G. K. Fralin

Short Read Newletter

July 31, 2012

Dear friends and family,

This is actually the July and possibly August newsletter. I don't have an interview for you this month.

 I hope that's not a hooray I hear.

As much as I know, many of you enjoy the interviews and upcoming news, this past month I was very ill and in hospital. Therefore, I will give a sort of memoir, or filled in story of what I've experience. I hope to make the words creative for your interest, but I will keep it true to events.

On Wednesday July something or other (the 12th I think.) I went to the doctor for an ear infection. She put me on antibiotics. Of course, that's dull enough, but that night I started to run a fever, at least so Joe pointed out. We asked our oldest grandson, Delsin, to come and stay so Joe could go ahead to work.

Delsin, my trooper that day, stayed inside and watched over me. It wasn't long and I started coughing up the red stuff. I thought it was from a raw throat, but it kept coming up. It wasn't copious, but enough for alarm so I called the doctor again and she ordered a chest x-ray.

I don't know if I vaguely remember or if I am remembering because it's what Joe told me, but I managed to call Joe home from work to take me to the hospital for the x-ray.

Is this getting boring? I'll step it up a bit.

When Joe got home, I barely knew what was going on. He couldn't get me in the van, 911 came, and took me to the Beatrice Community Hospital ER. Things seemed to happen very fast as a host of doctors and nurses swarmed around me.

An x-ray revealed a bowel blockage (yuk), and my left lung full of pneumonia.

They kept me in the ICU overnight and the next day they sent me by ambulance to St. Elizabeth's hospital in Lincoln, Ne.

What a ride. Those ambulances are very bumpy, but thank God, for them and the EMTs who watched over me on the ride.

The first few days are very blurry, but I remember the first time they allowed me to have a meal. That was the best clear liquid meal I'd ever had. The hospital Jell-O was delicious. Within a few days, I was up to the chair and walking the halls with Physical Therapy. Day by day, I improved. Finally, they allowed me a full diet, and never has dry chicken tasted yummier.

By Monday July 23rd, I was back in Beatrice on swing bed to regain my strength and build my immunities back up.

I'm home and Joe is back at work. The daily routine is such a blessing now. One has no idea how much just getting to the restroom or a chair can become a mountain until we can't do it.

God said the faith of a mustard seed is all we need.

I had many prayer warriors on my side using their mustard seeds to ask for my healing. I am so thankful to them and God for that gift.

I'll be around for a while yet it seems. I hope a bit smarter and less likely to poo poo a problem.

In other news, I've finished the first edit of my first interview for what I am currently calling Living, Successful Nebraska Authors. We all know of Willa Cather and many of our former greats, but its time the world knows Nebraska has culture. I hope someday to do something similar about my home state of Kansas.

I hope to get a chapbook of Six Short if Weird Tales out soon, less than a dollar, less even than the $0.99.

Well, that's my current story and I can't change much of it, as I blissfully don't remember it all. They did have me on small doses of morphine in the beginning, thus some of the amnesia.

Take care and God Bless you all.

Glenda

Glenda K. Fralin

aka G. K. Fralin

author The Search: Lunis Flower of Hidden