Monday, June 23, 2008

This is Peter



I have a scar on my arm that looks a lot like the scar Frankenstein has on his forehead. It's on my right arm and people tend to notice it a lot. Some people really have a tough time with it, especially after I show them the small scar on the other side of my arm where the bone broke through my skin. I like my scar, it's been with me for half my life now and I wouldn't give it up if I could.

I got my scar playing street hockey in the church parking lot. I knew immediately that my arm was fucked. I'd broken my left arm twice before and was pretty familiar with the sensation.

I was hooked from behind and came down with my full weight on the radius and ulna (the two bones in your forearm). The ulna shattered and the radius snapped and popped out of the bottom of my arm.

I also landed on the ball so everyone was yelling at me to get up so the game could continue. When I rolled over the middle knuckle of my right hand was touching my upper forearm so that my hand and part of my wrist were going the wrong way. One of my teammates puked. It took me a couple minutes to really feel the pain, but when I did I screamed bloody murder until I was in the ambulance.

The doctor had to go through the top of my arm (surgery 1) to reconstruct the bones and they put all kinds of metal plates and screws in there to get everything to come back together. Five months later they had to take most of the hardware out so that my bones would grow properly (surgery 2). After the bones were healed they had to get the rest of the stuff out (surgery 3).

The really weird thing is that the scar shouldn't be as bad (good) as it is. The surgeon I had really screwed up. In addition to putting tendons and muscles in the wrong place he couldn't follow the initial incision he made so with each surgery the scar grew. I didn't realize that is was a shit job until a shocked doctor took a look at it a few years ago.

I am really bad at arm wrestling with my right arm. My grip is significantly better with my left arm. I have no feeling in part of my wrist and some of my hand. I have to constantly pluck hairs out of my scar to keep it presentable. And I often lie and tell people it is a wound received in a knife fight.

The best part is that my dad recently sent me an article about the doctor that worked on my arm. He has been suspended from practicing, and the article citied specifically:

“He is no longer allowed to operate on patients 16 and younger and can not perform hand and wrist surgeries.”

Ha. I put the link to the whole article below.

The Article:

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080125/NEWS/801250378

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

This is Juo


This is Scott


Scott has a scar on his forehead. I interviewed him and his friends about it over their kitchen/work/ping-pong table in Brooklyn.

SM: I was 4 yrs old and I had just moved into a new house, and this new house seemed huge -- as big as a soccer field. So (and there's no furniture in the new house because we just moved that day), we got the [soccer] ball out of the box and we decided to play.
And I don't remember how much of this is me remembering what really happened and how much of it is people telling me what happened. I seem to remember it was a tie game and we were about to leave and we had to end it right away -- the game was almost over so we had to play. And I just remember imagining myself -- visualizing myself making the big play, and I was gonna slide right into the goal with the ball between my knees and make the big play and (it's really funny because now when I'm telling this story, it's this big soccer event, but it's the hallway of my house) so I get the ball and I run up to score and I slide on my knees, but instead of going in the goal, I went INTO the goal -- the goal post. Which was the door-frame.

Svea: What happened next?

SM: I don't remember. Tears and blood everywhere. I just remember holding my face and my brother running to get my parents and seeing blood and being bloody and being really scared.

Svea: So you were scared of your blood?

Scott: Yeah, so that's all I remember -- it was really traumatic experience, and my parents didn't want to take me to the hospital, so they put butterfly bandages on it. Next thing you know, I just have this scar for the rest of my life. I definitely don't notice it, it's become a part... a part of me, right?

PB and DTJ: I don't notice it... I only notice it when someone else brings it up.

DTJ: Have you ever lied about it?

SM: Only once... my best friend had an appendicitis scar and we pretended we got in a big fight.

Svea: do you ever talk about what happened?

SM: Not that I can remember. We probably told that story a year after it happened, and then I remember it. I have very few memories from that time of my life. I remember moving, hitting my head and my first day of school.