6/7/2016 - The Before and Afters - Scars & Staples

Prior to my transplant I had some pretty awesome scars.  Most were from the Wilms Tumor removal that was attached to my right kidney when I was 7 (or peripheral operations for it).  Then, when I was found to have Basel Cell carcinoma, they had to remove several moles.  I digress, the point was to set the expectations of my "before" shots so then you can compare with my "after" shots.  

Either way, lets just say that I often make people uncomfortable when I play soccer shirts vs skins or when I'm in a swimming pool and it will likely be even more so now.....of course it doesn't bother me in the least and usually makes a fine conversation starter or I can kill conversations.

Example of a conversation starter:

Random A: "Wow, that's a huge scar...is there a story behind it?"

Me: "Kidney taken out from cancer when I was 7"

Random A: "No kidding, hey, I had x, y, z cancer and so did my friend...."

Example of conversation stopper:

Random B: "What the hell happened to you?"

Me: "Gang fight in Florida, I was slashed pretty bad." [Flaring my nostrils when talking]

Random B: "That sucks" [Backing up to pull a fade away like nothing ever happened]

<<Insert Before Pics, will hopefully update when I can locate them>>

Obviously thrilled, but you can see part of the scar and staples (50 staples in total in addition to internal "dissoluble stitches")

You can see the overlap of the scars the tried to keep at a minimum.  This was after discharge and the drains had been pulled out (Gauze covering drain holes)

What's under the gauze you wonder?  Oh, I'll show you that too....it's where a vampire bit me

I'd like to say they shaved my chest, but I'm not really that hairy so they didn't do much there. They did shave my left armpit and my nether-regions.  Actually not sure why unless they just like to mess with me because the foley they could have put in either way. (Don't click on foley link while eating).