Scars

Tonight I am thinking about scars. I have them all over my body. I have stretch marks from a huge round of prednisone back in 2001, not to mention two pregnancies. On prednisone (60mg/daily) I gained 75 pounds in one week's time - leaving stretch marks in all major areas, arms, legs, tummy; the back of my knees are even marked!

I have what looks like a small knife wound scar on my neck and a bullet hole in my upper chest. These are from when I had a split ash catheter put in for dialysis. The slit in my throat helped to install the catheter and the hole in my chest is where it came out. I have often tried to think of a good story of action and adventure to explain these scars in a more interesting way.

Over the years, I have aquired various bite scars on my hands from the many animal bites I have endured from rats, rabbits and cats. When you do recsue of feral cats and kittens, you get marked for life!

In 2005, I was awarded a large scar across my abdomen from my kidney transplant. It goes well with the several smaller scars on my belly from when they removed my Gall Bladder in 1998.

Among a few other childhood scars, I have a noticable scar on my left knee from an bike injury as a teenager. Nothing too interesting, just a crash to the tar for no really good reason. At least my bloody hands healed up nicely!

My most noticable, most memorable and the biggest scar, so far, is my left ear. I am missing the top part of my left ear and all the hair for a few inches around the ear from a car accident when I was four years old. My head hit the tar when I fell out of the car my Mom was driving. I was trapped under the car with my hair pin beneath a tire. I was lucky, no brain injury or facial scars. Today, my hair mostly covers the area.

Now I will have a new scar to fret about.

On Friday, February 12, I will be going under the knife once more. I am having a complete Parathyroidectomy. They slit my neck open and rip all four parathyroid glands out, replacing a small piece of one under the skin in my arm. It will then work from there. Hopfully without going crazy like they are now. The procedure is fairly common among dialysis patients, but the thought of my neck being slit across the middle is less than comforting. I am told I will be left eith a 3-4 inch scar across my neck. The scar should lie in the crease in my neck, hopfully not too obvious.