Scar No. 1: When I was about nine, we were re-roofing our house in Orange. The workers were on the roof, throwing scraps of junk down onto the lawn. Dad had all of the neighborhood kids hauling pieces into the ’52 Chevy, to be hauled off to the dump.
I reached for a piece and gouged right into the boniest part of the underside of my forearm. Ouch. And yuck, because I could see bone.
I held the sides of my arm together and ran into the house, where we bandaged my arm back up. Against Mom’s advice, Dad opened up a possibly WWII-era first aid kit and cleaned my arm with mercurochrome. (And speaking of mercury-based household items, it really is true they aren’t a good idea. My friend J. accidentally broke a mercury thermometer at they had to gut and rebuild the entire floor of their den. This is the same friend who, a year later, had an icemaker-flood and had to remodel the exact same rooms again. Talk about lightning striking twice.)
Mercurochrome hurts! It is bright red, which somehow makes it hurt more. I remember running around the house from room to room completely out of control, screaming at the top of my lungs.
That scar is white and slightly keloid-ish.
Scar No. 2: I read an interview with someone who defuses bombs once that the more you feel in a hurry, the more important it is to actually slow down. I don’t know why or how this works, but it might be good advice, since I got this scar by (literally) running late.
I ran right into the sharp corner of something and gouged my knee. Again, gouging. Again, seeing bone. Yuck, yuck, yuck.
It oozed for awhile, then it healed to a dark purple scar on the side of my kneecap.
Scar No. 3: Like No. 1, this one is also on my forearm. Mo scratched my arm in his first few days with us. (He had very long, thick toenails. They have been sanded down a bit since we’ve been walking him very regularly.) My goal is to never have to trim his nails, because I hate doing that. If you cut too close to the quick, you risk actually drawing blood.
Recap: I have a bunch of other scars, but these are the ones I plan to treat with Kelo-Cote and monitor for your reading pleasure. Stay tuned for updates and pictures!
