Luke had surgery today.

I've spent a lot of time in the hospital these last few days. It strangely sort of felt like home, despite only ever having been on the Sanford campus a couple times. When I was in my formative teenage years, however, I spent a lot of time at hospitals.

Both my grandma and my grandpa spent a lot of time getting sent to the ER and getting transferred to long-term hospitals after procedures or diagnoses, and living in a nursing home attached to a hospital. I spent a lot of time there with them, because my mom spent a lot of time there with them.

Luke and I were in the ER from 12:45-4:45 early Sunday morning. We were back Monday because the splint was starting to cut off circulation in his fingers. This morning he had an appointment with an Orthopedic surgeon at 9am, and they sent us directly to the surgical tower where we stayed until about 5 this evening.

The surgery went well--it was a relatively simple procedure which involved shoving a pin through the tip of his elbow (or, if you're being fancy, the olecranon) into the bone (the ulna) that it it used to be connected to.

I don't mind playing nurse. Had I actually liked science, I think I could have actually been a pretty good nurse. I am pretty empathetic and I like to help people. Blood doesn't make me queazy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I'm an English and journalism major. I didn't actually want to be a nurse. But I don't mind playing the part for Lukey.

And hey, anything has to be better than when he had sinus surgery sophomore year and I had to clean out the empty garbage can after he vomited roughly a gallon of blood.

//044