A/N Really nothing to say about this one. Hope you enjoy it.
Chapter 37 2884
Monday 03, February 9:30 AM
Leonard walked to Dr Gablehauser's office. His secretary told Leonard to go in, and Eric said, "What's up?"
"I wonder if you can do me a favor," said Leonard.
"Depends," said Eric, "what's the favor?"
"You know Dr Koothrapolli has an interview for the assistant director of Palomar, right?" said Leonard.
Eric nodded and Leonard continued, "Well, he's been waiting for six years for a tenured job, and now besides the one at Palomar, there is also an open assistant professor slot in Planetary Sciences. He's trying for the assistant director, but I think he would be better suited for the planetary position. Could you talk to him, and see if you agree?"
Eric looked intrigued and leaned on the desk, staring at Leonard, "Why do you think the Planetary Sciences job is a better fit?"
"He's done planetary science," said Leonard. "Remember he found a new planetoid and several asteroids. He can help the graduate students and post-docs with their observing, impart his knowledge. Also, his astrophysical work really hasn't led to anything. I just think he would be taken more seriously, in an area where he's had success."
"You're sure about this?" said Eric.
"Yes, I am," said Leonard. "I think it's a good fit for him, and a good fit for the university."
Eric was nodding his head, "Okay, on your recommendation I'll talk to him after he talks to the director at Mt Palomar. The liaison job is here, with trips to Palomar, and falls under me. I'll set it up."
"Thank you, sir," said Leonard, he shook Eric's hand and left. Dr Gablehauser watched Leonard go, a thought starting to take shape.
Monday 03, February 12:45 PM
Penny had taken the day off, and Leonard had left at lunch, picked her up, and now they were on the way to Dr Samuels office. "How are you doing?" asked Leonard.
"I'm okay," sighed Penny. "I just want to ask some questions and get some answers. That stuff really had me worried last night, but I've been better since you calmed me down last night." She smiled at him, "Thanks for that."
"I was worried too," said Leonard, softly, remembering how difficult it was to calm Penny down. "But everything we looked at last night says they are rare."
"I don't care," said Penny. "We need to know."
Leonard pulled into the parking lot and parked, they got out and went to the office, signing in and then finding a place to sit. The nurse came out a few minutes later and took Penny in to get her blood tests. She was back out in about five minutes and she and Leonard waited for the doctor.
Dr Samuels came out and called them in. Previously, Penny was happy to see Dr Samuels, but today, she wasn't happy, and it showed on her face.
Dr Samuels saw that, and said, "Is there a problem Penny?"
"Yes, I'm upset and worried," said Penny, tensely.
"What's wrong?"
Penny opened the book to the page that had the title, Complications, laid it on the Dr's desk, "This book you gave me, I got to this part last night."
Dr Samuel looked at the book, and with a serious look at Penny said, "What do you want to know?"
"You didn't say anything about these problems," said Penny. "When I read about them last night, I freaked out. Why didn't you tell me about these?"
"I didn't tell you, because I didn't want to alarm you," said Dr Samuels. "Most of these are very rare, and we can usually catch them early, or they are something we deal with for most pregnancies. That's why we changed the once a month appointments, into once every two weeks. But, if you want to talk about it, I'll do my best to explain it."
"I would like that," said Penny, "just so I know what I'm dealing with." She handed over a piece of paper with a list of things Penny had written down, the previous night. "These are the ones I worry about most."
"Okay," said Dr Samuels, looking over the list, "I'll start with the problems you listed, for the mother, and the beginning of the pregnancy. Yes, you could develop high blood pressure, diabetes, or anemia, while you are pregnant. But, we can treat all of them, once we detect it, which is why we do your blood tests, and take your blood pressure when you come in for your appointment. Those tests today, are all normal, so you don't have any of those conditions. Okay?"
Penny nodded.
"As for the babies," continued Dr Samuels, "the possibility of birth defects does increase with multiples. Most of those, outside of the ones we tested for, we wouldn't know about until after they are born. Some, we could catch in an ultrasound. But, so far, there hasn't been any indication in your ultrasounds. I want to point out the reason we didn't call you, about the chromosomal tests, was because the chromosomal tests were negative for any genetic problems. We only call if there was a problem. And, yes, there is something called vanishing twin syndrome. Where we detect twins, and then later, we only see one. This happens most of the time, in the first trimester, basically one of the twins miscarries. But, you're in the second trimester, so the chances of that happening are smaller, and we'll be doing an ultrasound here shortly."
Dr Samuel looking serious, paused, "Now, we come to the more risky problems you've listed. Twins within a single gestational sac, such as yours, are susceptible to several conditions that we have to watch. The simplest is cord entanglement or impingement. However, they have separate amniotic sacs and with the cord position on the placenta, I don't anticipate any problem here. But, again, we will watch for it during the ultrasounds we do every week."
"The two riskiest problems, have to do with a single placenta. The first is Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome, or 'TTTS'. There are arteries and veins, in the placenta, that enables the blood flow to the babies. However, in TTTS, the blood can go from one twin to the other. This can cause one twin to have too much blood in their system, and the other, not enough. The other serious problem is Unequal Placental Sharing. This is where one twin's cord implants, in the placenta, near where the placenta is implanted in the uterine wall. This results in the one twin getting more nutrients than the other. In both cases, we would be able to see a definite size differential between the twins, when we do an ultrasound. Or, we could see a difference in the amount of amnionic fluid. So far, we haven't seen any problems, like this, in your ultrasounds. So, for now, please don't worry about it."
"Finally, we come to the problems that could occur around the time of birth. I've told you that full-term babies are usually born around the 40th week, and a baby born three weeks early, in the 37th week, is fine. However, multiples are usually born earlier, twins are normally born at 37 weeks. Now, if they are born three weeks early, that's at 34 weeks, and the lungs are not fully developed. They may have to go to the Neonatal ICU."
Penny looked ready to cry, and Leonard looked horrified. Dr Samuels noticed this and continued soothingly, "Now don't worry. At 37 weeks, we shouldn't see any problems, and even at 34 weeks, over 99% have only a short stay in the ICU. Is that better?"
Leonard and Penny both relaxed and nodded.
Dr Samuels continued, "Now, you asked about what could cause us to have to do a cesarean. One that seems to be limited to twins, is the placenta starting to crystalize. If we detect that, we can go right in with a cesarian before it causes any problems. Other reasons, for cesareans, are problems even for singletons, such as cord restriction, or a breech position, or fetal stress. On any of these, we'll go right in with a cesarian."
"The last thing, that could be a problem for the mother, is excessive bleeding after the birth. In the case of twins, the size of the placenta is larger, so you could experience excess bleeding where the placenta comes off of the uterus. But, again, we'll be watching everything, watching you after the birth, so we should catch any of this early enough not to matter to you."
Dr Samuels continued softly, with a smile, "I want to stress that all these are either simple things we can take care of or complications that only rarely happen. I didn't mean to worry you, by not telling you. But, now, since you asked about them I want to reassure you that we will be watching all this very closely. To make sure if you do, we take care of it, as early as possible. We will be doing ultrasounds every visit, to check for any of these, along with your tests. We will do everything possible to take care of you and your babies."
Penny nodded and said, "Thank you. I just saw the problems I didn't know about, and I just got scared. I didn't think of the rarity of them, I was just worried about my babies."
"Of course," said Dr Samuels gently, "I wouldn't expect anything else. But, we didn't tell you about them, because of the rarity, because we didn't want to worry you. Now, are you satisfied with these answers? Are you feeling better?"
Penny again nodded.
"Can we move on to the regular appointment?" asked Dr Samuels.
Again, Penny nodded, and Dr Samuels asked Penny to get up on the table and pull up her shirt and pull down her pants. Once Penny was in place, Dr Samuels covered the wand, then put the gel on it, and she started the ultrasound. She moved the wand around, changed the settings, and took some images of the screen. Then she turned the monitor around and was pointing out the two sacs, and where the umbilicals were. "Notice that the cords are pretty far apart. And, here are your babies. Also, remember I told you we could see problems?"
"Yes."
"Well, look at this," said Dr Samuels, "see the babies are the same size? And, the amniotic sacs are the same size? That shows that you are not having those problems I mentioned."
Leonard and Penny looked at the screen, and could clearly see the two babies. "How big are they," asked Penny, smiling.
"Let's see," said Dr Samuels. She moved the wand around, changed some settings, and wrote a few things down. Then she looked in a book. "Just over four inches long, and right around 3 ounces. All quite normal for this stage."
"Here," said Dr Samuels as she handed Penny wipes and a towel, "you can clean yourself up, and get off the table."
Penny started cleaning herself off, with the wipes, then dried herself, before she and Leonard walked back to their chairs, and sat down. "You said you wouldn't call," said Penny, "but I have to ask, the chromosome tests you did…"
"They were negative," said Dr Samuels, smiling. "As I said earlier, all your blood work is normal, no indication of diabetes or anemia. Your blood pressure is good, and your weight is on the low side, but it's still in the normal range. You've gained twelve pounds so far."
"My back has been hurting, is that normal," said Penny.
"Yes, it is," said Dr Samuels, "you have the extra weight in your belly, and that pulls on the back muscles, also, in time, your side muscles."
"I've also been really hungry lately," said Penny.
"Again, normal for your current stage," said Dr Samuels. "The twins are growing and you need to eat about 600 calories per day more than before. Just follow the dietary information I gave you."
"Anything else?" asked Dr Samuels.
"Not that I can think of," said Penny.
"Ok, they're two things I want to mention," said Dr Samuels. "First, the babies should finish settling onto your pelvic girdle this week or next. They're already putting pressure on the bladder, as we talked about, but now, there will be pressure on the intestines, too. This can cause constipation, so please make sure you drink plenty of fluids, eat high fiber foods."
Penny nodded then said, "What else?"
"At your next appointment, when we do the ultrasound, there is a fairly good chance we will be able to see what sex they are. Do you want to know, or do you want to do this the old fashion way, wait till they're born?"
Leonard and Penny gave each other a puzzled look and shrugged.
"I don't need to know now," said Dr Samuels, "but it's something you may want to talk about before your next appointment. Ok?"
They both nodded, and then Penny said, "Is there anything else?"
"Not that I can think of," said Dr Samuels. "I'll see you at your next appointment in two weeks."
Penny and Leonard left the office, stopped to set up her next appointment, then left the building.
"Glad I took the day off," said Penny, "I can just go back home."
"Well, I'm going home too," said Leonard, "I've got most everything done, and I can do the last things at home, on my computer."
Penny hugged him and they got into Leonard's car and headed home. Once there, they sat on the couch and looked at the images.
"That's one of our babies," said Penny, smiling with a cute voice.
"Yes, it is," said Leonard, who was also smiling. He pulled out another image, "And, here is the other one." He kept looking at the images, then said, "So which one is thing 1 and thing 2?"
"Leonard," said Penny in mock anger, but with a grin, "How can you say that?"
"What?" asked Leonard. "It's Doctor Seuss, which is perfect for kids, and we don't know their sex is so, thing 1 and thing 2 are perfect names for them, for now."
"Okay," said Penny, "so, do you want to talk about wanting to know the sex?"
"Not yet," said Leonard, "we have time. Besides, I have to get this stuff done, whether I'm home or not."
"Okay, then," said Penny, "you get to work, and I'm going to take a little nap. I didn't sleep well last night. I may have to start laying on my side."
They kissed, and then Penny walked toward the bedroom, while Leonard, opened up, and then turned on his computer.
Monday 03, February 3:45 PM
Penny was standing by the island getting some water, yawning and wondering where Leonard was, as he wasn't at his desk. There was a knock on the door. When she opened it, she was surprised to see Bernadette at the door. Shouldn't she be at work? Penny invited her in and asked if she wanted anything to drink.
Bernadette declined and then said, "Leonard told Howard you freaked out last night."
Thinking about it, tears started forming in Penny's eyes, "Yeah, I read about some complications, and…yeah, I did freak out a little."
"I'm sorry," said Bernadette, rushing over to hug Penny. They broke the hug but held on to each other. Penny kept looking at Bernadette and then slowly closed her eyes and moved in and started kissing her. The kiss became more intense and Penny started gently grabbing and rubbing a breast, and could feel her breast being rubbed. she could feel a hand going down her pants…
Suddenly, Penny opened her eyes and looked around. She was laying on her bed, with her left hand on her breast, and her right hand down her pants. She removed them, sat up, and in confusion yelled, "Leonard."
Within seconds Leonard was in the doorway, "What's wrong?"
Tuesday 04, February 8:30 AM
Penny was just getting settled into her office, thinking about her weird dreams, she had another last night, about Howard of all people. She assured Leonard it was just a dream, but she hadn't slept well, and she was steeping her cup of tea, yawning. She was sorting out the stuff in the inbox, when her phone rang. "Ms Hofstadter, how can I help you?"
"Where are you?" she heard Dan ask. "You set up the meeting for this morning."
"Meeting?" said Penny sounding puzzled.
"Yes, meeting," said Dan. "We're supposed to go over the compensation package for your new position, like salary, commission, vacation, all those things."
"Oh, yeah, that meeting," said Penny, suddenly remembering. "Sorry, I must have forgot, I'll be there in about five minutes."
"Okay," said Dan, "I'll see you then, bye."
"Goodbye," said Penny, before hanging up the phone.
How the hell did I forget that? she thought. Weird dreams are bad enough, but now I'm forgetting things? Doesn't matter, I have to get there. She finished steeping her tea, and took the cup with her as she left for Dan's office.
