May in Oklahoma

So when we were deciding to move here everyone in St. Louis' response was, "why would you move to Oklahoma? You are going to die in a tornado." To be fair we decided to move back to Oklahoma the fall after one of the worst tornadoes ever had gone through Moore, OK, again. We moved anyway with the goal to have storm shelter in our house and with confidence of knowing that we were moving to a place that they had the best meteorologists in the world.

Our first year here there were zero tornadoes and about 375 earthquakes. We were feeling pretty good about it. This year spring time has been a little bit of different story. The first storm of the season I was at the hospital and got to experience my first Code Yellow, a possible mass casualty event, which means that all available employees have to stay at the hospital until the Code Yellow is cleared. That night I left around nine o'clock and of course had to be back in the morning.

Wednesday afternoon I was at work again. It wasn't a bad day, all was going well, then 5:30pm comes around, "Code Yellow: all available personal stay on your unit until the code yellow is all clear." All the patients and families had their tvs turned to their OKC meteorologist of choice. In this state people choose a weatherman and they are then fiercely on their team. I, and the rest of the state, was firmly team Gary England for years. But Gary retired a year or two ago so now everyone is picking a new guy, I'm undecided so far, just for the record. As I was going room to room helping people into the hallway when the first Code Black, tornado warning, was called every single family was laminating about how they wish Gary was still on TV. Don't we all! File all of this under Oklahoma Problems.

 I digress, as change of shift came and went the winds were whipping around and the rain was pouring down. There were multiple confirmed tornadoes, well south of the hospital, and multiple active tornado warnings. Two more Code Blacks were called and cleared, each time all the patients are taken into the hallway and gathered in the center area of the floor away from windows, but still on the tenth floor. Once the Code Black is all clear, unsure how this is decided, everyone can go back into their rooms. Since I had given report to the night nurse on my patients I had nothing to do but assist with this in and out of the room routine. By ten o'clock the Code Yellow had still not been cleared and lots of streets in and around the hospital were flooded and resembled lakes more than roads.

So a few of us, who had to be back to work in about eight hours, decided to stay at the hospital. This is the absolutely least ideal situation to be in, but we had no idea when the Code Yellow would be cleared and weren't confident we could get home anyway. We all remained in good spirits and laughed at ourselves as we dawned hospital gowns and patient socks then headed to bed in a patient's room, tornado sirens still blaring. Needless to say this was a terrible nights sleep for my roomie and I. I was woken up bright and early, at 5am, by the coordinator calling to ask me if I could go to the PICU. The answer to that was a resounding NO and why are you calling me when I'm asleep at the hospital??

I couldn't go back to sleep so I sat in my hospital bed pondering how I got into this mess. We were back at work by six thirty and in for more fun as the hospital was experiencing various problems as a result of the large amounts of rain and strong winds the night before. There were power surges, and we were on and off generators, all causing fun things like such as not having a tub system to send or receive things to/from other parts of the hospital. This also meant the AC wasn't fully functional, not ideal on the day that I was using hospital deodorant, not the best deodorant to say the least. I was exhausted with a foggy mind, but kept hearing reports of possible storms that evening as well. I had a panic attack all morning, concerned that I would be stuck there again that night.

Things were not going too smoothly Thursday. I was exhausted, with zero patience for the craziness that can be my job. Luckily, shortly before I was sure to have a breakdown, I go the great news that the floor I was on discharged most of the kiddos, so I could go home early. I am sure this was the Lords work since I truly am not sure how I would have made it until seven o'clock. I got home by three thirty and slept for two hours straight. Awake in time for Thursday evenings rain and storms.

As I write this I'm flipping through the various stations, watching the radar, checking out hail sizes, looking for scud, monitoring the flooding. This is May in Oklahoma. Every evening, wondering, watching, getting your storm shelter ready, making/changing your plans depending the skies. So my new, complete fantasy plan, is that I am going to take off the entire month of May, every year, and go travel. It will be a month of birthday celebrations, every year, and then when May is over we will return to see what is left of our house. That way I'm not working until midnight, sleeping at the hospital, and being stuck inside all the long rainy days. If anyone has ideas on how to fund my new idea, let me know!