Scars

After this past Saturday, it had been one year since I had surgery on my left leg. As I was thinking about this when I was at home, I looked at the scar on my left leg and memories of pain came back to my mind. I should might as well tell the story of how I ended up in the hospital.

It was sometime in October of last year when I was playing a game of soccer with my cousins and friends. We play competitively for the most part, so it would get rough at times. Then there was a scramble for the ball. It was there when I felt a hit on my left leg. At first I did not feel any pain because the pace of the game kept my mind distracted. I don't remember who hit me because it all happened so fast.

A couple of days later, I noticed that I would feel pain when I put pressure on the area where I got hit. Without pressure, my leg was fine and I was able to walk without any pain. A week after that game, I decided to go for a run around the park to test out my leg and see if there was anything seriously wrong. At the end of the run, I felt fine and thought to myself that there was no injury. It was the morning after when I realized I was completely wrong.

The second I put my weight on my left leg, I felt instant pain. I could not walk at all and had to limp on my right leg. I didnt know that an infection was developing on my leg, so I just took dome tylenol for the pain. Soon thereafter I began to have fever and lost my apetite. To make things worse, my stomach was feeling horrible and I started to vomit. I decided to visit my doctor the day after.

It did not take long for my doctor to realize that I had develped cellulitis, a skin infection caused by bacteria. I was sent straight to the emergency room, where I stayed for the rest of the day. The doctors told me that I had to stay overnight because the infection was severe and required intensive treatment. I remained in the hospital bed for an entire week without being able to walk. It was not a good feeling at all. My family and friends visited me, which made my days better.

The doctors had to perform a surgery on my leg to remove the infection. In order to this, however, they had to cut part of my skin from my upper thigh to cover the hole that was going to be left after the removal of the infection. That was fine with me, as long as they did not use skin from any other part of my body. I was nervous, since I've never had surgery on my body before or put to sleep by anaesthesia.

The surgery was successful and I was able to go back home a couple of days later. I was still not able to walk, so I had to be on crutches for a week or so. In addition, I was still under treatment of antibiotics and pain killers such as Vykodin. The scar looked nasty at first, but with time it began to blend in with the rest of my skin. It took me a long time before I started playing sports again, but I had to overcome the fear of getting injured again. I learned to play a lot more careful and not too rough.

Vocabulary Words
Cartography (n.) - the production of maps, including construction of projections, design, compilation, drafting, and reproduction.

Echelon (n.) - a level of command, authority, or rank.