I am Tess – Skin Deep

Transcript

I had to go to school and I couldn't wear normal school shoes because they're a bit too painful. So I had to go and I wore my pink, fluffy Disney princess slippers and no one said a thing. Pretty sure, actually, some people commented on how cool my slippers were.

Me and my family were going fishing and as we were docking there was an explosion and my dad got really bad burns to his legs. I was actually trapped under something, so I couldn't get out. I was in a medically induced coma for one week, and on a whole ton of painkillers. When I got out of hospital, I had to keep going back for a couple of days a week.

Probably the lowest moment would probably be that first little while, especially after I got out of hospital when I, you know, I had to have all the bandage changes and I got quite mad a lot of the time and kind of took that out on my mum I think. When I got home she had to, you know, bath me and do all the bandage changes and try and get the pressure garments on, which can be difficult because they're so tight and she was just always is my biggest moral supporter.

I've had about 20 something surgeries over the last 10 years since it happened, and I had to do occupational therapy. Especially on my hands because they were burned. Because as you grow, the burnt skin doesn't really grow as much with you. I didn't want to do, you know, all the stretches and didn't have, wanna have all the surgeries and things, but you know, everyone around me was super supportive and was like, you know, you have to, so it's all good in the long run and they really helped me kind of accept it.

The hardest part was actually the psychological stuff, like kind of registering what had happened and what it meant for the future and stuff. And that took a lot of getting used to.

It's hard to go back to school. It can be hard. I found it hard because I was kind of building it up in my head, like it was gonna be a catastrophe and everyone was gonna be all over me. That's not really what happened because everyone, they just kind of wanted to know if I was okay. They treated me normally, which was what I wanted. Because I'd been in hospital and everyone was going, you know, and always, checking up on me and stuff and I, I just kind of wanted to be normal again.

There were definitely lots of times, especially in the first couple of years, where I felt really self-conscious in public, especially with the pressure garments on, because most people don't know what they are. It was okay because that was only a couple of times and the majority of people, especially at school, there was no one at school that made me feel horrible about it. They've probably never seen someone who's been burned. And it's new and it's natural to be curious. All the sympathy used to bother me because I just wanted to get back into my normal everyday life.

I don't mind now when people are like, I'm so sorry because you know they're reacting as you should. They're a couple of times when I thought, I'm not gonna be able to do this, or I'm not gonna be able to do that. Once they've healed, you can just, it's just skin. You can do anything anyone else can do.

I actually have a goal to see all of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient world, all through my lifetime. That's, I wanna be able to have said, I've gone to them all.

There are times where it was like, I don't like this, I don't like having these scars, but they don't bother me anymore. They've actually kind of become part of me because, you know, it's been 10 years, so it's been a long time and I've had a long time to think about it and I'm just, I'm kind of at peace with it because, you know, can't change the past. I don't really even think about them anymore. Over time. They've just kind of, you know, they don't, they're not a concern really anymore. I don't feel super self-conscious. And you've just gotta go out and live because you can't let them stop you from doing anything you wanna do.