Humans have scars in all sorts of unexpected places. They’re like hidden roadmaps of their personal history, remnants of their old wounds. The scars you bear are the signs of a competitor. I carry my scar everywhere. I think it’s beautiful in a way. It shows what I’ve been through and means the hurt is over and the wound is closed.
It’s quite strange how one day can change your entire life. I was twelve back then and my journey with scoliosis started with a visit to a walk-in clinic. Many changes had occurred in my body when I experienced puberty, and some of those changes were not considered normal. It was in March, 2009 when I discovered that my spine was crooked. My mom was the first one who noticed the unevenness of my shoulder blades
…show more content…
I knew that I would eventually need a back brace, but when the doctor showed me that horrible piece of ugly plastic, it was a whole different story. I turned into a statue. The orthotist who makes the braces showed me an assortment of patterns and designs—floral, butterflies, tie-dye, rainbow, and pink and white stripes. It almost seemed like I was shopping for a prom dress. Choosing the design of a back brace is like picking your own poison based on how pretty the bottle looks like. I chose the flesh-colored brace, the most inconspicuous of them all. It looked like a mannequin with its legs, arms, and head chopped off. Three thick straps with metal fasteners were bolted to the back to keep me inside. When I first tried it on, I felt like I was strapped in a corset; the air escaping my lungs. I was instructed to wear that plastic cage for about twenty-three hours every single day until my seventeenth birthday. Every time I wear the brace, I feel like a turtle flipped on its shell. I wore my back brace to school, to the mall, and to sleep each night. The hard plastic dug into my ribs and beneath my backbones, leaving my body with tiny scars and bruises. In a few months, I became frustrated and ashamed with having to wear it all the time. I love the feeling of my body being free, but sometimes it feels so foreign without the hard plastic shell wrapped around …show more content…
The idea of surgery didn’t scare me. On the other hand, living with a problem that hindered my everyday functioning and made me feel insecure was a far scarier reality. The surgery finally took place on July 1st, 2013. It was six o’clock in the morning. I was sitting in what will be my home for the next week. I was all smiles, calm, and collected. It wasn’t until my mom said her goodbye that I started to tear up. I was transported to a big room full of specialists and nurses. All of them were dressed in blue scrubs. The last moment I could remember before my mind and body dozed off was the faint smell of medicine and a soft jazz music playing in the background. Despite everything, those six hours on the operation table ended up being the best sleep of my
My eyes were closed. I could not move, but I could hear everything. Doctors were yelling and frantically scurrying all around me. I could hear the shouting of medicines and dosages as doctors pushed fluids into my IV. Suddenly, everything went blank, and that 's all I remember from my first hospitalization.
Duffy writes, “Each successive day in the hospital expanded the dimensions of Mr. Fletchers pain, trauma and grief”(2). The thought of Mr. Fletcher enduring any additional suffering from the metal rod that has to be placed in his back after his car accident was such a concern, that he decided on making PAD an option upon any further injury. He was not sure what the future held, but he knew he did not want to suffer, and took steps to ensure that he
Nothing there could comfort me. I was surrounded by white walls, and medical supplies in a room barely large enough for the bed and two chairs. This was before they built a new Children’s Hospital, though, which is filled with bright colors, beautiful murals with images of butterflies and flowers, and overall a more comfortable atmosphere. I remember lying in the hospital bed, under a thin sheet,
All of our scars reveal part of our life story. Inner wounds, inner hurts, inner scars. We all carry them in some form or another. Most of them you’ll never see, only some of them you’ll notice. Chronicles of wounds suffered.
I had never felt so sick or so scared before. The nurses acted fast, administering an antidote to the Tylenol through an IV in my arm. As soon as my mom heard the news, she dropped everything and made the two-hour drive to the hospital, arriving after midnight. I felt ashamed that she had to see me in that state, and guilty for how much I must have worried her. I spent my first two days there hooked up to machines and too weak to stand up for longer than a couple minutes at a time, and she stayed by my side.
Formed to hold up the postures of many Keeping Chiropractors out of business My bra endures many seasons The elastic no longer holds its title As foreign strings dangle out of place The material fits snuggly into the grooves of my flesh Running my finger over the clasp, that now sticks out, I latch and lock my bra into place The once brilliant color has faded away
Then, the nurses gave my mom and I art supplies. They had paints just like my preschool did. This made my days much more fun. My preschool even sent me a “get well soon,” card with everyone’s signatures. I felt special and less homesick.
"In terms of emotional scars, I think we all, to some degree, have them. However I was fortunate in that I was a journalist, and I spent a number of years trying to understand what drove the final outcome of Peoples
I had no body pain and I didn’t have a headache. This was my first day in four years without a headache, and my first day in a year with no body pain. I didn’t even remember what it was like not to be in pain. It was the best feeling in the world, to know that my hard work payed
All I wanted was for the pricks to stop. Finally that inescapable darkness feeling overtook me. This time I welcomed it like a warm blanket that would keep me safe from all the pain. As I lay there in the hospital bed inert and mute, my mom stayed by my side. My grandma had to pry her hands from the side of my bed just to get her to go check on Kaden.
A scar by definition is “a mark remaining (as on the skin) after injured tissue has healed.” However, if you delve beyond this primitive explanation it is evident that scars cannot only be strictly physical. Our wounds are equally as present internally as they are externally. In the free verse poem “Circular Saws” Fred Cogswell utilizes figurative language to employ a narrative that challenges the definition of what a scar truly is. Cogswell begins the poem by presenting the personal and relatable experience of acquiring a scar.
The lady then looked at the paper and realized it was wrong and started to laugh and said “ I am so sorry I wrote the wrong one down.” I knew that if I didn 't notice the papers they would have done surgery on my right knee instead of the left knee. I was moved to another room where other people were surrounded by nurses getting prepared for surgery. The moment I was stationed in my room I was surrounded by different nurses. There was the anesthetic nurse, the head nurse, the assistant nurses and even the nurses that are in training.
I was stable most of the times and did not feel it was emotionally challenging enough because I could take it off at any time. As a result, this experiment did lack the psychological or emotional impact which I believe colostomy patients may be facing. Tao, Songwathana. et al. (2014) concludes that colostomy patients’ face physical changes associated with body image, sexual dysfunction and bowel movement pattern.
Pain isn’t just something that can be forgotten so easily. It is there forever, a scar. Now, sometimes on accident, scars displayed on your skin grab the nearest attention. Today, people see scars as something viewed on the exterior as unappealing and revolting. Humans don’t have any other way other than judging people around them.
And to be awake through it all? I couldn’t even begin to fathom how painful it would be to have this done to me. I didn’t sleep at all. The next day I awoke as stressed as could be, I couldn’t keep anything down as the thought of unbearable pain ran laps around my mind.