How many scars do you have?

[supernova]

Does your body tell the story of your life? How many injuries or surgeries have you had? How big or small are the scars?

Do you like them? Hate them? Are you proud of them or wish they weren't there?

[DainBramaged]

1. Physical or mental?

[supernova]

3. Ah, physical

What's on your body.

[DainBramaged]

8. Clothes, jacket (little cold in here) shoes, glasses

[Left Is Write]

2. I have a few little bitty scars from minor injuries.

I have three - one on my knee, one in my side, and one on my scalp - from being hit by a bicycle on my way to a Camp Fire meeting at age eight. I also have one on my head from falling down the stairway and smacking into a bureau.

[supernova]

5. Ouch!

Kid tumbles are no fun.

[CBHagman]

4. All small.

Two are from when I was a kid and my poor mother had to take me to the emergency room. You really have to look for them, so they're not an issue.

The other is at the base of my throat and was something I thought I should hide. I've since decided against hiding.

I was rather startled when a total stranger asked me where I got my scar, though, and since then I've been rehearsing comebacks.

[supernova]

7. Trach scar?

I show my scars all the time in the summer. I don't care if people see them or not. I figure it's better for the to be curious and not so weird about it.

[CBHagman]

12. No, basal cell carcinoma.

A little red spot that didn't go away until the good dermatologist escorted it to the biopsy lab. I prefer to call it being in the Bill Clinton Club.

[LeftyMom]

6. Three really distinctive ones

I have some really nice road rash (long since healed up but bumpy and sort of waxy like a burn scar) on the inside of my left knee from taking a corner too fast on a road bike and hitting gravel, a 1/2 inch scar on the upper part of my right breast and a burn scar on my left hand from an unfortunate incident involving pyrex.

[supernova]

10. Those are interesting

Especially the different textures.

[Fredda Weinberg]

9. This might be therapeutic

I don't call 'em doctors - my name for 'ems butchers and I keep 'em as far away as possible.

The first bunch took the tip of my right thumb that had been traumatically amputated (Susan didn't want to be "it" - and I can remember her glee as she slammed the exterior door in my face), slung it back where it had been, bandaged me up and sent me home. Aside from the deformation where a neat suture could have been is the nail bed tissue that's become a tightly wound spiral, escaping where it could on the other side.

The only fortunate part of this episode is that my age was tender enough to adapt - as you can imagine, I'm no longer right handed.

The second wicked crew treated the incision they made for my ruptured appendix as an open wound - they could have inserted a drain tube but that would have required another hospital visit ... and my parents still didn't have health insurance.

I went into the hospital in the spring ... wasn't allowed to be vertical again until the dead of winter.

One day, if I can ever afford the down time, I'll find a reconstructive surgeon - preferably not American - who'll reduce the impact these scars have on me. Until then, I continue to marvel at the ability of the brain to cope with the unbearable.

[supernova]

11. You've had two botched

episodes?

:wow:

Amazing. An appendectomy is supposed to be closed. I don't blame you for wanted reconstructive surgery for those.

[Fredda Weinberg]

18. No insurance ... expect this kind of 'treatment'

I've checked - leaving the incision as an open wound is a valid option after peritonitis, but I don't think the authors were aware that nerve endings have a funny way of growing back where they can ... so I'm always dealing with the odd sensation that something ... anything ... is literally in the pit of my stomach.

But the brain is a marvelous organ and apparently, can adapt to almost anything, if it has to.

[FarLeftRage]

13. A few,,,

From surgery, a splenectomy, gall bladder and one on my ankle and neck where they put transfusion tube when I was an infant.

A 3 inch scar on my face from when I fell and landed on the sharp edge of a metal sign and several small one around on my head from when I fell out of a tree...

Gee, childhood was such wonderful time now....

[ScreamingMeemie]

14. Let's see....

9 surgeries...my abdomen is embarassing to me. And then some scars from various close encounters with knives (kitchen knives that is), and a cigarette burn from my ex on my ankle. :hi:

[Joe Fields]

15. I have had nine major surgeries in my life.

A seven inch scar on my abdomen that replaced another scar for the same surgery three different times. A scar that runs halfway across my back from lung surgery, shoulder surgery scar, neck surgery scar, knee surgery scar, and other scars, chin, elboww and chest from various auto accidents.

No, they don't bother me. I'm lucky to be alive.

[Blue-Jay]

16. Lots. I never bothered counting them, however.

I thought about naming them, but I ran out of ideas after "Scarry".

"Floyd" just didn't seem right.

[Radical Activist]

17. Yes. My belly tells the story that I've been

drinking too much beer and sitting on my ass too much. Thankfully its not very big yet, but I need to lose a few pounds before it gets too big.

[Oeditpus Rex]

19. Only one that anyone ever notices

It's right smack in the middle of my left eyebrow, the result of smackin' into a wall while playing basketball at 13. I made the shot, though.

There's a faint one about an inch long on my right forearm. I was about 8 and chasing my sister when she ran into the master bedroom and closed the french door. I stuck out my arm to block it and it went through one of the panes.

My fingers have a lot of tiny "knuckle knocker" scars from working on cars and whatnot.

I'm pretty much ambivalent to all of them. They're just punctuation marks in the story of a life.

[rustydog]

20. 4 scars, 2 knife scars, 2 surgical scars

Love the gnarly scar on my left ring finger. Broke it at work, huge surgical scar from top knuckle to mid knuckle.

Battle scar on forearm from psych with edged weapon. It's small but shows up when I tan in the summer.

[gristy]

21. three, all on my fingers/hands

finger in a bicyle chain at 4 (waaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
burning plastic dripping from a stick onto my hand at camp at 10 (ouch! ouch! ouch!)
utility knife slicing my thumb working on a dumb-ass project at 12 (ah! I cut my thumb! AHH!!!)

First and third required stitches. The second made a nice hole, but nothing to stitch up.

[Divameow77]

22. A few

three on my hand from when it went through a window.
A couple small ones on my cheek from a dog bite.
Small miscellaneous ones from things I don't remember.

[BikeWriter]

23. Independent biker, Vietvet, cowboy, carpenter, fireman...

I have scars on top of my scars.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

24. 50 years worth

My coolest scar by far is from my knee replacement. It's vertically right over the center of my kneecap, and it's over a foot long top to bottom (I never saw any point in measuring it).

I also have a burn scar on my right wrist that I got while operating a line of hydraulic rubber presses. (I was in high school at the time. I was going to school all day then going right to work, and getting off at midnight. Rough for a skinny seventeen year old.) This scar is noted in a folder in Washington somewhere- it was identified as a unique permanent identifiable scar when I got my Air Force physical in '73. Although it's almost completely disappeared, I can still see it if I really try.

[Deja Q]

25. Like or dislike does not come into consideration, they exist.

They must do.

Emotional or physical, BTW?

[TInCanCommunications]

26. Seven

All but one from hockey.
The other from playing cowbows and indians in second grade.

[Strong Atheist]

27. Wish they weren't there. I like my body unmarked .... nt.

[Lochloosa]

28. Here is the List.

1. Lip: Brother chasing me came out from under the pool table and head butted me. Age 8

2. Left leg: Large scar going down my left leg. Coffee can lid used as a Frisbee. Age really young

3. Right leg: Fell on a board that had a sixteen penny nail sticking out of it. Went in my knee. Age around 6

4. Right leg: Fell on a cobblestone road. Cut my leg just to the left of the nail scar. Age 7

5. Left leg: Saltwater catfish stuck a spine in my left leg. Left a really cute scar there but it hurt like hell. Age 10

6. Hands: To numerous to count. Age To this day.

I had two very dangerous brothers growing up. They keep me in bandages.


Oh Oh, one more.

Left Breast: Mary Joe Kopechy. Third grade I think.

[Ohio Joe]

29. Two

One on my back where I had a mole removed and one on my right index finger from when I electrocuted myself as a child.