A Letter To David Edwards
Introduction & Background
"Your face is your window to the world. Thousands of interactions and assumptions are based on your face, the one thing others can see."
"As the role of visual impression grows in importance, appearance becomes of major concern. 'Exposure' is now a formula for getting ahead, and the face is one's passport."
On April 3rd, 1998, I made a decision which resulted in a serious breach of integrity; I decided to suspend my consciousness and cripple my faculty of reason. I took away the only means a human being has to effectively engage reality, to make sound judgments, to prosper; and, in effect, I forfeited my right to self-defence. The decision I made was to consume alcohol.
On the morning of April 4th, I gradually awoke from my self-induced irrationality in a hospital to discover that my left leg could not support the weight of my body, my left shoulder and hand were painfully bruised, and the right side of my face had sustained multiple lacerations.
In the last nine months, having rehabilitated my leg, shoulder, and hand to a working efficiency equal to that previous to my injury, what visibly remains of this incident today is recorded on the right side of my face, in the form of scarring.
My objective in coming to a cosmetic surgeon is to reduce and minimize this scarring; to 'camouflage', as effectively as I can, the scarring which remains on my face.
Having considered the elements of the scarring I would like addressed with a surgical procedure, foremost would be the elevation of the scars (that which cannot be camouflaged with makeup). I would like the elevated scarring to be brought down to the level of the surrounding tissue; to smoothen my skin. This is my primary concern; secondary would be the length and the color of the scars. If a procedure, or a combination of procedures, exists to tackle all three aspects mentioned above, then this is what I will be interested in.
To date, I have reviewed several types of cosmetic surgery for minimizing scarring; that of dermabrasion and certain types of excision (W & Z-plasty; Geometric broken line closure) being the most studied. Also, I have introduced myself to the potential of laser, cosmetic tattooing and chemical peel.
"The way we look affects our attitudes, our behavior, our accomplishments; … the confidence to succeed."
Over and above increasing my professional and social marketability, the decision to pursue cosmetic surgery is fundamentally a personal and private one. I pride myself on my rationality, and I thrive by means of maintaining integrity to my convictions. While I have learned a great deal about my convictions and strengthened myself as a result of my April 4th injuries, it is not an event I want to have forcefully, physically etched onto my face. If I can do something to correct the manifestations of this night's events, in a physical sense, then I will pursue it, as I am.
In sum, I look upon my pursuing cosmetic surgery not only to improve my physical appearance, but also to make amends -- to myself -- for an error in judgment I made nine months ago; thus, to embrace both a physical convalescence and a reconciliation of conviction and character.
