“Kasey Levine. Nice to meet you.”
“So, you’re a transfer from Dr. Kelso. He’s a great doctor.”
“Yes, I was sad to hear about his retiring.”
“Me, too. But you’ll be in good hands here.”
“That’s what he told me.”
“Tell me about your pregnancy so far.”
Kasey explained that she’d had in-vitro treatments and they went through three sessions with two donors before becoming pregnant. She’d had an easy pregnancy so far. At her last appointment with Dr. Kelso, however, she came away with some surprising news.
“I’m expecting twins.”
“Not uncommon when using fertility treatments,” I assured her.
I did an exam with an ultrasound to confirm her dates and take a look at the little guys.
“Do you want to know the sex?”
She looked at Sherry and nodded her head yes.
I rolled the ultrasound machine over and squirted some cold gel on her belly. After taking some measurements, I looked for the important part of the baby’s equipment.
“Okay, are you ready for this?” I paused. “You’re getting the best of both worlds. One boy and one girl. And both look very healthy.”
I checked on Katrina and she was indeed about two centimeters. Her contractions, however, were not consistent so I sent her home.
Sophie Black was my next appointment of the day. She was twenty years old and married to pro skate boarder Collin Purcell. Everyone in the pro circuit called him Goose. Why, I have no idea. I also hadn’t known that pro skateboarders made so much money. Apparently Collin had big sponsors like Mountain Dew and was producing his own video game.
Sophie was thirty-nine weeks pregnant with their first child. They didn’t want to know the sex, but I knew from the ultrasound that she was having a boy. Just what Collin wanted – he’d already bought a mini skateboard with the hopes of having a boy.
“Everything looks good.” I snapped off my latex gloves and threw them in the trash. “You’re at four centimeters, so my best guess is you’ll be delivering this baby real soon. Any contractions?”
“Just a few. Nothing consistent,” Sophie replied.
“Well, keep active and hydrated. Call my office or labor and delivery if your water breaks or your contractions hit every seven minutes or so.” I gave her the standard instructions.
“Thanks, Dr. Love.” Sophie reached over and grabbed a sheet of paper from her purple leather Chanel bag. “Oh, I wanted to give you a copy of our birth plan for my chart. I have copies for all the nurses and the rest of the labor and delivery staff.”
Sophie was very thorough for a young patient. She knew what she wanted and didn’t mince words. She was wise beyond her years. Her youthful face was deceiving. She had pale blonde hair worn in a pixie cut and a cute pert nose sprinkled with freckles. Those features combined with her petiteness reminded me of Tinkerbell. I wondered if she carried fairy dust in her bag.
“Thanks. I’ll look it over and put it in your file. Have a good week.”
I didn’t think anything else of it. It wasn’t uncommon for some patients to write out a birth plan, especially first-time moms. Many websites offered printable examples for new moms-to-be.
I went to my office to eat a quick lunch and Heather came in.
“I was just getting ready to file Sophie’s chart.” She handed me a sheet of paper. “Did you read this?”
It was a copy of her birth plan that she’d given me earlier.
“No, not yet. Should I?”
Heather sat down and munched on an apple.
“I think you should.” She smiled at me mischievously. “It might brighten your day.”
I put down my tuna fish sandwich, took a sip of my iced tea, and scanned the paper.
Birth Plan of Sophie Black
My name is Sophie Black and my fiancé is Collin Purcell. But please refer to him as Goose. Just Goose. Please don’t call him anything else but that – he is very sensitive to his real name. He’ll be with me during labor and we don’t expect anyone else to attend.
I have diligently watched The Baby stories on the Lifetime channel and seen ER many times. I realize that labor and delivery is not like that in real life so…here is my plan.
You have my permission to give me any and all drugs at any time. In fact, the moment I feel pain coming on, I want the anesthesiologist ready to give me an epidural. Feel free to put some painkillers in my IV, as well, for a back-up in case the epidural fails or isn’t working fast enough. With all the modern medical technology available, a natural delivery is so passé, anyway. God forbid if I have to have a C-section, but if I do, then go right ahead. You don’t even have to ask. As long as I’m well medicated, then go for it. A word of caution, though. If Goose is present for the C-section, please don’t let him look over the curtain. Any sight of blood and you’ll be scraping him off the floor. (He’s a tough skateboarder on TV, but in real life, he’s a wussy when it comes to that kind of stuff). Simply remaining conscious is his only goal (other than having a healthy baby).
My best friend is a nurse and she gave me the smart advice of “make friends with your nurse.” So I plan on becoming your best friend and advocate. Whatever you say goes.
Goose and I have a large family that, while they mean well, can be bothersome. If any family member gets in the way, feel free to ask them to leave.
When I’m ready to push, I want everyone out of the room. I mean EVERYONE. (Except for Goose, the nurse, and maybe even the doctor). Make my family go to the waiting room. If not, they will try and listen at the door, which is not acceptable.
The only way our baby boy (if it is a boy – it’s supposed to be a surprise, so please don’t give it away) gets circumcised is if the pediatrician gives him some pain medicine. I’m talking the good stuff, not just some numbing cream.
Thanks for taking the time to review my plan and obeying my wishes.
I laughed so hard I almost spit out my coffee. “Is she for real?”
Heather just shrugged her shoulders. “I think so. She gave this to you. What do you think?”
“I think I like this girl.”
“Dr. Love?” Heather came into my office. “Your first interview is here.”
I desperately needed to get organized before Brad started, so I’d decided to cross one thing off my ever growing to-do list.
Hire a housekeeper
. My cupboards were bare, my house was in disarray, and laundry was piled up. I’d had to buy new panties this morning because I didn’t have time to wash the old ones.
Twenty seven people had responded to the housekeeping ad. Heather narrowed down the prospects to a manageable five people and set them up for interviews.
“Send her in.”
“It’s a he,” Heather said.
“Oh. Well, send him in then.”
I reached for a memo pad and pen to take notes. I’ve never had to hire household help before. I’d inherited my last housekeeper, Zelda, from my mother when she moved to Palm Springs. Zelda had stayed with me for about a year before she decided to retire. That was three months ago and I hadn’t a decent homemade meal since then.
A hot, young Italian guy walked into my office. We were off to a good start.
“Hello, Dr. Love. I’m Frederick.”
“Please sit down. Call me Hope.” I was immediately taken aback by Frederick. What in the world was he doing interviewing for a housekeeper position? He wore a pair of Khaki slacks with a white button down shirt and Dockside shoes. He also had a large black bag that had a delicious aroma drifting from it.
He reached into his bag and pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to me.
“Here’s my resume and a list of references.”
I scanned the impressive document. He had worked as a private chef for many well-known Hollywood families. He also had listed a couple of restaurants as former employers.
“While your resume looks impressive, Frederick, I’m afraid you’ve misunderstood what I’m looking for. I need a housekeeper first. Someone to do cleaning, run errands, and grocery shopping. Cooking is just a bonus.”
“Oh, I’m more than willing and capable to do all that. I helped my mother clean when she was a housekeeper.”
“But can’t you make more money as a private chef?”
“Being a private chef is not a very stable job right now. Everyone is cutting back due to the economy. I need to diversify more.”
Frederick
had a bit of an accent but he was very articulate. I was getting more impressed by the minute.
He reached into his bag and pulled out a large Tupperware container, a china bowl, sterling silver fork and spoon, and a white linen napkin.
“Here, taste this.” He took some pasta out of the Tupperware and put in the bowl.
It smelled so good. I hesitated, though. I didn’t know this guy. He could be trying to poison me. But my stomach was growling, and it overrode my brain.
“Go ahead. It’s good.” He waited like an eager puppy.
I twirled the pasta around my fork and took a tentative bite. It was like heaven in my mouth.
“It’s good, no?” He smiled hugely. “Pasta carbonara.”
I couldn’t stop eating. Before I knew it, the whole bowl was almost gone.
“When can you start?” I mumbled with my mouth full of pasta.
“Tomorrow?”
I wiped my face with the napkin. “Okay. Let me check your references. I’ll call you this afternoon.” I stared hopefully at the Tupperware container.
“Here, the rest is for you.” He pushed the container toward me. “Talk to you soon.”
After he left, Heather came back in.
“How’d it go?”
“I think we can cancel the rest of the appointments.” I handed her a fork and pointed to the Tupperware. She took a bite.
“Oh my gosh. Yummy. He made this?”
“Yep.”
“Good decision, then. I’ll inform the rest of the applicants that the job is taken.”
I looked at my clock. I had put aside two and half hours for interviews. I still had two hours left. I used the time to figure out a new schedule for Brad and me. I had over a thousand patients. About ninety of those were pregnant, and I saw them on a monthly – sometimes weekly – basis. Margaret, my patient specialist, came in and we set up a new schedule.
Now I had to figure out where to put Brad. I had Heather recruit a couple of staff members to clean up the room we used for storage so Brad would have a suitable office. We arranged to have all of our outdated files to be picked up for offsite storage. Then we stocked Brad’s new office. After two hours, I felt like I’d accomplished a lot. The rest of the day, I saw patients. By five o’clock I was ready to call it quits and have a nice, relaxing evening.
Heather stopped by to tell me that she had checked all of Frederick’s references and he was good to go.
I called him on the way home to let him know he had a job. He was to meet me at seven o’clock tomorrow morning at the house to get started.