ahh the wonder of the snow day. i believe that i'm the only one on the face of the planet that didn't get the memo. i braved the icy sidewalks of lakewood, only to be told by the school custodian that there was no school today. even the lady sitting at the waiting room by my parents knew (they called me to let me know). my brother's surgery went well...only five hours rather than the projected seven. for those of you that don't know, my brother had a spinal fusion done today for his scoliosis. they took two steel rods and placed them on either side of the spinal cord for the vertebre to grow around, and to straighten his tremendously curved spine. he's going to gain two to three inches in the torso. he came out of the operating room at two thirty this afternoon. he didn't get a bed until about seven. ahh, the wonders of hospital limbo. he didn't have to go to picu though, which is a good sign. i'm a little worried, because the last time he was taken off of a ventilator the same day as the operation, his right lung collapsed. i'm hoping that doesn't happen this time. the only problem with this snow day is that i didn't have the daily activities of school to keep my mind off of my brother. five hours is a really long time. especially when it's the amount of time that your little brother is under a general anesthetic with a team of five to six doctors placing surgical steel rods into his vertebre. my brother, with the two steel plates, six cobalt-steel screws (in his hips) and these two supporting rods, could go through a metal detector buck naked, and would still set off the alarm. that's the only amusing thing about it. well, i'm off to see if he's awake yet. ta-ta for now.
gredge