My Brother's Surgery

Hello.
I returned home yesterday to an unexpected series of events. I thought this was an interesting story that happened by random chance.

My brother broke his finger the day after his Bar Mitzvah playing Flag Football. It's been in a cast for quite some time and the fracture appears to have healed; however, there was another problem. His young hands were going to keep growing, so his finger was going to grow at a crooked angle that would bend over time.

I expected him to go to an appointment yesterday afternoon in order to get a cast that would correct his finger. However, at roughly 4:30 PM, he called me on his cell phone and stated that he would need to either undergo surgery on his finger that day or live with a crooked finger for the rest of his life.

My response: "Of course you should get the ******* surgery! You don't want to have a crooked finger for the rest of your life!"
While surgeries are painful for a few days after one undergoes them, they are worth it in the long run-- especially in this case.

At 5:20 PM, I get another phone call saying that he will be getting the surgery. I was surprised and did numerous things to distract myself from the terror that unfolded in a medical office a few miles away from my home. I waited, getting no updates, for my parents were not allowed in the room where my brother underwent surgery.

At 6:35 PM, my parents called me to alert me that my brother's surgery was successful and that he was returning home. I was relieved-- I knew the surgery would work, but also recognized that he would be in pain during the busy winter break schedule that lay ahead of us.

He eventually returned home that evening with much more energy than usual, a smile, and some (gross) photos of his surgery. I was glad of how he handled the situation and that he returned home fine.

The moral of the story: Expect the unexpected. I had no idea that this was going to happen until an hour and a half before he went into the operation room.

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