What's up Nina? Thoughts from a Cystic Fibrosis Survivor & Lung Transplant Recipient

My Interesting Security “Blanket”

Tegaderm - My interesting security blanket.

I recently had an issue with my scar. The one from my lung transplant incision. It sort of came open in a small-ish area and wasn't very nice looking. It did looked sort of infected to me. Turns out that it wasn't, after the results of a swab came back, that was a relief.

I ended up needing to cover it, with a dressing or something to keep it clean mainly when I showered. So I took out my IV stuff for the first time in many months, about 8. (Mind you my old record was 1 month, for over a year) Trying to put a dressing on the incision and hoping it would help protect it. I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to open wounds, and most other medical things like that. I knew a nice dressing would make me feel better, which also makes the area that needed covering feel better (in my head, I admit it).  So beings the first time, for a  really long time, I have needed to put Tegaderm on my chest area (not far from my port) I realized the scent of Tegaderm makes me feel like everything will be okay. Almost safe from whatever could happen. Sickness, infection, or the like.

It may seem weird but after over 20 years of having a port only inches below my nose, smelling a new dressing over my port that was freshly accessed for another round of IV antibiotics. Which I always just knew would make me feel better in no time. Gave me this idea that it was that smell that meant I would soon feel better. Even after the IV's had decided not to work, and the antibiotics were no match for my bacteria, there was always waking up from surgery with that same smell, knowing I just needed to be fixed or that I just had to recover and I would be on my way. Tegaderm and its accompanied smell was always there.

So with the faint pain, discomfort, worry, a little bit of uncertainty. Unaware of the problem, I cleaned and dressed my scar with gauze and a Tegaderm. That's when I instantly realized how important that large piece of thin adhesive film had been to me throughout my childhood through adulthood with my illness. How it meant so much to the history of my Cystic Fibrosis life, which was my life.