, the back and forth begins.

Mind you, we didn’t like the attitude of this group from the get go but we needed the scan and they were the referral from our primary women’s doctor.

My wife, extremely emotional and a toddler running around, I’m working at the office, is against a new situation.

She has to follow up and follow through to see where we can get an appointment for an anatomy scan on the baby.

Because it’s important to the baby development, her peace of mind, and it’s already slightly behind, it’s stressful.

So think about your own high pressure moments?

How do you perform, do you find calm?

Or do you fold?

Do you think you will always be handed a silver platter when following up and following through, or do you have to take the reigns and GO MAKE SHIT HAPPEN!?!

That’s what my wife did, after a phone call with her in that moment, trying to bring peace and calm and reminding her to take a minute to breathe she had to get to work on this now new follow up.

Between both doctors offices not communicating at the most ideal level and now with already existing knowledge that other high risk pregnancy centers didn’t have any availability for weeks she had a hill to climb.

She has to entertain a toddler tugging and pulling on her while also trying to maintain conversation on the phone with medical professionals while not letting them have it.

A few hours later, I got a text saying that she had found someone.

But the new place needed another referral.

She makes a call back to our primary doctor.

Had to jump through hoops to get that referral so this time she took the steps to get ahead of it two days, it was Wednesday, the new appointment was Friday.

Our doctor (the admin staff) sent a referral, or so we thought.

Now it’s Thursday.

The new place called and said they never had a referral from our primary office.

Gotta be effn kidding me!!!!

So, my wife calls our primary office back and its like pulling teeth to get them to acknowledge what email they sent the referral to.

This is the part where people fail at their job and don’t take ownership.

We discover they had sent the referral to a NON email address after they avoided the situation entirely for minutes.

Someone about to get punched through the phone if you know the emotions…

So my wife demanded while still on the phone with them to make sure they sent it with her waiting there to ensure the job got done.

She had to wait for a call back, here’s why, the clock was ticking with only a few hours before they closed Thursday night, mind you this is the day before our new appointment, now.

Then she had to call the new place and follow up to make sure they had got the referral.

And they did.

That Thursday evening before closing, our appointment for the anatomy scan the next day.

Remember this HAD TO GET DONE on Thursday because our primary doc was closed on Friday, not done Thursday, no referral on Friday, all hell breaks loose again.

My wife took matters into her own hands, pregnant, with a toddler, and got the job done.

Her follow up game was on point.

Why?

BECAUSE IT WAS THAT URGENT AND IMPORTANT.

Getting one of the most important scans throughout the babys development ranks up there with oxygen, in fact that process included checking bones, blood flow, brain development etc.

Sometimes you have to take ownership, and lead from the front.

If it matters to you, you will.

Your follow up is no different, left to their own devices people will fail.

They don’t care about your urgency as much as you do unless you make it urgent and drive with ooomph!

It’s your job to take the invisible baton being passed when they fail and that’s where you pick it up and carry it to the finish line.

And if you think this story is unique, it’s not.

Prepare for more of this to be the norm.

It’s a mindset.

It’s a way of life.

For you, the people that drive the follow up and follow through when all else fails.

A great mom will move mountains to make sure all lines up for her babies.

I watched my wife make shit happen against all the odds and with all of the reasons to find excuses but she had REASONS!

And those reasons drove her to find the solution and make it happen in a very small window of time.

SO!

What’s going to be your story?

What are you going to make happen with your follow up and follow through?

Send me a note back letting me know how you plan to use this to inspire your next moves.

LET’S GROW!

I haven’t spit out a writing without AI in quite sometime, felt good.

Maybe a bit rusty but feelinnn’ supa fresh getting back in touch with the raw human experience.

See you next week follow up fam!

Manny “That Follow Up Guy” Vargas

PS. Happy to say that image above is from the anatomy scan and they said that everything looks great. Maverick has his fingers, toes, brain genius, blood flow. I realize how much of a blessing this is. We are blessed. You are blessed.