Tag Archive for: scars

World IBD Day 2021 – I am not broken

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It is World IBD Day today and to celebrate this day, I thought I would write a little about the journey I am on and have been on for so long. After multiple surgeries and when my body is scarred, in pain and struggling, it is easy to feel broken. But I am not broken. I am a survivor.

I am at art college in Sheffield and my practice this year has all been around trauma, especially the medical trauma I have faced. I decided to do a photography project with myself in the frame. I wanted to show a body that may be in the middle of trauma but is also healing, both physically and emotionally.

Sam Cleasby disability activist and blogger sits naked covering her body with her arms, she has an ileostomy bag and is covered in medical tubing

Wrapped in medical tubing, naked and baring my soul, I am defiant, I am fighting, I am a survivor. There are times when I feel so weak and afraid of everything, but this is my anger, my strength, my fight. My stoma and my scars are the war wounds of my life and I will wear them with pride, they are a visual reminder of the battles I have faced and won. Sometimes, it doesn’t feel like a win, but I am still here and every survival is a celebration of life.

My body has changed so much over the years, I am currently the heaviest I have ever been, I have hernias that jut from my belly like melons, I am covered in scars and take so much medication every single day. It wasn’t easy to shoot this, to shed my defence layer of clothes and sit naked and vulnerable. But I am so glad I did, I feel empowered and beautiful.

Today isn’t an easy day, I am in pain and the meds have kicked in meaning my head is fuzzy and my words may be a little jumbled, but I am here.

I am not broken.

I am a survivor.

Happy World IBD Day,

Peace and love

Sam xx

My beautiful scars

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I have a lot of scars, and with another surgery planned in the next few weeks, I will have a few more too…  I am not ashamed of them, they are the signs of my IBD journey, the battle scars of my fight of the last ten years.

My family is half Indian, and so unfortunately I have some issues with keloid scarring.  When you have damage to the skin, in healing itself the body produces more of a protein called collagen.  Collagen gathers around the damage and builds up to help the wound seal over in a scar.

However, some scars don’t stop growing. They “invade” the surrounding healthy skin and become bigger than the original wound. These are known as keloid scars. Keloids affect around 10-15% of all wounds and is more common in people with darker skin particularly African, African Caribbean and Indian people.  (This information comes from the NHS website, take a look for more info and if you are concerned, then go see your GP)

For some people, scars can be associated with poor self esteem and negative body image.  They can be an external sign of their internal struggles and people may feel embarrassed or ashamed of them.  I get this, occasionally I feel self conscious if I see people staring at my scars, this only happens at the swimming pool or beach as I am well past wearing crop tops!

But I have always found scars quite appealing, they suggest a story, something interesting that happened to that person.  My husband is covered in scars from years of skateboarding and snowboarding and we always say that chicks dig scars… Turns out dudes dig scars too!

I have done a few photo shoots before to show my stoma and ileostomy bag before, and so I thought I would have a few of my post j pouch body.

I have been through a lot in the past couple of years, a lot of difficult times, embarrassing and upsetting events, yet I am pleased to say that through it all, my scars are one thing that I haven’t struggled with.  I know they are large, and some would say unsightly, I know they are really visible and somewhat shocking.  But I had three kids before these surgeries and so I already had a lot of stretch marks and a caesarian scar.  Perhaps having these before made the transition to more noticeable scars easier for me to deal with?

After my first son, I went from a size 6 to a size 16… I gained a lot of weight and was COVERED in stretch marks.  I was embarrassed and upset by them, when a family friend told me that I should rejoice in those marks.  They were my tiger stripes, my war wounds, the sign that my body had created another human being!!! Those marks, she told me, were beautiful and something to be proud of.

These scars are a similar thing, they are the marks that show the struggle I have been through.  They remind me of my bravery, my fight, my winning.  They tell a story and they make me smile.

My scars are beautiful.

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All photographs are by Timm Cleasby from the Picture Foundry and cannot be used without permission.  Take a look at The Picture Foundry website, it is the photography company I run with my husband.

 

Sam xx

Scars – How I overcame my insecurities by going naked

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Hellooooo it is good to be back! Timm and I have been on our second honeymoon, a week in Lanzarote and we had a blummin’ brilliant time!

The weather was amazing and so I had to deal with the insecurities of going on the beach and having my scars on display.  Now if you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I am not a wallflower when it comes to showing off my scars and ostomy from all the photo shoots I have done.

But I do these for a reason, I want to raise awareness of IBD and lessen the stigma of having an ostomy or lots of scars from surgeries.  Being photographed by talented husband Timm and then editing the images and sharing online reduces the panic in showing the world my entirely imperfect body as it is not a face to face interaction.

And so I do still have insecurities about my body and the scars that criss cross my stomach, that might be hard to believe as I promote loving your body and having self confidence.  But I am only human, the reason I can talk about having body confidence and coping strategies to deal with having your ostomy or scars on show is because I have all those fears, I just work hard to overcome them in the hope that I can help others with the same worries.

silhouette of a couple dancing

For my first jaunt out on the sands I wore a bikini on the family beach, my scars that reach from my sternum right down into my groin, plus two more scars on either side of my abdomen, were all on show.  I saw the odd glance that turned into a double take, one nudge and whisper and quite a few children have a good old gawk.  None of those looks were offensive in their nature, there was no malice, just curiosity.  That is natural but it did make me feel like I was on display, I felt watched and a little uncomfortable, perhaps some of this was in my head, but it was still how I felt.

Our next beach trip was a little different, we went to a naturist beach… It is one of those things that was on my bucket list, something I wanted to try before I died.  I had been to one once before but there was no one else on the beach and so this time, going on to a busy nudist beach was a challenge.  I was really nervous, Timm and I went to a corner and slipped off our clothes and laid down quickly, giggling like kids.  We put on our sunglasses and had a look around to see lots of nude people, some sunbathing, some sat chatting, some walking or swimming.

It was odd at first, I felt extremely self conscious, but after a while I realised there was such a nice atmosphere, no one was staring at one another, I felt no judgment, totally comfortable and really relaxed.

stone heart shape on beach

The beach was filled with men and women of all shapes and sizes and though you got the odd glance and smile, everyone kept to themselves and there was no judgement.  A totally different feeling to being on a normal beach.  Perhaps it is the fact that without clothes, we are all a little vulnerable.  Or perhaps it is that being nude is a great leveller.  Either way we loved the day and for the first time I felt great in my own skin and didn’t worry about the sight of my scars.  Isn’t that a weird thing, I felt more comfortable with no clothes on, than with a swimsuit or bikini.

As a woman who is a size 14-16 with lumps, bumps and jiggly bits, a naturist beach wouldn’t usually be somewhere I would think of as relaxing, but it really was.  My size wasn’t even a thought and my scars were soon forgotten about, the most attention I got was for my tattoos!

I wouldn’t call myself a naturist now, I don’t feel the need to be naked all the time and nor would I go out of my way to find naturist beaches, but I can say that a good chunk of the good feeling on our holiday came from our visits to the nudist beaches and I’m really happy to say that the experience has helped me on my way to accepting and loving my scars.

nude beach stone balancing so bad ass sam cleasby

So what do you think? Is it something you have done or something you would try?

Let me know in the comments below.

Love Sam xx