Scars

Less than three years ago, I didn’t have any scars on my chest. After 30 months of dialysis and open heart surgery, my upper body is now a huge mess. If we do put in a fistula for hemodialysis, then there will be another surgery on my (probably left) arm. Finally, if I ever get a kidney transplant, there will be another large scar on the side of the pelvis.

I labelled the non-natural items on my upper torso:

The scar from open heart surgery is surprisingly minimal. I’m not sure how it will change over time but once the redness goes away, it’s not too prominent. The two drain holes are a bit worrisome. I think they’ve closed up but I’m on my third set of scabs. The larger hole goes in pretty deep and the current scab is mostly inside the hole. The cardiac surgery nurse picked off the two scabs to promote healing when I was in her office but that doesn’t appear possible now. Almost all the holes/scars are waterproof except for the current hemodialysis chest catheter. I was able to take showers for awhile when both the old chest catheter exit site and PD catheter had healed. Now it’s back to towel wipes and shampoo in the sink until we figure what to do with the current hemodialysis chest catheter. I think I was able to prevent infections in the last chest catheter for 20 months by not showering and keeping it clean and dry at all times.