A Series of Scars: Incident #1

I've always been somewhat of an anti-thrill seeker. I don't like jumping off of high stuff or doing flips or crazy stunts. Which means that any scars I've accumulated over the years haven't come from doing really amazing things. Most of them have come from being clumsy or stupid which means there are stories involved with each and every one of them. As some of these stories are quite lengthy in their explanation, I've decided to do a series of posts about how I got each of these scars. Here is the first:

Scar #1:

When I was about 8 years old, my family took a short overnight camping trip to a lake up along Skyline Drive. This is an epic trip in Holley family history. Probably the most memorable for us all. We were the only ones at the small emerald colored lake that day and spent our time making rafts out of logs and twine we found strewn around the shore.

After a day full of building & testing our rafts, the time came to head into the camper as it was starting to rain. My dad took us girls outside to do our last bathroom run of the evening and apparently it was during this time he noticed I had a small bulge on the right side of my lower abdomen/groin.

Following the camping trip my mom took me to a doctor who had me turn and cough in order to confirm their suspicions. Sure enough I had a hernia. I knew what a hernia was because my dad had explained it to me before the doctor visit. However, somewhere along the line I misinterpreted the conversation because I thought I'd gotten a hernia from pushing too hard while doing my business that night in the rain on the camping trip. I was so embarrassed. Luckily when the doctor asked how I'd gotten the hernia, my mom piped up during my stutterfest and said they didn't know how I'd done it. I just thought she was covering for me. Turns out they really didn't know how I'd done it, they'd just noticed it while I was doing my business.

The surgery was scheduled for a couple weeks out, during which time I would periodically push on my squishy lump of guts to smooth it back into place. I don't remember much about surgery day even though it was the first I ever had. I do remember being sore for the next few days and not being able to walk very well.

For years I thought I'd gotten my hernia by pushing too hard while pooping. Which made it a topic I didn't ever bring up. When people would talk about their scars, I wouldn't mention mine because I didn't want to say where it was or how I'd gotten it. These days that 3" purple scar has faded to white and is barely visible. In fact I always forget I have it. But, it was my first real scar and it always makes me laugh whenever I see it.