Day 724, A Whirlwind

For those of you that follow me on pinterest, I am certain you can tell by the overwhelming amount of new pins that I have had a little extra free time on my hands.  Yes, I am officially recovering from my surgery.

Thursday, May 30th, I woke up early (as if I could sleep much when I knew I was about to be cut open) and headed to the surgery center. With mixed times from the doctor's office and the surgery center, we showed up at 7:30am (just to be sure). They took my insurance information, verified the correct info on file, and took me back shortly to be prepped. Hubby was amazingly supportive. He held my hand as they poked and prodded and helped get me in my hospital gear.

My first nurse was Marilyn. She was the sweetest and only had to poke once to get my IV in!  She kept us company and discussed the previous week's tornado to pass the time. She prepared me for who all would be involved in the process and made sure I was comfy with fresh warm blankets.

After a while, two anesthesiologists made their way to my bed side and asked a million questions to make sure they knew everything about my history to help me be comfortable. After a terrible experience with a previous surgery, I told them my concerns and they put my mind to ease. The nurse anaesthetist would also be there to care for me if anything needed to be changed.

Then came the "regular nurse". Her name was Paula and she explained everything they had scheduled for the procedure. I began to feel a little queasy with the details, but she was very helpful and stated the doctor would be in shortly.

My doctor was more than great. He discussed everything, gave me the opportunity to ask questions, and addressed some serious questions in case it came down to the worst. Finally his resident came in and let me know he would be back with me.

Before I knew it, I was waking up (a little nauseous) and hurrying along to go home. I was a little faint, but they gave me something to help settle my stomach and rolled me to the car.

The first day I was in-and-out of it-mostly keeping myself comfortable as hubby and my mom would come in to take my temperature, give me fluids and medicine, and make sure I was doing okay. Knowing that hubby was going back to work the next day, I stayed at my parents' house so they could keep an eye on me.

Then, Friday came. Momma helped me get up & down and walked me into the living room to try to sit me up. I slept off and on again while watching tv and talking to her. It wasn't until about 2/3pm that things went from normal to terrible.  The news broke in and said people were getting off of work early and preparing for a storm moving in. With characteristics of the May 20th tornado in Moore, OK just a week prior, they prepared us for the worst. I spoke to my husband as he got off work and asked him to get the dogs and hurry over to my parents' as soon as he could so we wouldn't be separated. My sister, future brother-in-law, and niece were all there when it rolled in.

We took cover in the hallway as I managed to get myself down on the floor (in my pajamas and barefoot) and put the mattress over us. My sweet niece stuck my daddy's bike helmet on me as the sirens began to sound. We braced ourselves for the worst and took pictures off the wall as we heard the news state it was hitting El Reno and was due to arrive in approximately 20minutes.

Just as calm as could be, my daddy walked into the hall with the rest of the family as he stated we needed to go. The news was stating if we weren't underground, we wouldn't make it. We had to get as far South as possible.

Now, I have to admit a few things that were happening at this point: 1)I was on pain medicine and not necessarily in my right frame of mind, 2)I was still in my pjs and barefoot, 3)I was totally against leaving the house, and 4)I was screaming at my poor husband that he was taking me against my will as he helped me get into the car with our three fur babies.

That was when we did the dumbest thing we could have ever done-we split up.

Thinking we could simply get in our vehicles, drive down towards Tuttle past Mustang, and rescue ourselves and cars from any damage-we split up.

We were in my car, my momma was in her car, my daddy was in his pickup truck, and my sister was in her fiance's truck with my niece. As we rounded the corner to get out of the neighborhood (might I remind you that the sirens are going off at this point and we had approximately 16minutes before it was going to hit) we were met with bumper-to-bumper traffic and our plans stopped. 

At this point the tears worsened as I panicked and began dialing my family's phones to get ahold of someone, anyone.

Nothing.

We made it to the stoplight where we were to make a very important decision: turn South and hope we end up past this tornado, go straight and pray we make it to my grandparents' shelter in time before it comes. 

We chose to go straight.

Unfortunately, my family made the other choice and once again we were split up (now in different directions) with minutes counting down. As I got ahold of my sister, I talked them into going to my grandparents' house (knowing the worst place we could be is on the road getting swept up like a feather). Once at their house, we took cover with the other people from their church that took advantage of their large cellar. We continued to try to get in touch with my parents as we anxiously listened to the weather radio and large hail pelting overhead. Water seeped in through the sides as the ground began to get wet. It was headed straight towards us and seemed to be following the same route as my parents.

Let me just say, every detail of that night still haunts me.  It feels like a whirlwind of pain just thinking about the fact that I could have lost my parents-something that too many people in that storm know all too well. I couldn't keep my composure. I couldn't stop crying. Most importantly, I could not stop praying for God to protect my family and watch over them on the roads.

Please, please, please...

Momma and Daddy ended up halfway under an overpass in Moore, OK as the tornado tossed small debris through the air in front of them. Then, they faced the flooding waters as they trecked back home through trecherous waters.

We stayed at Gramma and Pawpaw's for a little while before making the journey ourselves to get back to the house. The uncertainty of what was ahead was nothing compared to the fear we had when we echoed "I love you" over and over while on the phone with my parents thinking we might never hear their voices again.

The roads were awful and the hail had yet to pass but once at their house, the electricity was on and the house seemed untouched. Thank God.

Momma and Daddy arrived at home close to midnight and all I could do was cry in relief as I hugged their necks.

A few busted stitches and an aching pain is something I will take any day of the week to know my family is safe. Thank you, Lord for keeping us all safe. I am so blessed.