Friday, March 11, 2011

Author with kidney stones! Race to the airport!

After the Franklin County (KS) Children’s Literature Festival on 3/9/11, I had to drive straight to the airport. The night before, I’d gladly agreed to take a jovial fellow author who kindly gave me permission to name him here: Steven Krasner. He was longtime sports journalist in the Boston area; I have virtually no knowledge about the Red Sox (or any other team) so I’m sure I disappointed him in that I couldn’t hold up my end of that part of the conversation during the 1.5-hour drive.

We did, however, have a great discussion about the current state of education and childhood in general, as we see it.

And for me, underlying the whole ride was a very real sense of concern.

You see, at 2:30 a.m. that morning, Steve had been awakened by pain. He couldn’t sleep for most of the rest of the night but did manage to wait till 7:30 before accepting that he needed to go to a hospital. Luckily, one was near the hotel all the authors were staying at.

Steve was diagnosed (and not for the first time) with kidney stones. They took care of him and he was discharged within a couple of hours; though that was quick, he still missed his first two sessions with the students.


Being a trooper who earned the admiration of the event organizers and other authors, Steve insisted doing his last two sessions, even though everyone thought he should just take it easy. He assured us that the medication was working. Yet…

…the ride to the airport would be just Steve and I down a long stretch of highway with no medical facility nearby. I told him, as if it wasn’t already clear, that I have no medical training. When I found out that one of the other authors is also an EMT, I asked her if she would please come with us or at least follow us. I wasn’t totally kidding.

But Steve was right. He was fine. He made it not only to the airport but home with no further pain. This is one story I'm glad doesn't have a dramatic ending.

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