Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Old Man's Skin

One of the absolute worse things about getting old, is what it does to your skin. I remember when I was young I'd see old folks with scabs, bruises, and purple marks on their skin, especially their arms and hands. I apologize, but I thought it was kind of creepy. Now I'm one of them! Seriously, I think if somebody gave my arm a good whack with a feather, it would do some damage. It's embarrassing and very frustrating. To top it off, there isn't a whole hell of a lot a person can do about it. Today I scraped my arm pretty hard on our shower door jamb. It is neither sharp nor stiff, but scraped the skin right off my arm anyway. I couldn't believe it! It was too big to just put a Band-Aid on. I had to bandage the darn thing. So in a day or so I'll have a scab (or scabs), in a month or so the bruising will finally go away. And then I'll be left with a scar. I should say another scar.

It’s now several hours later… I took a look under the bandage and it looks like hell. Big gouge, crispy dark colored edges, and bruising. It’s not the kind of bruise you get when something hits you hard. It’s the kind caused by blood seeping under the outside layers of your skin. I’m so pissed…

When you let your kids go swimming, or to the beach, or just out playing in the sun, and you let them do it without sunscreen…this is what you are setting them up for…