Submitted by Byron Neil Brown
              10/20/2002

A week and a half before the tornado I started having a 
total GI flare up of ulcers. Mouth, throat, large and 
small intestines, and well...EVERYWHERE else you can think 
of. The ones in the throat are the worst.  I can't eat, 
drink or swallow without horrible pain. That means no 
physical exertion of any kind because I get dehydrated 
from lack of fluid (not drinking) and, for lack of a 
more eloquent way of putting it, spitting all my saliva 
so I don't have to swallow over the ulcer. Those are 
what my wife and I refer to as the Double Dose Painkiller 
Just to sleep ulcers.
 
Fast=Forward a week and a half, full blown ulcers and 
pain pain pain.  At 2:50 in the morning my Mom calls 
the house, telling my wife Ann to get me (and her) to 
the basement. I could barely walk down the steps to the 
basement. We were lucky the kids were all away that 
weekend out of town!
 
Seven minutes later the tornado struck. No power. 
No phone. Nothing but a flashlight and my fire 
dept. band walkie talkie and couldn't even respond 
with because I had so many ulcers I could not be 
understood.
 
Our first concern was for my parents. My side of town 
wasn't hit to bad, but I needed to know Mom and Dad 
were OK.  Ann and I went out to made sure everything 
with the neighbors was all right.  We hopped in the 
van for the six block trip to the other side of town.
 
We never made it. Two blocks from the house at 3:07 AM, 
we found the road blocked by a large tree and 
Providence Fire Dept. Eng. #2. My Asst chief was there 
with a Capt. directing traffic away to a safer part of 
town.  My good friend Capt. Lee Jenkins saw us in the 
van and flagged us over. "Your mouths hurting you again, 
ain't it? Man we got victims on six different streets 
we can't get to and no help!"
 
"Your Mom and Dad's place got hit but we can't get up 
to them yet.... Their house is still standing, though!"
 
Ever hear the old words about God not giving you more 
than you can handle?  I looked at my wife and then back 
at Lee.  My wife, with a knowing sigh shook her head at 
me and said "Go on, I'll walk up to your parents and 
make sure they are all right." With that, I crawled 
out of the seat and hobbled (remember, I had ulcers 
everywhere!) the block to the station with Capt Jenkins.
Half way there he asked me if I would make it.  I told 
him this, and I quote (LOL) "ID cam'bt tawk tause ub 
dees damb ulthers, but ID wiwll be awwriwt!"
 
God knew I couldn't help my friends and community with 
painful ulcers that made it difficult to walk.  By the 
time I made it into the station bay then to my locker 
to put on my turn out gear, I no longer had any pain 
in my backside to speak of.
 
Lee told me to get into Rescue unit 3 cause we were 
going to roll out with chainsaws to cut out downed 
trees so our ambulance could get through. We rolled 
ending up on the street that runs just off from my 
parents house.  I caught a brief glimpse of my parents 
out in the front yard, walking around.
 
We were out of the unit and up and down over power 
lines, trees, and things that looked suspiciously 
like someone's garage, and that was just the debris 
in the street. Through swollen ditches and creeks 
and across muddy spots that were once homes, we 
searched for survivors.
 
I don't know for certain when the throat pain went 
away, somewhere between the first downed tree and 
union st, where a trailer had flipped three times 
and then disintegrated. I know because on Union Street, 
I was handed a bottle of Gatorade and I drank it all 
in one huge gulp. I could still feel the ulcer in the 
throat, but not the pain. My mouth ulcers were painless, 
also. I know this because I had to radio in a broken 
gas main, and I had no problems being understood.
 
The worst area was still cut off, though. We were 
blessed that one of my fellow fire fighter/EMT 
Monty Hardman was at his wife's grandmother's home 
the next town over. He could get to the worst part 
of town, because he was on the other side. Monty 
has almost everything in his truck that an ambulance 
has, and he is always prepared. He and his wife 
even transported patients down and out to the station 
through the use of his 4X4 and some fields.
 
Later, about 4:45 AM, back at the station we were, 
treating patients as they came in, our truck bays 
turned into a triage area.
 
About that time, the other FD's from the county and 
all over western KY and other ambulance services 
started showing up to help.
 
I worked triage for 2 hours. My wife at some point 
in time wandered in and began to help. 
(My wonderful wife is a story in herself...for the 
next two days she delivered cold water to every crew, 
police officer and clean up team she could find...
the Police dept. called her the water angel!)
 
After triage, I transported patients to ER, worked 
clean up, directed traffic, cut trees, found lost 
puppies, and generally wore myself out. At 10:00 am 
the next morning (about 30 hrs later), I was able to 
go home. But I didn't go home. I went to Mom and Dad's. 
They had 200 year old trees down, and everything a-shambles.
 
GOD DOESN'T GIVE YOU MORE THAN YOU CAN HANDLE......
 
At about 2:00 PM that day, volunteer help arrived, and 
I really wasn't needed at my parents house anymore. I 
knew this because as I was taking a long drink of water, 
my throat began to hurt again ever so slightly. God was 
telling me that I could now go home. He was giving me 
back my ulcer pain because I was no longer needed to help.
 
So, 34 hours after it all began, I was home, out of the 
shower, and in bed, feeling once again the full effects 
of a BD ulcer flare up.......
 
Because God knew I could handle it .........