The solar panels I made fun of when the Beast first thought of putting them in for *an emergency* came in really handy much sooner than we ever thought they might.  I'll have to give him points there, that's for sure. 

Right now our death toll sits at 249 with 100 people still unaccounted for.  1700 people are injured, although not all of them here in Alabama.  We do have more people that the tornadoes killed and injured than any other state, however.    I believe the injured here totals around the 1200 mark.  We had 11 tornadoes here, some a mile wide and all E3 or better.  The swath they cut for miles and miles is mind-boggling. 

I am taking notes on what we see, what we are experiencing and just some stray thoughts of mine that I will break up into several blogs once we DO have our electric back. 

I am so very grateful for my sister, Bratfink, for keeping you all informed and for helping keep MY spirits up when we get to chat, however briefly.  Thanks to those of you that were worried about us but we are fine and now we have a better idea of what we need to do in such an emergency as this.  That presupposes that our house remains intact, of course. 

I know you are in bed sleeping but thought I would let you know....the damage is so bad up in Huntsville area that I don't think they can get us our power on Monday like they originally said...

All 8 of the major towers that supply power to the Tennessee Valley Area were down, twisted and severely damaged.  They need to be replaced along with lots of smaller, feeder towers.
 
We aren't doing all that badly with the generator and the solar....I was sick because I hadn't had my diabetes meds for four days but....Cheapmart opened last night and the Beast, who suspected why I was sick, went up there and got them for me. 

I feel at least more human today.  Blood sugar is down to a more normal 90 this morning so I'm OK.

The Beast wired up the generator to the electric panel so we get the electric into a couple of the rooms.  We are still running the neighbor's refrig. 

Also we actually get to use the dishwasher but can't use the stove still.  Since I hate washing dishes, that's okay by me. 

Love ya lots....we lost 12 people in Albertville & Guntersville alone.
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Please keep everyone in your prayers!
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The Princess, Chewlee and Pannycakes left town and went to Gatlinburg.  I am guessing they are going to visit some people who will keep them until the power is back on at their place.

Tara and her three boys went to Florida to visit her brother and dad until normality returns.  Which means The Brat Farm is back to three residents.  Can't forget the dog, who is probably even more bewildered than Chewlee was over the loss of power.

Bratsis didn't specifically tell me the water was back on, but I figured out that it was when she told me that the Beast was moving things around on the generator and washed a load of dishes and then heated up some water for showers. 

I was telling The Boy about all the things they were having to put up with on The Farm and he said, "Is there anything we can do for them?  Something we can send them?"

"The thing they really need is gasoline for the generator," I told him.

He was silent for a moment and said, "I don't think there's any way we can send some of that to them."

But boy, if there was, we would have been right on top of that.

As for now, they have all the comforts of home, they just don't have them all at the same time.

Keep everyone in your thoughts and prayers and hopefully we'll all be seeing Bratsis back here before long!
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A long while back, when the Beast had the very first surgery where he was going to be put under, I told you he had no experience with that kind of thing.  He had never had his tonsils out, his appendix...nothing that required general anesthesia.

Well, this is the first time he had an inhaled anesthesia.  He said this surgery was different and it was on many points but....his inexperience with an inhaled anesthetic just about put me over the edge.  I told him that it would take 24-48 hours for it to completely leave his body, depending on what they used.  When he went to bed, it had been just 6 hours since he was out of surgery and, god help me, I wanted to put duct tape over his mouth, tie him up and put him in the closet.  He kept saying *Something is wrong!  This shouldn't last this long.  I'm so dizzy! *

I finally said to him, *Do you want me to take you to the hospital?  Remember, one of the first things they will do is put a catheter on you and you will probably have to stay there.* (I wish!)  I told him again that his lack of experience with an inhaled anesthesia was making ME nuts because I had told him it wasn't something you could just shake off in a few hours.  He finally shut up but....he was up and down every half hour, moaning and groaning as he tried to empty his bladder.  He had managed to do that at the hospital but I know it was sheer desperation and was mainly blood that needed to be emptied anyway.

It was about 4am when he actually, finally got some real action down there and he was ecstatic!  I managed to give him a thumbs up and said to him, *Great!  Do you think now you can get some damned sleep and not keep turning on every light in here to make sure you wake me up?*  He actually laughed and said, *I didn't want to suffer alone.* To which I said, *You had your dog!*

I was really tired and feeling sick myself so I stayed in bed much longer than I should have probably.  The Princess came by with some pizza for our lunch and I just talked to her from the bed since the idea of eating pizza made me nauseous.  I know what it was....it was just a nervous reaction from the tension I had been feeling about the Beast and his surgery.  I have a tendency to internalize all that kind of thing so I can carry on with my daily routine.  Then, after it is all over and done with, I fall apart.    Yeah, that's me.  The nut case to be. 

Well, it's time to go.  I am finally feeling better and really do have a few things I need to get done now that the Beast is on his way to healing and isn't raving like a lunatic about being dizzy or having a heart attack or something.  **Sigh**  HE would love to be the death of me, I think. 

Love you all.  Watch out if those storms are headed your way and stay safe.  I need someone who cares to come and read me once in a while.  Have a great day, ya'll. 

I got a bit of a shock this morning when we left for the hospital.  I thought it was a bit early (we left an hour before we were told to be there) for a hospital that was slightly over 5 miles away.  Turns out the Beast forgot to mention the surgery was taking place at the hospital in Gadsden.    I know!  It certainly changed my day, that's for sure.  I was on the road more than I had figured on. 

After getting the Beast into his gown (and naked underneath ), I made sure the nurses had my cell phone number since I had to come back to the house to see to the dog's needs.  He hadn't gone out to pee before we left (that dog has kidneys made of steel, I swear) and he was going to be very hungry.  I picked up some hot wings at KFC on the way home along with their potato wedges and he shared the wedges with me.  He really loves those.  Must be something about the seasoning.  I took the time to make up our bed before I had to turn around and head back to the hospital.  I wanted to be there when he came out of surgery.  He was just getting out when I got there so I didn't have a long wait before they brought him down to the discharge area.  I was a bit annoyed that the doctor didn't come down to talk to me about it all but I guess there was good reason besides him being behind in his schedule, as I will relate to you shortly.

When the nurse came into the surgical waiting area for me, he was just being settled in and they were checking his oxygen levels, blood pressure, etc. since it has to be in a certain range before they can release him.  They ended up having to put the oxygen meter/detector/whateverthehellitscalled on his ear because his levels showed so low using his fingers that he should have been blue.  On his earlobe, however, it came all the way up to 99 so he was good to go once he relaxed a bit.

The nurse from surgery told me that the Beast was combative when he started coming out of the anesthesia.  I gather that's not unusual but.....he kept saying he had to pee and trying to get off the gurney and it took four nurses to wrestle him into the bed.  I know what he had on his mind.  When he had this type of surgery last, they wouldn't release him until he pee'd.  When he couldn't, they catheterized him and he suffered with it for 8 days before it was finally removed.  He had in mind that if he pee'd this time, there wouldn't be a catheter to deal with.  Little did he know.

However, the good news is....there is no catheter and no need for one.  He says the way they put him under was different this time (they used a mask) and once it was on his face, he remembers nothing else until he woke up in recovery.  He says there is a lot more pain, however.  I just shook my head and said, *Of course there is!  They took half your prostate.  Do you know what that is even?*  He claims he does but I have my doubts.  He may know what it controls but I don't think he could actually pick it out or tell you where it's located, in truth.  But he was beginning to get on my nerves with his complaints about it being more painful over and over again.  All lI could think of was....oh good grief!  If he's this bad now, what in the hell is it going to be like when the pain medication starts to wear off?

When I got him home (I will NOT tell you about the awful drive home...30 miles of torture), I made sure he was settled and then headed for Walmart to get his prescriptions filled.  The girl told me 45 minutes so I did a bit of shopping then headed back only to find out they didn't have the pain medication so they didn't fill either.  They intended to give me the scrip so I could take it somewhere else since I was not going to wait until Friday for his pain meds. 

This one girl gives me a weak, *Oh, didn't we page you?  I was sure.....*  I was really pissed off and, after paying for the few things I had picked up, went up to Walgreens which not only HAD the meds but only took about 5 minutes to fill it when I had told them I had to wait for it because the Beast had just gotten home from the hospital after having surgery a few hours ago. 

They gave filling it priority, which I thought was great.  Not only that, but I swear, the price I paid for the scrips was cheaper than at Walmart.    I've gotten both of them before and this was even without having the Beast's insurance cards on me.  I told them that I didn't care....I just needed the meds because he had been home for over an hour and he was probably needing the pain medication about then.

He's been fed, hot chocolate-d, medicated and is ready to go to bed now.  I can de-stress and de-compress once that is done.  At least he is happy that there is no catheter.  I thank everyone for their prayers in that regard.  I know it had to have made a difference.

As I had asked, the Beast shook my big toe to wake me up at 10.  I still felt like shit but I had to get the green bean casserole ready and the ham in the oven.  I got that done, grabbed a cup of coffee, went back to my room and texted the Princess that she needed to get here early and be prepared to peel potatoes.  She had planned on coming over early anyway but I wanted her to know I was sick and really needed her.  I laid back down for a bit and got up when she, Johnnycakes and Chewlee got here.  Chewlee was carrying a basket since she was horrified to find out I didn't have a basket here and she had to have one to hunt for eggs.  She had brought a few things that the Easter bunny gave her to show me, including a pair of sunglasses.  She said she had her own now so she wouldn't have to wear mine in the car when the sun bothers her eyes.

To cut to the chase, we managed to get everything out on time and what needed to be hot was hot (although the ham was warm but that worked for us) and what was supposed to be cold was cold.  Tara was put in charge of making a cottage cheese/fruit combo and forgot to read ALL the instructions.  She didn't drain the fruit so it turned out to be more like a fruit soup but it was still tasty and was at least a subject of good conversation.  

Chewlee and Chance did the egg hunt a while after dinner and they both put all the plastic eggs that the Princess had put candy in and real decorated eggs that Chewlee had done yesterday into the basket that Chewlee had.  She spent the next half hour feeding Chance chocolate candy to the point that Tara told her ENOUGH! or he would throw up.  He looked so cute with the chocolate smeared all around his mouth.  He reminded me so much of Tara as a little kid.  Something about the look on his face as he ran back and forth with Chewlee, laughing like hyenas.  He's got his mother's looks and her mouth.  He's just so adorable.

Because I was feeling bad (and spent most of the day in my room, just checking on everyone occasionally), Johnnycakes kept Chewlee tonight while the Princess had to work.  She was not happy about the prospect.  She had told her mother earlier to go to work and she would stay with Gramma.    She CAN be bossy at times.  I won't see her again now until Wednesday, when I pick her up from school. 

The Princess told me that Chewlee woke her up early this morning, all excited and told her, *The Easter Bunny brought her presents.*  Not her mother.  Not Johnnycakes.  Just her.  Typical kid.  It made me laugh because I could almost hear her.

Tara stayed after the Princess, Johnnycakes and Chewlee left so the Princess could get ready for work and helped me clean up and put food away.  I made her take home a bunch of food for her and the kids.  Oh, and Tonto who is behind in his sign making contracts so he stayed home to get things done.  He sent me a really nice daylily for my flower garden that I will plant tomorrow.  I hope I feel better by then.  I'm still feeling icky but I wanted to get this done and posted.  I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and got to spend it with family and/or friends.

She goofed around a bit when we laid down but she finally grabbed her tee-tee and the big stuffed, soft bunny that she used as her pillow today and fell asleep.  When she woke up, she was running a slight fever but I gave her some medicine and she felt better shortly thereafter.  I needed to go to the store and she wanted to go with me and she PROMISED me (why it required a promise, I have no idea) that she would be good if she could go with me.  I had intended on taking her anyway but it was nice to know she was going to be good. 

We went and picked up a few things I needed for dinner tomorrow and the plan Chewlee and I made was to color and decorate the eggs after I put all the groceries away.  When she had finally finished eating her popsicle, we started dying the eggs.  She picked the colors....pink, blue and green.  I was glad because the other tablets wouldn't dissolve even in warm water but those three colors worked.  I added the vinegar for *vibrant* colors (what a crock!) and then we started putting the eggs in one at a time.  That, however, didn't work for Chewlee (too slow) since they needed to sit in the solution several minutes to get a lot of color.  So then it became two at a time.  We did more pink (of course) than any other color and green was the least.  After they were rinsed off and let dry on paper towels, Chewlee got to work on the stickers.

I was so very careful to boil the eggs gently so the shells would be intact.  Well, let me tell you, she did more damage on the shells than if I had just thrown the eggs into wildly boiling water.  But, she had a solution.  She covered the dents in the eggs with stickers.  Later she told her mother she had fixed the eggs with sticker bandaids. 

I had bought Chewlee a Kai-lan book at Walmart that Chewlee wanted and I was shocked to find out that the Princess had no clue who Kai-lan was.    She said to me in an almost snooty way that *at their house, they only watch Disney dvd's and Sponge Bob*.  I told her she would approve of Kai-lan because they cover such issues as hitting and throwing temper tantrums.

I found out that the eggs stay here because tomorrow the Princess has plans to hide (or for me to hide, I'm not sure) the eggs along with some plastic ones that will have either candy or money in them.  Oh goodie!  A  house full of company and an egg hunt indoors by an over-excited and slightly ill 4 year old.