The Nurse Has Been Discharged

Tonight probably marks the end of my duties as nurse to Monica. We were going to go to my house this morning so that I could do some yard work, but Herman and Jen called and offered to let us hang with them. After some discussion, we decided that Monica should go with Herman and Jen in the morning, and I would go do my yard work and meet up with them later. One thing led to another, and plans transformed from just hanging to breakfast to a meet up at Mijo's, one of Monica's favorite restaurants.

I met up with Monica and company there for lunch and ate a lot more than I should have. Afterwards they split for Roanoke, and I came back to my house. I mowed my back yard and trimmed my hedges. Weedeating didn't quite work because my weedeater was FUBARed. (I really have to train my neighbor's kid how to do yard work properly.) It was the late afternoon before I left my house for Roanoke.

At Herman and Jen's house, we were just hanging about waiting for a movie that we would never see when a traveling art gallery happened by. Apparently, at certain times, companies will sell the art from model homes at a greatly reduced price to people who have bought homes in a new housing project, and one of those happened by us tonight. Herman and Jen bought some. Monica bought a couple. I thought about buying some, but Monica didn't like the two I picked out first, and on further consideration of finances I opted not to buy anything.

After moving a TV and hanging some pictures, the rest of the evening saw us go to Chili's for dinner then return back to Herman and Jen's for a little conversation before we broke up for the night. I took Monica home, and she let me know that she wanted to spend tonight by herself. She needs some space, and I completely understand. We're at the beginning of a relationship and all of a sudden I'm with her every night due to her operation. Monica is to the point where she's ready to resume her normal life activities, and truth be told, so am I. I gathered up all my junk and beat it for home.

Dash is happy to see me, and I'm ready for a night in my own bed again.

Back to a Routine, Sorta

Yesterday I took Monica to the hospital for her gallbladder operation. The worst part of it for me was waiting. I have often been the one in the bed or on the gurney, but this was the first time I was the family/responsible party waiting in the waiting room. The surgery lasted about an hour, and Monica was in recovery for about two hours.

The worst part of it for Monica was waking up from surgery. It's also the worst part of it for me. When you first come out of that anesthesia-induced sleep your body is very relaxed, and your nerves are extra sensitized. It has the effect of making the incisions and whatever they did inside you hurt a lot more than normal. It took a little bit, but I got Monica back home.

Thereafter I turned into a nurse. I'm getting the food, the drinks, the blankets, whatever she needs. Some guys would find that a drag. I, on the other hand, like having someone to take care of. Monica has never had someone to take care of her (except maybe her parents). She's a little uncomfortable having someone doing the day-to-day activities around her apartment, but with a surgical drain hanging out of one of the incisions, she really doesn't get a choice.

I ran out of choices on going to work today. Yesterday I took all day off to be with her for surgery and the first day after. My return to work today was, thankfully, unnoticed and produced zero interest. I got back into the swing of things fairly easily, but I must admit, I'd rather be playing nurse.

After work I had to do a few things around my house, and I got in dutch when I was late getting back to Monica. My bills took longer than I thought to pay, and I was late leaving. Unbeknownst to me, Monica was waiting to take her pain pill until I came back with food. I felt like a heel when I finally did make it in. After some dinner Monica was feeling better. I don't have to go back to my house for a few days, so hopefully I won't be late again this week.

More updates as they become available.

Derailed by a Gallbladder

Ok, folks, here's where we are:

Tuesday night Monica called me about 9:45pm. She was in a lot of pain and wanted me to come over. I dropped everything I was doing and hurried to her apartment. I asked if she wanted me to take her somewhere to take care of it, and she refused. She asked me to stay with her the night in case she did need to go somewhere, so I did.

At midnight she woke me up. She told me the pain was unbearable. I said that we should go to the ER, but she hemmed and hawed and tried to think of anything else she could do. It became apparent quickly that she didn't have any other options, so I took her to the MCA ER.

The pain was coming from her abdomen, so I thought MCA should be the place to go as they have a lot of bariatric surgeons on their staff. (One of them did my gastric bypass last year.) To the ER we went, and after doing all the tests that they do, they said that what was causing her problems was her gallbladder, and it needed to come out in the next two or three weeks. We were hoping that they would put her on the schedule and take it out that night, but instead they discharged her with some prescriptions and a referral to some of their surgeons.

The next day was Wednesday, and I called and made her an appointment with one of the surgeons on the ER's list. Monica was in pain, but she sent me to work all the same. She called me early Thursday morning and asked me to come back and stay with her as she was still hurting badly. I did.

Thursday we called around to some other surgeons to find a quicker appointment. The one we had was to see the surgeon on Monday with no date for surgery. Today we got an appointment to see a surgeon at 1pm. We went to the surgeon, and after a cursory look at the records, and a quick physical exam, and Monica was on the surgery schedule for Monday morning. I went to work and stayed with her again that night.

Friday I took her to the hospital to get her pre-registered and have her lab work done. We nearly had a disaster as the hospital insisted on collecting half of their fee up front. Monica didn't have the money and ended up applying for what amounts to a hospital credit card. I offered to pay some of the remaining expenses, but she flatly refused to let me and instead signed a promissory note for the remaining money. I again went to work and came to stay with her for the weekend as she really has nobody else to do that for her.

Saturday turned out to be busier than I had anticipated. I had a bridal portrait session scheduled. I considered canceling it, but was glad I didn't--more to that story later. I left Monica a couple of hours to do the shoot, then came back to her apartment. She didn't want to be cooped up, she said, so we went to Half Priced Books to just bum around. It was pretty clear she was in pain and wasn't enjoying what we were doing, and we soon left to go to my house to pick up my computer and let her rest. I did a few things around my house while she napped on my sofa. She said it was the best rest she had gotten during this ordeal due to my sofa being the "comfiest." Eventually we made our way back to her apartment and stayed in for the night.

That brings me to today. After yet another night with Monica, she was feeling that she wanted some alone time. She was looking ok, so I went home for a while, took in the first football games of the season, and did a little shopping. This evening I returned to lend more support to Monica in anticipation of her surgery tomorrow.

She has been moody the entire time, and tonight it all caught up with her. She says that she doesn't know what kind of relationship we have or if we even have one. She's afraid that I'll think she's needy because of this ordeal. There was more, but that's the upshot and all that needs to be said. Truth be told I don't know where we are myself save to say that we've been dating for a month (or less depending on Monica and when you ask) and neither of us really know what kind of commitment we're ready to make. To me that's all immaterial when someone is sick or in pain, so I consider this time of sickness an interlude in the process. How it turns out is yet to be seen.

Stay tuned, folks, it ain't over yet!

Labor Day Caching

Today was interesting. It started out inauspiciously. I got home ultra late (or early) and got only about four hours sleep. When I woke up I saw Monica had called me 21 times. No, that's not a mistake. The call count on my iPhone had the number 21 on it. I thought it was just a glitch. I proceeded to shower and get ready, but I was running a little late, so I called Monica to let her know.

Monica sounded like she was about to die. No, she said, she had called me like 60 times. She was feeling really bad and had contemplated going to the ER. Yikes! I thought. She claimed that she was feeling better now, but I made her call her friend and give us another hour anyway just to make sure she was feeling like going.

I got to her apartment, and she wasn't ready. She said she'd be ready, and that she was feeling better. She wanted to go, and I thought that she looked ok to go, so once she was ready we drove to Dallas to her friend John's apartment.

Over in Dallas we hooked up with John and went to our first cache. It was a historical marker that had info that redirected us to the actual object. It went fine. So did our next couple. We hit a wall when we started bush whacking our way to find one little container among hundreds of trees, and we soon became hot, tired, cross and disillusioned. We broke for lunch and tried a WhereIGo cache. We were doing ok right up until the last when something went awry, and we couldn't get the ultimate coordinates. Drat!

We did a cemetery cache next, and thankfully that was easier to find. We found it fairly quickly, and we found the redirector coordinates, so we were in better spirits. Not so much when we went to find the bonus cache. It was next to a creek on a steep bluff. We tried two different approaches to find it, risking life and limb in the process. Neither worked, so we left tired and cross again. We got a final steer back to the last part of the WhereIGo and finished up that one before we departed for John's apartment.

Once there we picked up John's partner Drew and went for dinner at a place called Zini's. The food there was good, but they were out of what I ordered, and Monica had to try twice to get a decent drink with her dinner. Monica, Drew and John all talked while I sat and listened. Monica, Drew and John all work for the Crocs shoe store chain, so they were talking work. After that we walked around the neighborhood that John and Drew live in before Monica and I left for Arlington. I think it was a good day, but there were certainly issues.

Next weekend Monica and I have tickets to the Fort Worth symphony, then we're going to downshift and just stay in the rest of the time.

A Day of Butterflies

Sunday came, and we went to Cedar Ridge Preserve. CRP is run by the Dallas Audobon society. It has a lot of walking trails and nature study-type activities. It also advertises a butterfly farm, and that's what we came to see.

Monica has a thing for butterflies, so when I read about a butterfly farm, I thought it would be the ideal place to go. I didn't really know what to expect, but I was expecting something a little more grandiose than what we found. It turned out that CRP has a Butterfly Garden as opposed to a farm, so there were far fewer butterflies than I would have liked, but there were enough, and Monica and I began taking pictures.

I brought both my cameras. I had one, and let Mon use the other. We took a lot of pictures. There were Monarchs, Yellow Swallowtails, and a few others. Monica rattled them off by heart. I just snapped away and let Mon, the expert, do the identifying. We stayed a couple of hours--it was hot, and we soon got hot and bothered. Before we left we were permitted to see inside one of the buildings they had out there. Inside this building is conducted more of the hands-on type stuff. We saw fossils, mounted insects, and other physical specimens in various stages of preparation.

We left tired but satisfied and repaired back to Monica's apartment. I thought that would be the end of the day, but Herman and Jen wanted to have us over for dinner and a game night, so after cooling down a bit, we grabbed some of Mon's board games and headed up to Roanoke.

It was a rare night! Herman is an excellent cook! He made grilled fajita steak and chicken to which was added Mexican rice and beans. Mon and I brought queso and chips. We sat down to eat and nearly burst--the food was that good. Herman didn't have desert, so he and I went to Braum's to pick up pie and ice cream while the girls cleaned. We got nine pints of ice cream and an apple pie. Back at their house Herman popped the pie in the oven, and we proceeded to play Scattergories, Mon's favorite game.

At least it was until Herman and I started playing. He and I found more ways to invent a scattergory than was known, and Monica swore she'd never play with Herman or I again. (She will--we just had a few antics on our part.)

We left after 1am. Actually, if I remember right, it was closer to 2am. We had a date to go geocaching with one of her colleagues from Dallas. All in all it was a fun but tiring day. I didn't know how I'd make it the next.

Movie Night, sorta

Friday came, but our plans changed slightly. We were going to see if Jen and Herman wanted to take in another movie with us, but they declined, and Monica didn't feel like going out. So instead of doing the theatre thing, we rented a couple from Red Box, got some food and just stayed in.

We rented Repo Men and Death at a Funeral. Repo men we both liked, but we cut off Death at a Funeral halfway through the movie. The movie was just plain bad, but Mon wasn't really feeling like carrying on the rest of the night, so I took the movies back to Red Box and went home. Sunday is still on. It'll be interesting to go see a butterfly farm.

Another Wednesday SWAG

Wednesday nights see a group of geocachers get together in south west Arlington. They call themselves the South West Arlington Geocachers, or SWAG for short. Monica has been going for some time. I haven't been because I haven't been active in geocaching for some time, but since I met Monica I have more or less reentered that world. Besides, it's a handy excuse to see her midweek.

I went tonight to SWAG, and Monica and I paired off immediately. We talked and had fun with the others there, but I wondered how what kind of vibes we were sending off and who had noticed, if anyone, that Monica and I appeared "together." As it turns out, at least one person did notice, but more on that later.

Monica and I stayed until we decided to get some ice cream, so we went to Braum's. We talked more there over a sundae and a dip of Splenda-ed ice cream until we both left to get some sleep for work. This weekend I said I'd take Mon to another movie on Friday, and to the butterfly farm at Cedar Ridge Preserve in Dallas on Sunday. All was agreeable, so more dates are now on the calendar.

The End of That Weekend

Due to the lateness of the hour, or earliness if you like, Monica and I didn't do anything on Saturday. She ended up skipping work, and I came home to do the responsible homeowner thing.

Sunday I ended up going to my next church. Stay tuned for that review. That afternoon I called Monica and offered to take her to the movie we talked about on Friday. She's into horror, but me not so much. At first we were going to a non/horror flick, but after church, a couple of errands and a call to a friend, I offered to take her to see The Last Exorcism.

We contacted Herman and Jen, and they went with us. The movie wasn't bad as movies go. It wasn't scary at all, just creepy in a few places with some gore added in. I'm not sure how Jen took it--she's equally not into horror. We retired back to Mon's apartment where Jen and Herman split for Roanoke. Things got a little hot and heavy with Monica, and we're definitely going on another date!

Where Has The Time Gone?

I really do apologize. When I made my last entry I thought for sure I'd be making more in the very near future. Things haven't turned out that way.

The way I left you guys last time, Monica and I were prepping for our second date. We ended up going to a place called the Glass Cactus with a couple of friends of hers. The Glass Cactus is a night club up at the Gaylord Texan. The entry charge isn't too terribly bad at $10, but we had free passes thanks to Herman, Monica's friend.

When we got in we encountered a really good band. They call themselves the Spazmatics, and they sing a lot of hits from the 80s. Monica seems to like the 80s music, and I do, too. It's nice to actually be able to hear the words to the songs and the familiar tunes. We all ended up dancing. Well, I say dancing, but my movements were anything but graceful or coordinated, but nobody seemed to care.

We stayed until a little after 1am the next day, then left to get some food at the local IHOP. After "breakfast", we retired to Herman's and Jen's house where we talked for a while before Monica and I left for home.

I had a good time, and as far as dates go, it was fun and instructional. More to come...

Fast and Furious, A Torrid Weekend

Where has Joe been? Wow! It's been a busy week topped by a hot and heavy weekend. Somehow I got all my hours in for the week while doing the second shift thing and survived, but just barely. I thought I was going to like second shift, but then something changed. Monica and I connected. There's a lot to tell, but not here and not now. Right now I'm trying to get back to bed--the second shift/first shift schedule is wreaking havoc on my system, and it's hard for me to sleep. I just wanted to give a quick update before I try to pass out for a few hours.