Hi, you are “face to face with Shell”.
This is the second part of what I call “teenage stuff”. If you haven’t seen the first part; please click on the link below:
TEENAGE STUFF (PART 1) – BEING LEFT OUT AFTER BEING BURNED
Again, I will say, I know it is a long time since I was a teenager and the times have changed but I really do hope I can help you by sharing my experiences.
I also hope that I can help parents/carers of burn survivors/teens who look different; to try and give them an understanding of what their teenager might be going through.
It’s a lot to deal with at any age but to have the added “stress” of being disfigured/scarred as a teenager…
Please watch this video and also, please read on for more information:
After being severely burned as a teenager, I spent a LOT of time in hospital; initially four and a half months in Bangour Burns Unit. I then spent many of my teenage years going in and out of hospital for different treatments, i.e.; skin grafts, physiotherapy.
I never got to enjoy my school holidays, as I was always in hospital. So as not to fall behind any more than I had in my school work, the hospital would ask for a list of my school holidays and my treatments were worked around these, which was brilliant, as it meant that I didn’t fall behind any more in my studies but it meant that my school breaks were spent in hospital.
When I was eventually discharged from the Burns Unit and was physically well enough to return to school, the first day was only for an hour and the time was built up from there. Some teachers came out in the evenings to homeschool me, which was brilliant. The school wanted to put me back a year (as it was my third year at high school and they didn’t want me failing my exams). I was determined that I wasn’t going back a year and my determination paid off; I passed four of my ‘O’ Grades the first year. Awesome achievement I thought, after all I was going through at the time. I then went to stay on until my sixth year, gaining more ‘O’ Grades and Highers.
I would be about fourteen years old in this photo (approx. 1985).
I feel that I missed out on a lot of my teenage years, compared to what everyone else was doing. To them it was just normal stuff but I really felt it when friends would visit and would tell me that there was a new item of clothing out or there was a new trend. I felt that I was missing out on so much because I had been burned; my life had changed so much.
Then when I started to go out, I felt it was unfair that I had to come home early every night to get my scars massaged and creamed, while my friends were still out, and then to top the evening off; to put on the pressure garments again to sleep in, which were sore, uncomfortable, and itchy. (Click here to view the page where I talk about “the garments”).
Everyone was looking great and getting boyfriends…I felt that I was being left behind.
It felt like I wasn’t allowed to do everything that my friends were doing and I took this badly.
I was a teenager, which came with its own problems but on top of that, I had these scars to deal with and everything that came along with them.
I just felt that things were passing me by and I wasn’t involved in them. To everyone else it was just normal stuff that they were doing but to me it felt like a really big deal, that I was missing out on all the things that my friends were doing. It wasn’t anything major that they were doing, they were going about their daily lives but things had changed drastically for me and I felt it.
I just had to get on with it though. I HAD to pick myself up, even though I felt low. My friends and family visited a lot and really supported me but when they were not there, I would sit in my room and listen to music, experiment with make-up, write short stories…things that made me feel good.
Things did get better and as I got older my scars started to look better, and I grew more confident.
Hang in there, you CAN do this.
Stay strong and we’ll chat soon.