Let’s talk about scar-anxiety…

Good morning everyone,

I hope you’re well and are having a stellar day so far 🙂

A couple of weeks ago, I was on holiday in Cyprus, which was an absolutely amazing holiday! However, when I was relaxing by the pool, the whispers of what I refer to as “scar anxiety” started to creep in. We’re going to be talking about this in more depth in today’s blog.

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

For those of you who don’t know me, I have a 6-inch scar going down my stomach, which I got from an emergency, life-saving operation that I had back in October 2014. I’ll do another blog on the full story surrounding the operation in a couple of weeks’ time, as this year celebrates the nine-year anniversary of my PJS diagnosis.

When I first woke up and saw that I had a scar, I thought that I looked like a monster. At the time, the scar was bandaged, so I couldn’t fully see it, but all that I kept thinking was “Am I ever going to be normal?” and “How do I get used to something like this?”. It’s pretty safe to say that it was a very challenging situation to be in at the time.

Gradually, as I started to regain some normalcy back into my life, I started to get used to having the scar. While it was still very fresh, I began to see that it was now a part of who I am as a person. My scar doesn’t make me broken or damaged, it’s a reminder that I managed to pull through one of the scariest times in my life, both physically and mentally, coming out the other side.

My scar is still very visible however, and when I take my top off in public, for example, to go in the pool on holiday, you get quite a few people staring at you. At first, I used to assume the worst, that people were judging me before ever even hearing my story. Over time, I’ve come to realise that most people are just surprised – if I saw someone with a scar in the shape of a thermometer on their stomach, I would be curious myself 🙂

Does it still make me nervous when people stare? Of course, it does, but it’s something that I have been working on a lot over the last couple of years to move on from – it is very rare that there is any malice intended with the stare, it’s more so something that a lot of people do subconsciously, which is why I would love to raise the awareness of scars and the impact that they have on the people who have got them.

My scar is a part of who I am, without it, I wouldn’t be here today, and that’s something that I’ll always be proud of.

That’s all for today’s blog, what do you think? What’s the biggest obstacle that you have overcome this year so far? What’s one area that you would love to see more awareness raised around?

I’d love to hear your thoughts 🙂

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a lovely day!