Hurricanes and ALS

ALS with Anna Vol. 11

Hurricanes and ALS is the title of a bad country song. You lose your power, a tree falls on your favorite truck, and the wind takes your kids’ trampoline away. LOL. If you can’t find humor in bad situations you just aren’t looking hard enough. But for real Hurricanes and ALS both SUCK big time. You add both of them together, I 10/10 don’t recommend it. However, I have the most wonderful support anyone can ask for. God was at work way before the hurricane got here. Don’t you ever doubt him. He has a plan. Also one VERY important lesson in your walk with Christ is “ Bad things happen to good people. God never said it would be easy, but I’m telling you it is worth it”.

I went to post an update on Facebook about how I was after Helene came through and it got so long. I said, “ Anna, this needs to be a blog. There are too many moving parts and people involved. It truly took a village and God to see us through this difficult time. Now, mind you if I didn’t ALS this unfortunately event would have just been a mild inconvenience, but ALS threw a monkey wrench in the whole affair.

“So I’m going to start this story as any good ”Brannen” would (Inside family joke) with another story. If you have never met the Brannen side of my family, my dad’s side, let me tell you they could talk the horns off a goat. LOL. My drive and purpose for this blog is to highlight how God, my God, works in my life. So maybe you can start to see how he works in your life. The thing is you can’t find something if you don’t look for it. My second reason is to give thanks to everyone who helped me. Especially those behind the scene who don’t get enough credit, and those who prefer to stay out of the limelight. I’m sorry you’re going to shine today.

Okay in an effort to not make this a book and not have my eyes fall out. Because I type using my eyes. So it’s like using one hand to type. There is a blog coming soon on how I do this. I’m going to be telling bits of occurrences that have happened along the way. First of all our sun porch ac went out. Jason said something about it in front of my dad and his because I really wanted to be able to sit out there and watch my animals. Well my Daddy had borrowed a window ac unit from us years ago. He got it and brought it back. Jason’s dad had a portable unit he brought us too. So at the end of August we had two ac units. Okay, Jason had just had an emergency appendectomy, so he couldn’t put it in. My friend, no really family now, caregiver and her son came over, tore the old one out, and new one in. Fast forward 3 weeks later we find out we have duct work problems. It’s going to be 4k to fix, just to get air flowing right in our room. Well, what do you know? We have a portable ac unit. All I need to do is order the exhaust hose for the window. I feel blessed. God provided a need I didn’t know I had. I placed the order and it was delivered Wednesday before Helene hit. See where I’m going here?

I had no idea that the hurricane was going to be that bad. The weather forecast always over predicts them. You see people on Facebook complaining because they cancel school again. You know the saying better safe than sorry? Well this is a prime example. Helene didn’t do what they thought. She showed up and showed out. The wind was awful and our house is pretty sound resistant. It has to rain really hard to even know it is raining. I woke up and it sounded like a fight was going on outside. I could just visualize the limbs flying and trees whipping around as the wind howled and hollered. It was mad. Now, I know all of the surrounding area folks heard the same thing. I could hear limbs and debris hitting the side of the house, our window, and the roof. We heard trees hitting the ground.

BUT now imagine being stuck in your bed, you can’t get up to see. I thought if a tree fell on the roof I can’t even roll out of the way. Now, Jason was right here with me, but the ALS factor caused a lot more uneasiness. I was scared, don’t get me wrong, but I was talking to God the whole time. That gave me some comfort. We lost power at 2:10 am. I know this because the winds woke me up at 2 o’clock. I laid in bed praying. first for us to be safe, second for our property to be safe, and lastly to not lose power. Well, I got 2 of the 3, I’m not a betting woman, but I’ll take those odds. I laid here listening and praying till daylight. Jason got up periodically, when I would wake him, to go check the outside to see any trees that had fallen. Yes, that man can sleep through a hurricane, two actually. When dawn finally broke, Jason opened the windows and I finally fell asleep listening to the wind. With my eyes closed it was like I was at the beach.

The first day wasn’t bad. I had a nice Breeze, but around lunch my Tobii died. Tobii is my eye gaze and speech device. My voice is 90% unrecognizable. Jason and Dalton can understand bits of what I say, but being without it leaves me feeling very vulnerable and anxious. So the first day and night I had to have someone stay by my side at all times or I would feel trapped in bed and have a panic attack. I have no way of calling out for help. It’s a very helpless feeling when you can’t move or talk. Sometimes it feels like I’m being tied down and gagged. That is the best way to describe the panic attacks, plus I get fiery heat that spreads across my body. So add that to no power. 10/10 don’t recommend that either. Not on my worst enemy, well maybe for a minute. Lol. I’m kidding, kinda.

So, by 1 or 2 I started to get hot. I laid here and asked God what I was going to do. Then an idea popped into my head: get items out of the freezer and put on my hot spots. For me it’s my stomach, because that is where my hands always lay, and beside my neck. Jason went and got a big bag of frozen field peas and put it on my stomach, and a bag of frozen ground meat for the back of my neck. I was instantly cool. It was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

Now, for those of you who are/were like me and grew up hearing people say “ God spoke to me” and thought, “How? When? If you’re like me, I’m a very literal person. So growing up in church I thought I would literally hear God. So when I never did I thought I’m not doing it right, or I’m not Christian enough. As a young teenager I thought I’m not living God’s way so he isn’t talking to me. Then I had doubts that those who said God spoke to them were lying. I knew I had felt his presence in me before, but I had never heard him. I had heard you really have to listen. I would try so hard. That was the problem I was trying to and expecting to actually hear God’s voice. Hey, maybe some people do, but for me it’s a feeling I get and an idea or words, or thoughts that randomly come to me. It took me twenty something years to figure that out. To “quote” listen to that voice. It was hard at first I second guessed myself, but the more I listened the more “heard”. For me, it wasn’t a voice, it was a feeling of being led to an idea or an answer I was looking for. It wasn’t easy, it developed over time. The stronger my relationship with God got the easier it was to talk to him. The more I talked the stronger I got. I wish someone would have explained that to middle school me. But everything happens for a reason.

Okay, back to hurricane I just felt led to share that. Jason and I knew we had to find a generator. Frozen food would only last so long. So he took off to town. Lowe’s was out, had some coming in that night. Jason came back home and made a plan to get up at five in the morning. My mom and step dad had also been looking, but all stores were sold out.

As I mentioned in the beginning it took a village. Those of you who know me personally might have already noticed I have not mentioned our two youngest children. I truly believe this was another part of God’s plan. My Aunt Cheryl was supposed to get the two youngest boys Friday. Jason had a cow sale Friday night so the boys were going over there. Well Jason’s gout flared back up so aunt Cheryl got the boys Thursday afternoon, instead of friday. Mind you, we had no idea what we were in store for, but God has a plan. Because if the boys had been with us it would have put so much more on Jason’s shoulders, and given the circumstances Jason really needed to be able to focus on me. It worked out perfectly, Aunt Cheryl wasn’t alone, the boys were happy and safe. Jason was able to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning and got hunting for a generator.

A hunt it was! He got up, got me fed, and squared away so he could be gone for a little while. Dalton was here with me. The good thing is Dalton and I went back to sleep. So I didn’t stress about how long Jason had been gone. Given our current situation at the time my separation anxiety was high. Jason takes off for Lowe’s, there is already a line at 6. He gets in line and some people are getting more than one generator. Jason starts to protest that everyone should only get one so they last. It falls on deaf ears. Jason also explains the reason for needing one. No one cares. They ran out ten people ahead of him. He goes to Harbor Freight; they only had 3 to give out. So he decided to go to Claxton to Tractor Supply over there. We really like them over there. More hometown business like even though they are a corporation. He pulls in the parking lot at 7:30. There are only a few cars and a few people in line. When they start giving out tickets people start doing the same thing asking for more than one. Jason and some men agree it should be one generator per person/household. Jason had explained his need for one was for me having ALS and being bed bound. A couple of people let him in front of them and one of the workers gave him a ticket and promised him a generator. HOWEVER! Claxton was without power, so it was cash only. We/he didn’t have that kind of cash. He never expected this to happen. Jason called everyone he could think of. Then he called my mom and step dad. They were on the way to Statesboro to look for a generator. But early birds get the worm, or the generator in this case. They turned around and came to Claxton and Jason was able to bring one home.

Now, mine you it is now 9 o’clock. Dalton and I are awake now, no word from Jaso. I’m starting to get hot again, Dalton gets more frozen vegetables for me. FYI, creamed corn takes the longest to dethaw and will keep you nice and cold. Especially, if you put it behind your neck. Hurricane Helene survival tip #1! So Jason gets home and tells me the story and all the color drains out of me because I think he is fixing to tell me no generator, and I know I can’t last another day. It’s already hotter at 9:30 in the morning than it was yesterday, no breeze. I’m fixing to have to call the ambulance to come get me. And that gets panicky. However, mom had cash and now after every obstacle Jason pushed through we have a generator.

Remember the story of air conditioners I started with? Well this is where one of them comes into play and the fact that I had just ordered the window exhaust kit for it. Now, mind you it wasn’t supposed to be delivered till Saturday the 28th. Somehow it got delivered before the storm. When does that ever happen? God’s plan. So I’m laying in bed surrounded by side dishes like I’m the turkey for thanksgiving. Just let that image sit there for a moment. Jason gets the generator going, gets me a fan, and he and Dalton get to setting up the portable AC. Once they get it going we can remove the frozen side from the bed, and I no longer feel like dinner to a lost tribe in the rainforest. I’m also able to plug in my Tobii and I can talk again and read. Only thing I could do Friday was stare at the wall, ceiling, or out one window. I can tell you how many pine trees are out there because I counted them bout fifty eleven times (in my best Lil Jon voice) Now I’m happy as can be I have cool moving air and my voice box back. I can lay in bed, read, and ride this thing out. I’m good.

Until Jason realizes we don’t have enough gas to make it through the night. We probably only have enough for about two hours. Jason tries to go get some lines that are hours long, he can’t leave me that long, other places have already run out of gas. We called my mom and they were out too. Jason ends up draining the lawnmower and pressure washer. Gidget, my caregiver, hears about us running out. She shows up with four gallons. She takes our empty tanks and says she will get up at 4 o’clock in the morning to fill them up. So when I say caregiver I’m using that word lightly. Gidget is family. I don’t know what I would do without her.

About two hours later, my Aunt Lisa got her power back on. She knows we are running low on gas. If she has power that probably means the gas station down the road does. So she and her husband go to fill up their tank for us. I text Gidget to let her know the gas station is open. ( Yes, we all live within 10 minutes of each other, my village.) She goes and gets us gas too. Now, I went from not enough for the night, to 2 days worth. My God is good. The whole time I was praying and giving my stress and worry over to him.

After aunt Lisa gets power she comes and gets pizza out of our freezer and cooks Jason and Dalton dinner. She brings Jason and Dalton breakfast, lunch, and Dinner. We gave her stuff out of our freezer and she returned it cooked and delicious. Some of the best hamburgers they had ever had. Lisa was back and forth over here 5 times a day. She was such a blessing. Again it takes a village. My village is mighty.

She let Dalton borrow her blow up mattress and we all camped out in our bedroom. Only the second night with the generator we found a DVD player and watched movies together. Jason and Dalton even went and were able to shower. I think she offered that for my benefit. Lol.

By This time we are on day five post Helene. I’ve almost read all the books I had downloaded on my Kindle. Jason’s mom and Johnny are still without power and they only have a fan to keep them cool. We decided they would come here and we put them on the sun porch and run the other AC we had and they could be comfortable too. About this time my cousin Brent shows up with a big daddy generator that would run the whole house. He had been trying to get it working,but didn’t say anything on the off chance he couldn’t. Now my Internet is back on. I immediately started downloading books. They got my well going so I could get a shower. A much needed and wanted shower. Plus we could give our animals fresh water. My village!

It is about dark 30 on night five. Mimi and Papa are one the way over. Papa, Johnny, wasn’t doing good with the heat. I was happy they finally decided to come over. Jason is standing by my bedside and he looks out the window and two power trucks pull up. I have never been so excited. I made Dalton stand at the window and give me a play by play of what was happening. I kid you not in 30 minutes our power was on. We have LIGHTS! And God said let there be light! Now, I don’t think it was a coincidence that they came by. I’m not going to name names, but two people from my village may or may not have tried to call in a favor. I also know my caregiver/ now family called EMC 3 times that day telling them my specific circumstances and exactly what was wrong with the line down in our yard. Whatever it was, I’m glad they came.

Life could start getting back to normal. We finally got the boys back. We had Mimi and Papa with us. (still with us and I may be loving that) We were blessed again when a local church, Southbridge Community Church, came out and cut the trees that had fallen, got up all limbs and debris, and hauled it off. My village is great. I even had a family help organize that for us.

So even though I don’t recommend doing a hurricane and ALS together. I know I am truly blessed and have a wonderful strong village to support me. God is great, God is good.

ALS With Anna

*He has a plan and I have a purpose*