Many people with HMO will have a surgery at some point in their lives. This will cause them to have a surgical scar which some people might have a hard time accepting. In Steven Petrow’s article “Learning to Accept (if Not Love) My Scar” he talks about learning to accept his scar. Petrow got his scar after having surgery to remove cancerous lymph nodes from his abdomen. The surgery resulted in a scar along his abdomen. When he first got the scar, he had a hard time looking at it and struggled to take his shirt off infront of others and himself. Eventually Petrow’s scar became a reminder of his survival. It was slow for him to accept his scar but it eventually became a “talisman of sorts, a visual and lasting connection to my own history” (4). …show more content…
She describes her body as “a map of illness and recovery: small drip scars mark my hands, and larger indentations on my neck recall tubes through which I was fed. The operation scars are like railway dividing up my stomach” (5). While growing up, Dimbleby tried to cover all of her scars as much as she could. As she started to talk to others and begin to accept her own body, she started to come to terms with her scars when she was in her late teens. To help her feel like she had reclaimed her body, Dimbleby got a tattoo on her stomach. By reclaiming her body, she was able to realize that her “scars are symbols of strength and rebirth” (5). Dimbleby says that her “battle wounds show the world what I have survived and overcome”