My Scar...

I have talked about my scar a few times and how much I hate it. Even today 15 months later it still looks ugly. It still looks angry. And it still hurts. 

I had wanted the original operation to be laparoscopic to avoid having a big scar. With that type of procedure I should have come out of surgery with only five small one inch scars. Well, at some point in time during the surgery, things went sideways and they need to open me up. So now I have this six to seven inch scar running down the middle of my chest. 

So today I headed to the University Of Minnesota to start steroid injections in an effort to try to get this scar to settle down some.  

Funny thing about getting steroid injections. They don’t numb up the area before they start jabbing you with the needle. Who does this? I mean even the dentist gives you some topical before he stabs you with a needle. 

Their reasoning for this is that since both the numbing agent and the steroids are done with a series of shots, it only makes sense to do one series. They feel it makes no sense to start jabbing you with one needle to numb the area and then have to jab you another needle to inject the steroids. Your gonna feel one series of shots anyway so you might as well just get it over and done with. So they go in live. In theory it make sense.
That is until you notice the other folks in the room.

Like other procedures I have had, before the procedure starts, the doctor went over what everyone in the room was going to be doing. In short the other folks were in the room to try to keep my mind off the procedure (WARNING WARNING WILL ROBINSON!).

One person was there to relax me by messaging my neck. That was nice. Another person was there to watch my feet to make sure that I kept wiggling my toes to keep my mind off the pain. Yes, it really does help. Then there was someone whose sole job was to keep me talking. You see if you are talking then you are breathing. If you are not talking then you might be trying to hold your breath through the procedure which could lead to you passing out. Which would be bad.

Once he had explained what everyone was doing he asked me if I had any questions. My question was “This is really going to suck, isn’t it?”. His response was “Yep, this is gonna sting a bit”.

Needless to say it hurt like hell.  They needed to inject steroids on both sides of the scar so that it healed evenly. So they went from side to side all the way down the length of the scar. Oh and when they happened to hit a sensitive spot on my scar, well that took the level of suck to whole new plane.
In my defense they only had to remind me to breath twice.

Today was the first of what will most likely be three sets of injections.
Next one is set for December 13^th. 

So I got that going for me…  Which is nice..

Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time

I feel alive and the world it's turning inside out Yeah!

I'm floating around in ecstasy

So don't stop me now don't stop me

'Cause I'm having a good time having a good time

(Don't stop me now  Queen)