Biopsies and Tornadoes

 I have to be honest I started this post yesterday and it read:

‘Biopsies and Tornadoes

Blah

The End.’

**I wrote this blog a week ago, but just came back to it to add pictures…probably one of my least favorite parts of the blog is adding pics. (And please don't judge the screen shots of snap chats). Don’t you just love impatient people??**

That was how I felt all day yesterday, a big ball of blah. Considering I was still on a high of Valium and Lortabs from the previous day probably didn’t help much. Btw those meds were from a procedure, not because I’m a druggy.

Let’s pick up from my last post. The doctor’s appointments had ensued, Easter had passed -fyi those dang chickens are still alive and driving me crazy!- and another home series was approaching. My biopsies were scheduled on a Friday afternoon, which I thought worked into my schedule great since we had baseball the next two days (all in Starkville). I’m not really sure if I purposely put the memory of my last EMC biopsy so far out of my memory or if I was just a freaking beast then, but having that type of biopsy and going to a baseball game a few hours later is a complete joke. That appointment ended up being a painful waste…giving as little TMI as possible the doctor was unable to get the biopsies for the amount of scar tissue I had from my cancer surgery and my pain/anxiety. So a solution to this was several different pre-op medicines and we’d try again in a few days. This did help me enjoy my baseball weekend, but prolonged the waiting game of ‘is it back?’ even longer.

I won’t touch on the baseball weekend of us losing ANOTHER series, but hey, Wes Rea did have a 3 hit game (and the haters get quiet) ;)

So maybe I will add a few pics from the baseball game since it was Military Appreciation Day.

Love my Southern Baptist, but just keep scrolling ;)

For days the weathermen had been calling for strong storms headed our way. They warned us every way possible and living in the area my whole life I was not too alarmed. I knew the only thing to do was get the storm shelter ready and prepare and react when it actually got here. In the late hours of Sunday and early hours of Monday Arkansas was slammed by the strong storms, producing numerous, deadly tornadoes and we all knew this was headed our way. I believe I missed my calling when it comes to my schooling. I love weather, I love storms. I want to be able to look at clouds or a radar image and know exactly what it means and what is about to happen. When I started working at MSU three years ago I seriously thought about going back to school for it, but knew in the end it was not something I could do and work fulltime while doing. Maybe when I marry my rich sugar daddy I’ll go back and do it ;). So Monday the storms were inching our way and arrived in a big way. A lot of the businesses and schools let out early in preparation for what was to come. The closer it got the less focused I was on work and the more focused I was on watches and warnings. I was glued to Twitter for all the updates. A tornado warned storm was headed for Pontotoc at 1:58. At 1:30 it was still sunny and dry out, hard to believe a tornado was headed this way. Between 12:30-1:30 I had gotten several calls from my mom and brother warning me and seeing what my plans were. Us brave souls at the Experiment Station were riding it out, actually we had been busy working and let it sneak up on us :/. And when it came it came fast. The weather nerd in me was going crazy. It was so exciting, interesting and scary to me all at once. We stood outside the door watching and taking pictures and videos of what was happening before our eyes. I have NEVER been so close to a tornado in my life. It was literally forming right over our heads. The deep, dark clouds starting to rotate into a funnel, the lightening baring down, the sound of the wind swooshing in a circular motion; not being able to open the doors without great force because they were suctioned in so tight. Y’all it got intense! Once it got to that point we knew it was here and it was bad so we made our way to the vault. We had several people run in who had been caught in it while driving and we invited them into the vault with us, because here we’re all family-and we were all probably about to pee our pants!  I had my phone with me the whole time and surprisingly had service to keep up with Twitter updates. Tupelo. It was headed for Tupelo. In these parts there is no running down the road to go to the mall, catch a movie or eat at a nice restaurant. There is riding 20-30+ minutes to Tupelo to do these things. And when you come from a SMALL town like me (side note: if you come from a town with more than 800 people in it and consider it small, I’m probably going to have to slap you…) you know Tupelo is NOT the place for a tornado to hit. Well it did, and it was bad. A weatherman asked for someone to describe the scene moments after it happened and the response was, “Bad, Bad, Bad!”. It was heartbreaking seeing the pictures come through the Twitter feed…absolutely heartbreaking. Although I didn’t necessarily grow up in Tupelo it is my birthplace and so close to home; I consider it home. 

Huge hail at my house

Pictures from Tupelo

  

Not too long after 4 (I would say?) I got to go home to my storm shelter, which I did not end up needing the rest of the night. During all the anxiety the storm brought, I had to remind myself I would be drugging up and getting ready to have my biopsies done the next morning. Ugh. Can I just go ahead and tell you no amount of Valium can make what took place that morning any better. There was anxiety, pain and a little yelling, but give me a little bit of credit; I did not curse the doctor. But it was OVER; I had one of the worst parts behind me and just had to wait on the results. You forget how annoying the waiting game is until you are going through it…again. The first day I was still pretty zoned out and in some pain from the procedure so there wasn’t a lot of time for worrying. I ventured into work that day, because I hated to miss any more work at a new-ish office. So instead I went in basically high…all day.

First of all this was my parking job that morning...I did not realize it until I was leaving for the day...

Pretty sure my co-workers probably just thought I was rude, because I feel like I made this face all day while trying to focus.

My impatient little self made it through it though. At 1:03 on Thursday afternoon I had just about had it. I text my friends saying the doctor’s office had better call soon. I bet God was looking down ready to thump me on the head. At 1:13 I got the call. It was his nurse with my results and even though I tried to read her voice as much as possible before she spilled the beans, I couldn’t. She finally let me know the results came back NORMAL; just continue my 6 month check-ups as usual. About 50 lbs lifted off of my chest with the thought of being ‘okay’ and normal…I was normal. Something I treasure being so much.

Guess that’s about it. Mother’s Day and the last regular season home series for the Bulldogs is coming up!

-Casey