When I was in the 4th grade, a burn victim came to talk to our elementary school during Fire Safety/Prevention month. She talked in very graphic detail about how excruciating it was, and all the pain she had to endure through physical therapy, baths (and watching her skin come off in the water), and wrapping her skin in bandages. After her presentation, I never wanted to be burned, and I took very serious consideration about using matches and explosives (which I didn't use anyways, but now I REALLY didn't want to have anything to do with them!).
Well, this summer, I finally did it: I burnt myself pretty bad, and all because of a dumb mistake. The healing process took me months, and I repeatedly thought back to the speaker I'd listened to in 4th grade. I felt so much empathy and sympathy for what she had experienced, because my own experience was just a small taste of it. Although the size of my burn was small in comparison, I was very miserable and uncomfortable and had to stop doing several activities during the healing process, which was nothing compared to what she had experienced. In more recent years, I've been following the NieNie Dialogues blog, and have been in so much awe at the heartfelt honesty and courage that she applies in every day life after burning over 75 percent of her body in an airplane crash. As for me, I only burned part of my lower right leg, and yet I still complain!
Here's how it happened...
Josh and I had gone on a motorcycle ride to town on a hot July afternoon. Whenever we stop, he always steadies the bike by planting both feet on the ground, and I'm always the first to get off. However, on one particular stop, he was just going to go into the library for a couple of minutes, so I said I'd just stay on the bike (which I've never done before). After about a minute of being parked along the asphalt road, and the heat emanating immensely from both the road and the bike, I decided I'd get off and go into the library. I always get off on the left side of the bike, but I was afraid of tipping the bike over, because that's the same side the kickstand is on, so I decided to brace my right foot on the ground before dismounting on the left side. However, my legs are short, and the large, modified exhaust pipe was in the way for me to put my foot down directly, so I ended up grazing my right leg along the exhaust. I had worn capris, but they had slid up a few inches as I sat on the bike during the ride into town, so my skin came in direct contact with the burning exhaust pipe. I only touched it for probably 2 seconds, but the pain was immediate. I hopped off the bike, and went inside (thankfully without tipping it over). I couldn't see the damage at first; I only felt it. I put a wet paper towel over the spot to try and cool it down. By the time we arrived home, the redness began to show through my skin. The burn was between 3-4 inches in diameter. I applied several OTC topical remedies, and intermittently put ice on it to try and stop the burn from spreading to deeper tissue.
When I woke up the next morning, it seemed okay--the skin covering the burn was very dry, but otherwise, I didn't think too much about it as I got ready all day for our vacation. We headed out of town to Bear Lake that afternoon and I didn't pack a single thing for my burn. That was a mistake! My leg burned and was so uncomfortable the entire vacation! I hadn't realized just how bad the burn was until about 24 hours after the initial incident.
It took over a month to heal...I applied burn cream and bandaged it every day for the first few weeks to try and keep it moist and help reduce the scarring. But I just got tired of it never improving, and finally I decided to stop bandaging, and let it just dry out for the next two weeks. It was completely horrible and so uncomfortable, and I regret the simple choice I made that day to get off the bike the way I did which resulted in a lifelong scar on my right leg! It almost looks like a tattoo now--part of the skin peeled off the first day on the drive to Bear Lake, in the shape of a lopsided heart, and that's the part of the skin that is the darkest, so it looks like it's a tattooed heart now!
Following is a series of photos to document the healing. If you're squeamish--don't look [can't say I didn't warn you!]. Also, if you look closely, you'll see that I don't always stay on top of shaving my legs--which I'm not even ashamed to admit!! [If you don't like it, don't look at it so closely ;)!]
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July 24 - the day after the incident. This photo was taken on the drive to Bear Lake.
The skin started bubbling up in the middle,
so I peeled it off which began it's heart-shaped scarring. |
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July 26 - this photo was taken on the way back home from our vacation.
The skin peeled back further from exposure to the elements while
swimming and laying on the sandy beaches of Bear Lake |
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| July 28 - after wrapping it in a large, treated bandage the entire previous day |
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| July 30 - a week after the incident |
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| August 1 |
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August 3 - the bottom part kind of worried me for a bit as it started to have
a green tint. |
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August 5 - Two weeks after the incident. This was the BEST
it had looked so far, so I stopped thinking I would go to the doctor about i. |
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| August 9 |
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August 12 - Three weeks after the incident.
I stopped bandaging it every day after this. |
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| August 14 - My birthday! Definitely a difference in how dry the skin is. |
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| August 16 |
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| August 20 - Four weeks post-incident |
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| August 25 |
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| August 28 - Five weeks post-incident |
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September 8 - Six and a half weeks after the incident, and FINALLY all the
scabs are gone!!! |
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TODAY--over 4 months after the incident
The heart scar on my right calf is noticeable. |
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