Quote: “Scars are tattoos with better stories.”

[okarol]

“Scars are tattoos with better stories.”

Of course dialysis and transplant patients have scars. What have you got?

What about other scars? Any stories to share?

My scars aren't too interesting. When I was five years old I tripped over a scooter and split my forehead/eyebrow - had stitches - scar is on my right eyebrow. Also have numerous knee and elbow scars from skateboarding as a teen. When I was 19 I had a waterskiing accident and damaged my right middle finger and nail. Are you getting the message that I am a klutz???

 

[Meinuk]

Scars - makes me smile.  Sick eh?  Way before Lethal Weapon, my ex-boyfriend & I used to catalog our scars.

I have a few - a sign of a life well lived: 

My hands: A bike accident aged 6 - I protected my face at the expense of my hands. 

A small red spot on my right pinkie finger where I played with matches as a child.  (great memories)

My upper lip - dog bite aged 7, since repaired. 

My right leg -  slip & fall on ice, 8 stitches and some nerve loss -  still have the scar. 

My tummy - surgery. 

My face - (lower orbit & right eye brow - skiing accident) since repaired (slight scarring).  Made me feel like such an athlete!

My left arm  - fistula surgery.  Yup, you all have those too!

Finally:  my chest, two scars I've named "Ariel" after the nurse who went on vacation for 10 weeks, and since he is the only person who can stick me, I had to get a perm cath. ( I am now learning to self cannulate and we are establishing button holes)

My tattoo - well, my classmates at NYU voted me least likely, so when the time came, I put my ankle there and said do it.  It was photographed for posterity.   Now I wish I had something cooler....

That is the history of my scars....  I love them all.  And no, I don't look like Frankenstein!

[tamara]

Okay, try to get them in order - the scars that I know about anyway LOL

Palm of Right Hand - where I scraped it against a car  when I was little

Left Hand - Grabbed a Knife that my Dad left out again when I was little

Knee- Part of Patella chipped off and removed in 1988

Perma Cath Scars- from you know what add up to about 5 all up

Fistula- 2 Beautiful Scars, one in elbow crease the other upper left arm

Ectopic Pregnancy- may as well have had a caesar LOL

Parathyroidectomy- Scar on neck

and next in line Transplant Scar and will wear as I do the others with pride, hey if they weren't there would I be here, and if a tree falls in a forest, hey you get the drift .............LOL

[Adam_W]

Hmmm,

Left knee-Bike accident when I hit a patch of ice when I lived in Canada

left arm-Failed fistula on forearm, and graft on upper arm.

Chest/neck-one unsuccessful neck catheter, and two chest catheters.

[glitter]

My husband has the coolest scars-

he has one from breastbone to 'bikini line' from bike wreck where he lost first kidney

both shoulders have a 4 inch slice from respective surgeries

scars on his back where he fell out of a tree onto a fence as a boy

scar on left middle finger where he almost cut it off with his moms butcher knife

star-shaped scar the size of an oarnge on his right hip from being blasted with a peice of heavy equipment

slice under his bottom lip from being hit in the face with a tire-bar (it slipped)

scar near his eye where a crowbar slipped at work

right big toe dropped an ax on it

bucket handle scar across abdomen from last years nephrectomy

4 inch slice plus two dot scars from gallbladder removal

catheter scar upper chest

four scars from building and fixing his fistula

missing the end of his thumb from a grinder

missing the end of his left index finger from a planer (last month)

both forearms have hundreds and hundreds of  small scars from his profession-

we always said -a day he didn't bleed- he didn't work


                                                         

[kitkatz]

Geez I do not know where to start... This may take a while....

Neck for parathyroid surgery
Left arm has railroad tracks below the elbow from graft redo surgeries.
A scar above the elbow and below the left arm pit for graft srugery and one redo.
Two scars on both sides of the chest for catheter placement.
Three long ass scars down the belly- one for urostomy, two for  c-sections almost on top of each other.

Not done yet...dialysis calls me.

[Jill D.]

Several scars where I have had moles removed (too many to count!)
Fistula scar (and the lumpy, bumpies that go with it)
C-section scar that brought my kids into the world
My beautiful kidney transplant scar

[kitkatz]

Okay I am back to finish...
 My left upper arm has bumps all over the graft site. Scares some people.

I had bladder surgery at two and ten so scars under the belly.
Also two small catheter scars in the bladder area, one high, one lower for some kind of test they did.
I put a nice scar on my knee falling into a pothole as a teenager.
Dropped a rock on my foot as a kid, have a faint scar there.

[KT0930]

This may take awhile...

above the right eye, learning to walk, walked into the corner of a piece of furniture

right arm, wrist and crook of elbow for fistula placement (which was never used, since I did PD)

right knee, riding a horse in a ring and he decided to rub my leg on the twine circling the ring

right leg, removing a mole

left arm, neck, both ankles various cut-downs when I was an infant, trying to get venous access

"smiley face" on my abdomen where two transplants and c-section all come together

tubal ligation at belly button

various on abdomen from PD cath placement and removal in days before laproscopy


chest, two permcaths placed & removed

I think that's it...

[tubes]

Lets see.....
2 weeks old had left kidney removed...

5 or 6 fell off rocking chair and split my chin open...

at 16, 3 failed fistula attempts on lower left arm...

about 5 neck catheter scars...

18 yrs old, helping a friend move, fell down stairs and tore tendons in both knees, nice long scar on right knee....

21, parathyroidectomy

25, pd cath removed, had complecations, doc went back in, now i have a long deep scar, never filled out...

25, another fistula attempt on lower left arm, failed, had 4 declots on it and then another attempt in bend of elbow... so 5 fistula attempts in lower left arm...and 8 scars to prove it all, now that looks like i was pieced together...frankenstein or what...

25, successful fistula in right arm, had revision-brought closer to surface, then fistula comes apart and bathroom fills with blood, doc saved me and fistula and its worked for the past 2 yrs. now...

i think thats it... 

[Amanda From OZ]

Ok here it goes...

- - My Permacath Scar from having to start dialysis sooner than everyone thought.

- A scar from my fistula operation on my lower arm.

- And a little scar on my lower leg from doing....  ummmmm hmm well i don't think i should say on here.     

[glitter]

Ok here it goes...

- - My Permacath Scar from having to start dialysis sooner than everyone thought.

- A scar from my fistula operation on my lower arm.

- And a little scar on my lower leg from doing....  ummmmm hmm well i don't think i should say on here.     

holy cow- you can get a scar from "it"?  Wow I must be doing it all wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tubes]

Ok here it goes...

- - My Permacath Scar from having to start dialysis sooner than everyone thought.

- A scar from my fistula operation on my lower arm.

- And a little scar on my lower leg from doing....  ummmmm hmm well i don't think i should say on here.     

holy cow- you can get a scar from "it"?  Wow I must be doing it all wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, i think ur doing it right glitter.  amanda is doing it wrong.  you shouldn't press so hard, its not neccesary to press so hard if u have a sharp razor.    glide baby, glide....... 

[Amanda From OZ]

No Glitter and tubes you are both wrong! Its about being at the wrong place at the wrong time!......  Thats all i'm saying!!!   

[livecam]

If the FBI wanted to profile the members of this site we sure are giving them enough information to do a complete job.

I have a few scars here and there.  Just above my right knee is a nasty slash that came from a broken Coke bottle at the age of 4.  Just below my left knee are a couple of smaller scars that were the result of being cut in a farm pond while rowing around in little plastic boats and trying to sink each other at age 10.  I still don't know what was in the pond that made those cuts.

My face has a few nearly invisible thin vertical scars that are the result of going under a chain link fence on a sled as a kid.

I've got a long thin scar from two fistula surgeries on my left arm, a little one in the upper chest where my Tessio catheters for dialysis were, and my favorite is my transplant scar which is barely visible in the area where the new kidney went.

Please doctor....no more!

[okarol]

No Glitter and tubes you are both wrong! Its about being at the wrong place at the wrong time!......  Thats all i'm saying!!!   

Placement is everything...

[sugapea]

Wow this is a fun thread!
3yrs old - 4" scar on right palm from falling on a rusty pipe
5 yr old-  1" scar on right eyebrow, fell on a pile of bricks
7 yr old - scar on right knee, horrible skating accident
26 yr old - 1" scar on left arm and tiny scar on chin from dog bite
30 yr old - several small scars on left hand for another dog bite
34 yr. old - several small scars and a funky bellybutton from PD cath surgery
21 to 35 yr. several small scars all over hands and arms from various cat scratches, dog scratches etc...
  24 yrs old- tattoo of my dog Lucus on right calf

[Psim]

Some people here are highly decorated!

Me: Long scar on my left leg from stitches as an infant.
Small scar on my ankle from the cast they put on when I kept spitting my stitches.
Many, many little klutz-scars: from knives slipping, grease spattering, tripping over invisible objects, etc. Ouch!
Laproscopic nephrectomy scars: three little ones for the instruments and one where the kidney came out.
Parathyroidectomy scar.
Hoping to get the transplant scar before the PD catheter scar.

[Gramapat]

I only have scars - no tattoos.

1" scar on left knee from a sharp license plate.  Sat on bumper of car at 6 yrs. old and turned - plate cut a big gash and I had to have stitches.

Small scar under left eye from falling and hitting a doorknob. Drunk at 18 yrs. old.    It blends in with my wrinkles now. 

Numerous scars on abdomen-
Large scar all the way across abdomen for colostomy and 2 bowel resections.
Big ole gall bladder removal scar.
Large scar from above belly button down to pelvic bone - bladder ops. (My belly button doesn't look like a belly button since it has been cut through both ways.  )
Another scar for my urostomy.
Two round scars where 1. - urostomy was supposed to go but wouldn't reach. 2. Abdominal fistula was supposed to go but wouldn't reach.

Long scar on left arm from under arm to past the crease in elbow- failed fistula attempt.
3 small scars on right thigh - my working graft.

I think that's it!

[kimcanada]

I don't think I have many but here they are...

Right nostral has a tiny scar, my cousin tried to have me when we were 4

Inch long scar on the inside of my right leg, trying to jump a barb wire fence...

Permacath Scar

And hopfully soon a kidney transplant scar

[AlohaBeth]

I only have one but its ugly enough to count as about 7.  I had my thyroid and a tumor removed when I was 19 -- the first scar was really nasty so I had reconstructive on it because well, it's the first thing people were seeing, but the reconstructive scar keloided over too - so it's still ugly - but I am okay with that now...

[paris]

AlohaBeth's scar makes for a great story. It truly looks like someone tried to slash her throat.  Most thryoid surgeries leave a small, thin line maybe 3 inches long. Her's is about 7 inches long ----- it looks so much better now than the first year.

Beth, you forgot to tell them about the tattoos!  They are bigger than your scar!

[AlohaBeth]

Beth, you forgot to tell them about the tattoos!  They are bigger than your scar!

You are just so hilarious.

I had a few great stories that I would tell people when they asked about my scar, I was in a bar fight, I took down a terrorist -- you know - the usual crazy stories! 

[kitkatz]

I keep telling my husband when people ask what happened to his leg to tell them "Shark bite".

[Mimi]

I have a scar across my left cheek from a automobile accident at 17.  I had plastic surgery twice on it, but the scar is still visible.  Funny thing no one ever asks me what happened.
I have a scarr on my left arm also, from the fistula.

Mimi