I'm not to sure about all the campgrounds around the United States but at ours, kids have to be accompanied by an adult if the are under eighteen years of age. Common sensr would also tell you that you should want to watch your own kids so that they don't get hurt or damage any property. We recently had a young child riding a bicycle notice our dog, and the little boy came straight on our campsite and tried to approach our dog to pet it. We have a two year old Siberian husky who has not been around little kids and is a bit skittish around them. We quickly grabbed our dog to make sure that there would be no accident. Being nice we chatted with the boy for a few minutes and let him pet Zoey (our dog). The boy (which we don't know his name) told use that he was a few sites down with his grandparents. We had ended the conversation and the boy went on his way. Every few minutes the boy would return and try to find a way to approach us again. Some times he would just come right up without saying anything and just sit there looking at us.

Lucky for the child we are not any kind of creepy child abducting crazy people. But it led me to think as a concerned individual. What is the proper child courtesy, and what is the proper way of handling a child that just walks on to your campsite and keeps returning?

Well, after a few days of this I began to get a bit annoyed and had enough. After the boy left our site to go riding his bike (unattended) I walked down to his site and told the grandfather that we had a small dog that was skittish around little kids and would appreciate that he would not come on our site unattended and with out permission.

All this made me wonder…….. How would you as a parent (or as a grandparent in this situation) want to be approached about this problem ( yes for me that child was a problem) with out offending you but making sure you realized you have to talk to your child about courtesy, permission, but most important of all your child's safety and approaching

strangers.

Enough is enough

So we all live and we all work and for the most part it’s a never ending cycle. Many people work at jobs they enjoy, and the majority of us work at a company we learn to tolerate. So the question becomes when does enough become enough? Until recently work has been pleasant and suddenly we ran into a situation that made us a tad uncomfortable. Certain situations have arisen and, feeling concerned, we decided to voice our concerns to upper management. We wanted to make sure we would not be suspects in these matters had they not been disclosed to management.

So we are now starting our search for winter work, but in case things get worse we want to keep our options open for a sudden departure. So… what are some triggers that could be considered the straw to break the camels back?

Concerns

In my last post, I expressed some frustration. Well, the frustration blew up beyond the drama I mentioned, and Artur and I felt it necessary to talk to our manager.

The campground we are at has a “sister” campground a mile up the road. Our campground is managed by an “Assistant Manager”, and her supervisor, the “Manager”, oversees both campgrounds and is located at the other campground. He makes appearances at our location (and has proven to be a very knowledgeable and competent manager), but mainly our Assistant is in charge.

Well, Artur and I have grown less and less confident in our Assistant Manager, but up to this point have given her the benefit of the doubt. I won’t go into many details regarding our concerns with her, but it all came to a head during the holiday weekend. (Ok, so you don’t think we are whiners, one of our big concerns is theft…) Our campground was rather busy, and now was the time for everybody to pull together as a team. That didn’t happen. And we were both discouraged beyond what we could take. So, we vented….

First, we wrote a professional letter outlining what we liked about our jobs and the campground. Then we outlined our concerns with “management” – and how the concerns were growing. The letter was only to serve as a reference, we planned to meet with the Manager and discuss the concerns face-to-face.

It took a couple days, but we were able to sit down and discuss the situation with the Manager. It took almost 2 hours, but we got it all out. Artur and I were calm, professional, and highlighted the points that 1) We don’t want to leave, and 2) We aren’t trying to take over management. We were very successful in getting our concerns voiced – and I felt so much better getting it all out in the open – but we were unsuccessful in persuading the Manager that a problem existed. He listened and said he would look into everything, but he didn’t convey any type of concern himself in the issues we were bringing to him.

It’s now been several days since the discussion. Our Assistant Manager seems to have made some improvements (which leads me to believe that some action has been taken). Artur and I really do like it here and sincerely expect to fulfill the entire timeframe we committed to, so we hope the improvements continue. We will not, however, compromise our general happiness and comfort. If the situation declines further beyond where it was last weekend, we will look for other positions. We chose this lifestyle to reduce our stress – and that is what we intend to do!

But now the question becomes (to avoid these problems in the future) – How do you work for ourselves to support this lifestyle???

Drama, Drama

In choosing to live and work this new lifestyle, I made a hugely incorrect assumption that we would be leaving the workplace drama behind. WRONG!

Hopefully our experiences (in this respect) so far at this campground are not indicative of campgrounds around the country. There is so much gossip, talking behind people’s backs, bad-mouthing, etc, etc – this is definitely worse than I’ve experienced at most of my “career-style” workplaces in the past. I have had a few days where I stood on the brink of scheduling a meeting with the general manager. I knew if we were to do that, we’d either need to be prepared to suck up the wrath from our assistant manager for the rest of the season, or prepare to walk.

Before we embarked, Artur and I knew we would have to make some attitude and expectation adjustments. I was choosing not to be a boss, so I couldn’t allow myself the attitude of “I could be so much better as the manager!” And we have been highly successful in keeping a positive attitude and accepting the quirks and weaknesses of our coworkers – but this angle I was not prepared for!

Right now I just can’t decide if the negatives are simply a sign of the adjustment everyone is going through, or if this is how it is, and things will only get worse…..

Our New Site

A few days ago we got a neighbor! He’s a fellow Workamper. We haven’t met him since his arrival – it appears that he dropped off his camper and took off (he isn’t scheduled to work for another week). While he seems very nice, having the site next to us filled has proven that we don’t have the amount of room we’d ideally like to have…

Before we had a neighbor, our dog Zoey could stretch the length of her 20 foot leash – wandering and laying wherever she pleased. When the site was filled, we realized that if we allowed her the full length, she’d be playing under our neighbor’s camper! That would be rude on our parts! So, while Artur was working his outdoor maintenance job, he scoped out the other sites to see if there might be one that could offer us more room. And he found one!

Our original site sat atop a slight hill – giving us a great view over part of the campground. It offered a pleasant view of the deer playing in the empty sites! Our new site is at the bottom of the hill, and it’s an end spot, so we have no neighbor on the side we enter our trailer. Plus, since that side begins to slope upward, we have extra space – almost like 2 full sites! Now Zoey has plenty of room!

Opening Day!

Yesterday was opening day for our campground. I woke up with an excited feeling, expecting somewhat of a buzz around the grounds. I thought I would be busier in the office/store than I had been so far. By the end of the work day, I must admit, I was quite let down! There were a few campers that I checked in, but for the most part the day was still slow and low key. As I walked out of the building, I couldn’t help but note how “anti-climactic” the day had been.

After the 2 minute walk back to the rv, glancing around the park and viewing the handful of extra rv’s, the excitement was building again. Even with rain coming, Artur and I tried to get a fire going. We were both excited to watch the newcomers setting up their sites. We even saw a black 4 door Wrangler pulling a bright yellow t@b camper! I could just tell by looking around that we would have some opportunities this summer to meet and hear stories from some great people!

At work today, some of the campers stopped in and I had a chance to meet some of the “regulars”. Several have told me that they are “fulltimers”. I can’t wait to speak with all of them and get their advice regarding life on the road, hear how they make money (some were relatively young), and find out the good stuff to see and do in this area. I know it’s going to be a great stay here!

St. John's & the Four Seasons Diner

This morning Artur and I attended mass at the local Catholic church. We don’t expect to be available to attend regularly – as we will be working weekends – but it would be nice to go occasionally. Artur is Catholic, I was raised Lutheran. I would prefer to visit a Lutheran church, but don’t mind worshipping at mass. The deciding factor for us is usually distance.

Traditionally, it takes me a few visits to get used to any new church, but the Catholic ones even more so. I’m not fond of the “singing” that the priests do in certain parts, and never can catch when the congregation is supposed to make the sign of the cross or kneel. Today’s service was no different. But then the sermon began.

The priest was personable and authoritative. I instantly connected to his words – and the message itself seemed to be directed towards me. Or, at least, I found it completely relevant to the journey Artur and I are on. His message was - Seeing the “Christ” in everyone and Belonging.

Seeing the “Christ” in everyone – or seeing the good in everyone. This truly has been one of my personal goals in relation to beginning our new life. I want to rid my life (as much as possible) of the negativity and stress caused by negativity. Using church as an example, it would be fairly normal for me to look down upon the people who waltz in late, after the service has begun. In my mind I am thinking, “This person is disrespectful towards the priest and rudely disrupting my worship.” I need to retrain my mind to instead think, “I’m glad this person was able to attend this service and worship with me.” And I will be making this effort in all aspects of my life.

Belonging. Every time we move, Artur and I will need to make a renewed effort to meet people and find a sense of belonging. Not “belonging” in a sense of “fitting in”, but rather belonging in the sense of making friends and figuring out the best the area has to offer. Belonging to the area – getting the most out of our time in that particular area. And I am excited about that prospect!

As a side note, after church we visited our first local restaurant – the Four Seasons Diner. The exterior aluminum exuded the charm of a 50’s diner, but the interior fell flat. The menu was huge – everything you can think of! Artur ordered the Caprese Burger, and I the Spanish omelet. Neither was outstanding, but at least we chose local over chain. We won’t be in a rush to go back (we’ll check out some of the other local eateries), unless we check back in for 50 cent Coors Light on Sundays!

Bushkill Falls

To embark on the “Full-Time RVing Lifestyle”, Artur and I needed to give up some minor comforts. Obviously, since we are making less money, we will need to spend less money. Checking out all the local restaurants might not be on our agenda, and we definitely won’t be updating our wardrobe anytime soon…..but today we had the opportunity to experience exactly why we chose this lifestyle. And what this lifestyle means to me.

Bushkill Falls is a local natural park in the Poconos – billed as the “Niagara of Pennsylvania”. We looked at the website and the park map before we went. Meant for “experienced hikers”, we chose the longest trail. No, we aren’t really experienced hikers, but we are young and in relatively good shape, so I thought the 2 mile hike would be suitable for us. The brochure mentioned parts of the hike were steep, parts were rocky terrain, and it should take about 2 ½ hours. Our trail would hit on all 8 of the waterfalls in the park. We couldn’t wait!

Well it was truly amazing! Seeing sites like this was our dream for this new lifestyle. I hope to find many more similar ‘gems’ on our travels, but to be honest, if this is the only one we find in the Poconos, this assignment will have been well worth it!

Instead of trying to describe in words the parks beauty, I have posted some photos we took along the trail. The pictures are never as good as the real thing, but enjoy!

Alone in the Campground

When our arrival date was established, our employer decided to have us on site before the campground opened. This would allow them to utilize us to prep the facility for opening. We were told Artur, in maintenance, would have quite a few tasks to keep him occupied. I, on the other hand – working in the ‘”Welcome Center”, would have limited work to do before the campground opened. However, the sister campground (the ‘north’ to our ‘south’) was already opened, so I would be able to get some hands-on training and exposure to dealing with the campers. So far, this has been very accurate.

What we never really considered in deciding our arrival date, was that we would be staying in a campground that was virtually empty. I don’t know why this thought never occurred to me, but it didn’t. And, honestly, I’m not quite certain what my opinion of that would’ve been before we arrived. But after about a week of being here, it is true peace and solitude staying in an empty campground!

Without the other campers, the deer freely roam the grounds day and night. They are usually in groups of three or four, and always include at least one young. They don’t seem to care about us – even daring to get as close as 30 or 40 feet from us and our dog. We’ve seen wild turkey on the road, but not in the campground. I don’t expect to see that. We’ve heard rumors about a black bear, but have been advised that he won’t show up until August. As terrifying as it might be to see a black bear, I think I would feel jipped if we leave this area without a sighting….

As there are no other campers to mind, Artur has taken the liberty to gather downed branches from around the grounds – we won’t need to buy firewood all season! And seeing the stars at night over our campfire is beautiful – although we haven’t made it to night’s darkest yet, not until the nights warm up a bit! I wonder if the stars will be as bright when all the other campers have their fires lit.

One of our goals on the road is to be social with the people around us (a more difficult task for me, than for Artur!) because many of them will be individuals we wouldn’t have come into contact with in our old lifestyle. We want to appreciate their differences, and learn from the people who share our adventures. So for now, we will soak up as much of the calm and serenity as we can, and look forward to the next “vacant” stop on our route!

Just for fun, here is a photo of the tree I love by our site – it reminds me of a giant Japanese bonsai tree! (No laughing, I know nothing about trees!) Hopefully soon I will have some pictures of the deer!

We've Arrived

It took us two days to arrive in the Pocono Mountains, where we are going to serve as workampers at Timothy Lake South as maintenance(me), and welcome center(Christi). The weather was still rainy and cold as we set up our site. Walking around and hooking up we noticed that a semi truck had clipped the side of our travel trailer and pierced the outer fiber glass layer. Frustrated, finishing the outside set up we moved inside to clear things out so we would have more room to move around. A few minutes later Christ found water dripping in through the ceiling - "on sh*t". We were one of only two workampers in the entire park and the gates were locked for the night, and we didn’t have a key. We just had to wait out the night and repair the roof and side wall in the morning.

With a temporary fix to the trailer, Christi and I moved past the damage. After all, what had happened wasn't going to damper our spirits. There is nothing that we could do to change what had happened (I'm still working on my time machine), now we just focus on continuing our adventure. I'm sure that more situations like this one will arrive (hopefully not soon) and we will just have to put up with them. As long as no harm comes to us, there is no reason to get scared and halt our exploration.

Would you really want to leave this behind?

On the Road

About 9am on Monday morning, we were loaded and ready to go! I was so anxious trying to get away from the city congestion – it was practically unbearable sitting in that traffic! But finally, we reached the Indiana border and a relief settled in as the cars disappeared.

But the drive wasn’t quite so easy. Pretty quickly Artur and I ran into some disagreement with the GPS. I, personally, don’t care for the GPS. I guess you could say I’m old-school – I like to look at the map and plot out my route in advance. I will reference the map throughout the travel, but should have a general idea, in my head, what roads I will be taking. Artur, on the other hand, just wants to jump in the car, enter our end destination, and follow the instructions. But, on this route, the GPS got it wrong….

No biggie, though, Artur and I smoothed it out and figured out where to go. To avoid the toll roads, we endured highway 30 through Indiana and Ohio. It was relatively slow going, but we got away from the traffic jams and speeding cars. What we couldn’t avoid, however, was the sheer tedium of Indiana and Ohio. Being from the Midwest, flat farmland is in no way exciting to me. But once we hit Pennsylvania, the whole story changed.

I’d been to Pennsylvania previously, but I must not have driven the length of I-80. It was a stunning drive – I recommend it to everybody! Hilly and foresty, with quite a few lakes and rivers. The scenery was beautiful and serene. But the drive wasn’t quite so smooth. If our life were a novel, that first chapter would’ve been analysed with some strong foreshadowing. The entire drive was filled with rain! Ranging from slight drizzle to full-on torrents, there were many points where I just wanted to stop for the day! And boy was it cold!

Our first night on the road, we settled into a truck stop for the night. I don’t mind the truck stops – actually, I feel pretty secure staying there. With so many trucks, rvs, and people around, I don’t worry about being secure…..And the noise doesn’t bother me – complete silence would bother me more! The second night, however, we made it to the campground and settled in there. But all was not well…

We met up with the evening ranger (a super nice fellow workamper!), and he helped us pick a site that was available. Artur pulled the trailer in, and we hooked up all the cables (in the cold rain). It was rather unpleasant, and thankfully, Artur managed those tasks. We got the slides out and while Artur was fiddling with the hook-ups outside, I began to get some of the random items put into place (we needed some room to walk around!).

Before too long, I made a disturbing discovery – water leaking in the kitchen! It was a rather terrifying hour or so – drying up the kitchen, realizing we couldn’t go to the hardware store to attempt to fix the leak (we were locked in the campground), and wondering how we were going to get our “home” to the shop for repairs. There was a brief moment when it was suggested that we might need to drop this idea and return to Chicago. Me, in my infinite wisdom, declared that since there was nothing we could possibly do tonight, we should just stop thinking about it and deal with it tomorrow.

So we did. Artur connected the tv, we relaxed as much as we could in the circumstance, and we went to bed.

6:37 am - waken. First thought on my mind - lets get this show on the road! I glanced over to Christi's side of the bed - "baby?" "What time is it? The alarm didn't go off", she asked. Perfect setup for me -"time to get going", I shouted out with excitement. I couldn’t lay in bed anymore knowing that we were going to be on the road by 9am at the very latest. I jumped out of bed, got dressed and glanced through the drawers one last time to make sure that we weren't leaving anything important behind. By that point Christi was up and about and getting ready as well. Doing her usual morning routine. I went downstairs to feed Zoey, and get us a cup of coffee ( as I do every morning, as part of my routine). Following our coffee, we both double check the room once more and headed out to deposit my final paycheck and pick up a new battery for the trailer (If you winterize your trailer and disconnect the battery, don't forget to bring it inside.) We probably got these tasks done in world record time, and when we got back someone had parked their car in front of our trailer ( you've got to be kidding me!). I ran to my neighbor and found out who the culprit was. The gentleman moved his car, then we hitched up and hit the road.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

10 Hours and counting

Here we are, roughly ten hours remaining until we start our first official assignment as workampers. This past week I walked through the trailer to make sure that it was in road-worthy condition for our first assignment. I checked all the plumbing since we had a fairly cold winter this year in Chicago. I gave It a good scrub down to keep a nice shine on the exterior, followed by checking the tires for proper inflation. The last two days was a marathon - having packed up all of our necessary belongings that we will bring with us and running back and fourth to the trailer. Now with only a few hours left the excitement of leaving is becoming more evident.

Just about everything on our list is checked off and ready to go. The pantry is stocked, the dog is washed (Zoey the Husky), we said our so longs to our friends and family. The only thing left is to go to sleep and wake up tomorrow refreshed, have a cup off coffee and hit the road. We allotted two and a half days to get to our destination at Timothy Lakes in East Stroudsburg, Pa. We are going to take a straight shot there and make stop offs by ear. Our next blog posts will come to you from the Quaker state where we will document our first time as workkampers.

Infertility

In my last post, I discussed that while on the road Artur and I would still be dealing with real life issues. And while I didn't outright mention it, my thoughts were only on the fertility conerns we'd been having. And since Artur has already brought it up, I might as well include my thoughts on the subject.

Once we were married, we had decided that we would allow nature to take its course and become pregnant naturally when it happened. We weren't "trying" but we certainly weren't preventing a pregnancy. About a month into our marriage, newly relocated to Seattle, I thought that it had happened. I tested my theory, and a home pregnancy test confirmed it. When I told Artur, I was crying. I thought having a baby at that point would prevent us from establishing our marriage, and our life together, in the manner of our chosing, I thought we would end up moving back to Illinois, Artur working for his father, neither of us happy, both of us stressed. At this point now, I can't imagine feeling that way about a pregnancy. (By the way, Seattle was a false alarm...)

Just over a year into our marriage, I was at a routine doctor's appointment. Part of the usual questioning, I was asked about birth control. Being honest, I relayed that we weren't using anything. The discussion naturally evolved to the fact that we hadn't protected againts pregnancy for over a year, yet we had not become pregnant. My doctor mentioned that if we wanted to have a family, we should consider setting an appointment with a fertility specialist. Thus began our obsession with whether or not we could have a family of our own, I charted my periods, attempted to figure out my ovulation days, and took pregnancy tests if I thought my period might be late. Eventually, Artur got his semen tested and we discussed setting an appointment for me with a specialist.

At first, when I didn't know what was going on , I truly believed that I would leave the decision up to nature. If it didn't happen, well then that meant that Artur and I weren't meant to have kids. And I truly believed that - I didn't see myself going to extremes, and possibly "against nature", to form a family. Artur would be my family. It wasn't an easy idea to swallow, over the course of the last 6 months I have spent more than my fair share of crying. All of a sudden it seemed as though every woman I cam across was pregnant. Every tv show and movie revolved around family life. I couldn't bear to sit in church, surrounded by mothers and fathers and their multitudes of kids. Poor Artur, I was crying all the time. But I hit my limit. I worked through it. I felt as though I'd reached a point where I could live with the idea of not having kids. And then I got pregnant.

I had had a suspicion that I was pregnant about a week before I tested. After months and months of stressing about it and taking pregnancy tests at the slightest hint, I didn't want to rush it and get overexcited. So, I patiently waited until I was certain that I was late. When I hit that day, I took the test. And it was the boldest, fastest positive I could imagine. I calmly walked out of the bathroom, having said nothing about yet to Artur, and showed him the test. He looked so excited, I thought we was going to cry. We were both so happy!
It wasn't long before that happiness faded. I had taken several more tests to confirm, and they each cam back bolder than the last. I contacted the doctor to set up a pregnancy test, and scheduled an appointment for a week later. Little did I know I would be in there sooner than that.

By the end of the week I was bleeding and knew it wasn't right. I got in with the doctor and confirmed my pregnancy, and was able to schedule an emergency ultrasound for a few days out. The ultrasound showed a mass in my tube that was of some concern to my doctor, and she wanted me to come back in a week for another ultrasound. I came back, only to be told the mass had grown, was definitely an ectopic pregnancy, and I needed to go to the hospital for emergency surgery. I was crushed. I couldn't stop crying.

It took me slightly less than a week to recover physically from the surgery. In that week, my emotions were all over the place. I had a lot of time to think about what had happened, what the doctor says our future options are, and what is a priority to Artur and I. And while previously I never thought I would consider the option, I am now excited about the day that I can have In Vitro Fertilization and grow my family with my husband. Who knows when we will have saved up enough money for make this option a reality, but we are both committed to that end.

Disappointment

Ok, normally I don't open up emotionally to other people when it comes to private situations. Recently (about three weeks ago) Christi and I found out that she is pregnant. This was one of the happiest moments I have ever had in life. To give you some back ground I come from a somewhat large family, on my father’s side there are nine children and each one has, on average, three of their own children. On my mother’s side a little less, with four children averaging two kids each of their own. I have always wanted kids of my own and after Christi and I got married we planned on having two or maybe three kids of our own, but we also said that if we couldn’t have kids then we would deal with that situation if it ever came around. After being married for two years and unsuccessful at becoming pregnant, I had visited a fertility clinic to have a semen analysis. We got the results a week later and everything seemed to be normal. Now fast forward about five months later, and here we are pregnant! After finding out the good news we decided not to get too excited because we know that pregnancies can go wrong. So, we made an appointment with a doctor to confirm that Christi was pregnant and sure enough the results came back positive. We couldn’t help but get excited that the doctor confirmed the home pregnancy tests. The next step was to go and get an ultrasound to see how far along we were. (You can't help but be excited for someone when they are expecting, it’s such an amazing experience).

Our day comes and we leave in the morning to head to the doctor’s office to find out how far along in the pregnancy we are. We get to the office sit around waiting as patiently as one could be. They called our names and we went into a room to have the exam. Truth be told that was the worst experience I have ever had. The exam revealed a possible ectopic pregnancy. At that very moment our spirits were pretty much crushed, it wasn't one hundred percent clear but the doctor had a feeling that it was and wanted us to come back in a couple of days for a follow up. (Talk about an eternity.) The next couples of days were very hard emotionally and physically - by the time the next appointment came around we were dreading going for the follow-up exam. Going in and finding out that we could lose the life that had started growing is very difficult to accept. Now we are in the little room again and waiting for the second ultrasound exam. Christi and I both were feeling a bit strung out when the doctor came in to start the exam. After a few seconds of examining, the doctor found the growing embryo attached to the fallopian tube resulting in an ectopic pregnancy. (There it was, the worst news I have been told to date).

The doctor told Christi that she had to go into emergency surgery to remove the embryo before it burst open and possibly bleed to death. So now we have gone from bad news to worse. Christi was immediately admitted to the hospital, where they started prepping for surgery. At this point (not to take away from how Christi could have been feeling) I was feeling completely helpless - losing a baby and having my wife go into surgery. There was nothing that I could do to change anything. All I could do at that point was to be at her side to comfort her and pray that everything would go ok without any complications. We were then moved into another room where we would have to wait for an operating room to be available. We were told that we would have to wait one or two hours for the room (we actually had to wait five hours for the room). That was a long five hours of waiting, most of which we sat around in silence, and a little talking about what doctors and nurses were doing or saying while I was not permitted in the room. (And why do they do that, I would think that if you were able to stay out of the way and not interfere with anything your partner would need you there by their side for some support).

The time finally came for Christi to go into surgery, so I was told to say something of a comforting goodbye (just in case) and they took her off. I sat there in the waiting room all by myself (there were other people there, but we came alone not expecting having to go straight into emergency surgery) with thoughts racing through my mind - how is she, how is it going, is she having any reactions to medication? All that stress was making me feel very weak and tired (plus I had only slept a couple of hours that night) and it wasn't helping sitting in a chair not knowing what was going on. There was no communication that could lift my spirits or relieve some anxiety, there was just a room with a hand full of people watching TV and reading magazines. Some relief finally came when a phone rang in the room and someone walked over and picked it up, looked around and shouted out my name. I hurried over to the phone and spoke to a nurse, who said the surgery was over and that Christi would be waking up soon and the doctor would be coming to talk to me.

Apparently when Christi woke up she had a small reaction to the medication that was used to put her out, and they gave her a different medication for it and it put her out for another hour or so. In the meantime I still haven't seen her and was beginning to get impatient. I then was asked to hand the phone off to the next person so that they can notify them, I shouted out the next person’s name to hand the phone off to (it looked like everyone was on an assembly line). The phone was handed over from one person to the next and after talking to the nurse they were permitted to go and see their loved ones, while I had to wait once again. A few minutes later the doctor came out to talk to me while Christi was still out from the medication they gave her. She had told me that while the surgery went fine and they took out the left tube, it revealed that there were some further concerns. Christi's right tube was attached to her ovary and showed some scaring as a result from a previous infection. The doctor went further on by telling me some more bad news, there would only be a fifty percent chance of becoming pregnant again with a seventy five percent chance resulting in another ectopic pregnancy.

A short time later Christi woke up, at which time I was permitted to go and be with her. I told her what the doctor had revealed to me, as I watched her tear up and sad emotions come out. This was just way too much for us to bear in one day. Christi and I left for home a short while later. The next day the doctor had called to check up and set another appointment to talk to Christi and I together. After our appointment, we were left with only one safe way to have a baby, and that is to raise the money needed for Invitro.