Scars? Bring 'em on!!!

People have different perceptions about scars.  I was in my Vascular Surgeon’s office again yesterday (they should just hire me on at this point) and we agreed I was healing nicely and minimal drainage.   This is very good news that we were both excited about and instead of a weekly chat, we can now go a month without seeing each other.  Yay!  Before I left he made a comment about how nice my scar was going to look and that it would be better than the scar 2 inches over from it that was done by another surgeon.  This made me chuckle a bit.  Some surgeons are all about fixing the problem no matter the cost and other are all about what the skin will look like when all is said and done.  I’ve had both.

In the past 10 years, I have been cut on by 5 surgeons and gone through 9 surgeries.  I’m not one to shy away from a knife when it’s needed and nothing else works.  In fact, from the car accident, I still have 2 more surgeries I need.  One is rather minor and will have me down for about 24 hours.  The other…a bit more invasive.   Like I said, surgery doesn’t bother me.

A lot of people freak out about having a scar. They feel less beautiful and like the world will shun them.  Not me.  I embrace it. To me, scars are history lessons.  They remind us of what we have overcome.  We all have storms in our life which we have to weather and overcome.  When I have crappy days, all I have to do is look in the mirror and I can see that I’ve overcome torn ligaments, huge cysts, bones that rub on each other and destroy things, lack of circulation which could have resulted in me losing more than just a rib, and now a really rare and very leaky complication.  And those are just some of the physical scars.  Sure, it’s a lot and none of it was really fun, but in the end I can say I won.  I have conquered so much and every scar makes me stronger. 

Call me strange, but I would never want a scar to fully disappear.  It’s nice to have a little bit of history to look back on for some encouragement during the next storm.  Next up…the neurosurgeon.  J