During my sophomore year of high school I was seriously injured during gymnastics practice, and had to have multiple surgeries and years of physical therapy to repair my left arm. The time I spent in the hospital made Ana Carden-Coyle’s presentation on her book, The Politics of Wounds, particularly interesting to me. However, my experience in the hospital was wildly different from the wartime hospitals of WWI that Carden-Coyle described. According to Carden-Coyle, one major aspect of wartime hospitals was the relationships between patients and their typically female nurses. In order to restore injured soldiers’ masculinity, which was presumed to have been taken from them by the feminizing and infantilizing process of rehabilitation, patients were encouraged to engage in stereotypically male activities like sports events and technical tasks. Furthermore, flirtation between nurses and patients, while not openly encouraged, was sometimes allowed as a way to help soldiers regain control over their sexuality. The sexualization of injured soldiers was also impacted by “khaki-fever,” which was a phenomenon during which young women were infatuated by and attracted to injured soldiers who had returned from war. This led to anxiety within hospital administration about the potential spread of venereal diseases, which in turn led to the implementation of strict visiting hours. Although my hospital experience was quite different form the ambiance of WWI hospitals, the camaraderie (although not the sexual atmosphere) between patients that Carden-Coyle described is still present today!