r/burnsurvivors

Long story short: early last Sunday morning around 2am, I was assaulted while leaving a pub. A man splashed me on my back with a cup of coffee, and since then, my life has been upended dramatically.

My entire upper back and neck is covered in blistering 2nd degree burns, and each time I turn my head, or bend over, or reach for something, I am put in excruciating pain. It's been 4 days and I have spiraled into a pit of despair that has left me feeling so violated, so disrespected, and so unworthy of love. The fact that a total stranger can just disfigure and incapacitate me so severely in such a quick fell swoop, with an item as ubiquitous as coffee, I've never experienced anything like it. I'm 30 and I haven't been in a fight since middle school, I never thought in a million years something like this would happen to me. I can't shower, I can barely go to work, and when I do I let my team down with my slow pace (I'm a line cook at a busy restaurant), I can't hike, swim, or enjoy any of my normal outdoor activities. I am more or less completely bedridden, but even sleep is a major challenge only achievable through painkillers. Just an hour ago I woke up in a puddle of my own urine; I've never wet the bed before, I have no idea what's happening to me. I want to throw my body into the trash and be separated from it permanently, I don't want it any more.

I am a lonely person, I only have my father, and a few pen pals. This whole ordeal has my father extremely angry and distressed. He wants to go on a John Wick style killing spree until he finds who did this to me (cops couldn't locate him, he hopped into his truck and sped off.) I keep telling my father that I don't care about justice, and I just want to get better and get my old life back, but he he's too blinded by rage to hear any of it. I feel horrible for inflicting all of this upon him, and I know he loves me, but I would almost rather be completely alone because seeing him spiral like this is hard to watch.

When I'm not at work, I just lay on my couch, waiting to fall asleep. My life has become one long, excruciating Twilight Zone episode. I got my burns re-dressed yesterday, and they want me to return every 3 days to have it redone. Despite the extremely painful procedure, I am actually looking forward to my next dressing because the sympathy the nurse offered me has been the only comfortable human interaction I've recieved in these past four days. I don't know where to turn or what to do.

Has anyone here been through a similar feeling, and if so, how did you survive?

My 22M soon-to-be-husband is burned on 60% of his body mostly 3rd degree, with some spots on his torso and hips that are very very deep and went deep into muscle very close to bone. He was injured in a boat-related fire incident when he was 17 that included him having to crawl into very cold water to put the fire out on his body. Ever since then he has felt cold. He has developed moderate anxiety about this, as feeling cold makes everything extra tight and makes his nerve pain become worse. He's had it explained to him that it is like this because his scarred skin does not keep in temperature like healthy skin, but I feel he does experience this more to an extreme than most people who have been burned to a similar extent.

We keep our house on the colder side so he can bundle up and be comfortable (his scars are happiest with layers and cushion :) ) without overheating (which is another real problem). He would rather be too cold than too hot but he's just always cold to the point it bothers him and stresses him out because he wants to be comfortable. I am writing because I have yet to find anything online about other burn survivors who experience something similar. Or if someone out there has any advice! I think he's figured it out, but that doesn't mean it's not a frustration for him. The silver lining is that we can cuddle at night and we are very rarely limited by him being too hot!

Thank you guys :)

5 days ago. I had the worst night of my life. My girlfriend was cooking in the kitchen. She had stepped away and the pot that had cooking oil in it had caught fire. I wasn’t sure what to do so I immediately started looking for a fire extinguisher. Just to find that my trailer did not have one. Next thing I knew, the flames had to be at least two feet high and was starting to spread to the wall in the kitchen. In fear for the life of my pregnant girlfriend and my child who was in the other room, I grabbed the pot and ran for the door. When I reached the door my hand caught fire and I dropped the pot, which rained fire and cooking oil which hit my legs and I immediately hit the floor. The flames from the pot went out as it hit the floor open side up, suffocating the fire in the carpet it landed on. The pain was so agonizing as I rolled on the floor to try and put myself out. I put out the flames on myself and immediately dialed 911. It felt like I was on fire the entire way to the hospital. My wounds still feel like they’re on fire. I was discharged Sunday with no surgery but I fear I may need surgery. My wounds have no improvement and keep me awake all night. I can barely sleep. Cleaning my wounds is hell. They burn harder as soon as I hit the water and soothe only slightly under the water until as soon as I turn the water off to get out. Then boom, right back to burning. My mental health is tearing me apart. My nearest burn unit was 2 hours away. I have a follow up there this Thursday, but due to me being out of work I have no money to get there nor a reliable vehicle to make the trip. This is just taking an even bigger toll on me. I don’t think I’ve ever been this stressed out, in pain, and mentally unwell. Advice on how to get through this would be greatly appreciated. Idk what to do at this point. If anyone has any kind words to pass along, or ways they got through it they feel may help me. It would be greatly appreciated. I apologize for the long post I just needed somewhere to let this all off my chest. Thank you for your time. And thank you for reading.