Frazer

Age at interview: 22

Brief Outline:

Frazer was 20 years old when he sustained a burn to his wrist and face caused by a mechanical accident whilst he was working on a motorbike. He attended regular check-up appointments after the accident, but he now feels that the burn has healed well.

Background:

Frazer is 22 years old and lives with his partner. He is a graphic designer. Frazer describes his ethnicity as Mixed British.

More about me...

Frazer was 20 years old when he sustained burns to his wrist and face whilst he was working on the mechanics of his motorbike. Frazer remembers the motorbike suddenly “going up in flames” with him caught in the middle of the fire. Immediately after the burn he recounts placing his wrist under cool running water and asking his Mum to get some wet towels. Frazer remembers seeing some of his hair falling out and realising that his beard had been singed by the flames. Looking back, Frazer thinks he acted quite calm, but this may have been as he did not realise the severity of the situation.

Frazer was taken to the local A&E department by his friend, this is because he did not believe that his injuries were serious enough to warrant an ambulance. When he arrived at the hospital he was prioritised over other patients as the burns required urgent treatment. Frazer was given painkillers and his burn assessed, cleaned, and dressed before he was discharged as an outpatient and requested to attend a burns unit the following day.

At the burns unit his burns were cleaned and dressed again, and his blood oxygen levels were also assessed. As Frazer was a smoker at the time of the burn, his blood oxygen levels were lower than the average for someone of his age. This meant that his burn would heal more slowly and he may have require a skin graft, though Frazer says he was “adamant” he did not want a skin graft. After discussions with the doctor he was told if he was to quit smoking his burn may heal without the need for a skin graft. Frazer believes this made him determined to quit smoking immediately and by doing so he did not have to undergo a skin graft. This, he believes, has helped him to look back on the accident in a more positive way as it is how he quit smoking.

Frazer says that having a network of people around him to offer him support who would care about him “without needing to understand” was nice and helped him in his recovery.

He also believes the hospital staff had his “best interests at heart” and helped him to feel more in control of the situation. Frazer spoke about how being taught how to clean the burn and change the dressing himself enabled him to maintain control and not panic.

Frazer believes one of the most difficult things about recovering from a burn injury was not being able to enjoy his hobbies or return to work. He felt like he had to put his life “on hold” and this was difficult as usually he was someone who likes to keep busy.

Frazer spoke about using humour as a coping mechanism in his day-to-day life. He thinks making a joke about his burn to people he feels comfortable around helped him get back to normal after the accident. Frazer wants his friends to know him as “the guy who rides bikes, not the guy who blew himself up”.

Frazer’s advice for other people who have had a burn injury is to “surround yourself with people who are going to help you recover” and to “give yourself some time and go easy on yourself”.

After some initial dressing changes by a nurse, Frazer learnt how to do it at home. His mum helped at first, but he also saw it was part of a “transition period” of “being responsible”.

It was either once a day or once every other day, I had to change it. And my mum helped quite a bit because trying to peel the thing off myself. Sometimes, it’s got too much. It’s quite painful, so we’ve got a bit too much to sort of do it myself. So, Mum would have to come, help pull it off but she didn’t like doing that. She didn’t like seeing me in pain and all that stuff. So, it was all sort of a learning curve, doing my own dressings and some stuff.

So, it’s been... Mine hurt quite a bit, like it was really painful and it’s, you know, it’s really stuck, all the like, puss and stuff would really get stuck to the dressing. It may... I tell you, I think because I was in that weird transition period already of like, being responsible, it was sort of a responsibility I just had to take. You know, I was no longer a 14-year-old kid who Mum did everything for you, so although she helped the first ones, eventually got to a point where it wouldn’t get stuck, so I could change it all myself and clean it, you know. just becoming self-reliant. So, it was a weird stepping stone. It was one of the first sort of big responsibilities I had for myself.

Frazer told us that allowing his burn to oxygenate was “the worst bit”.

Yeah, the pain definitely wasn't nice and the whole, although it was necessary, the whole not having painkillers for a while, and having to leave it out to oxygenate, that was the worst bit. And also watching the nurse wipe away the blister... [laughs] that was, oh – I can appreciate why she didn't give me any warning, if she had told me – but it was... oh, I just remember seeing it like “Oh my God, I can't believe that just happened, that is my red, raw wrist!”.

So, the time it probably kicked in was probably when they took me off the painkillers, took the, let the oxygen get to it, and I could feel the burn all around the wrist, but not in, on the wrist and they're sort of poking and prodding this like blister sort of thing. And that's when I sort of thought “Right, this is definitely a lot more serious than I first expected”. And I think that's sort of the time. And then afterwards, you know, was put on like codeine. I’m sort of thinking “Right, there's definitely...” – and being referred to a specialist, you know – I just thought “there's definitely more to this than I first imagined. It’s not just a case of 'run it under some cold water and a cold compress'. This is quite serious”.

Frazer did not want a skin graft, so when his doctor suggested that it might be avoidable if he stopped smoking, he immediately quit.

I remember the doctor coming in just saying, "Do you smoke?" I said, "Yeah." And I think he said to me, "Such a silly thing to do – you’re killing yourself. But anyway, if you give up smoking there’s a chance you may not need a skin graft." And so, I just completely, you know, kicked it in the can there and then.

So essentially, obviously, when you smoke, the nicotine sort of constricts your blood vessels. So less blood flow will go to the veins. They were saying the more blood supply you have, the less likely you are to need the skin graft because to begin with it, was looking... they wanted there and then to just say ‘Right, you’re going down for a skin graft’ but I was just so... I don’t know. I guess I’ve always got off quite well – and I’ve broken hands and whatnot before – and I’ve sort of always managed to just handle it if that made sense. And so, I did... I was very reluctant to have 'two injuries for one'.

I can’t exactly put my finger on why I was so adamant, maybe it was, I didn’t quite understand the skin graft. I think that probably was part of it, and also sort of... I guess when you think of a skin graft, it... it makes it quite serious, and I think I was just still in the mindset 'This isn’t serious, this isn’t serious'. You know, it’s not... that’s probably what was in my mind as I kept going. And so, you know, I probably... I’m thankful now knowing... knowing that it would heal, I face I got to give up smoking and the fact, you know, I’m definitely pleased with the decision I made, but I wouldn’t be as opposed to it if like, you know, let’s say the week or so afterwards and I went back and I said right, you still need skin graft. I don’t think I’d have just been like down right no, I’m not having it, you know. I would have gone for it. I think I just... I guess in in my head, I wanted to give it a chance.

Frazer had started a new job shortly before he was burnt. He found having to take time off work for appointments and being unable to drive to work to be frustrating.

It was quite a nasty ordeal. And having, you know, time off work, I just started a new job, maybe a month into a new job so the time of work for that, and it was quite a frustrating ordeal, and also not being able to do anything. As I say, I always like doing things. I’ve always got something to do, I've alwasy got something in my hands. I just couldn't sit still, and it was so frustrating not being able to do anything.

Because the specialist burns place was a bit about, maybe half hour out for us, so the whole having to drive there and work it around work obviously, I couldn't ride there at all. And I think that was probably one of the worst bit is although, I had the bike and stuff like that, I could no longer work, like, I could no longer ride, nothing in the whole recovery process.

Frazer said the most important thing to him was not let the burn “become who you are”.

The most important thing to never let that become who you are. I was always just the guy who rode bikes, it's not the guy who blew himself up, you know?

I take control of it. It's really not, I’m not letting it define me. That's the important thing.  I’ve put such an importance with not letting it define who I am, so that definitely helps to just keep it at bay.

And that's why I always say that I always bring it back to the bike because that's how I want people, to look at a bike, “Oh, Frazer likes bikes!” on people so, you know, somebody might burn themselves on a pan and think “Oh, Frazer has a burn”. You know, I don't want to be remembered. I want to be remembered as the guy that like bikes. That's sort of I think I play such an important identity and, you know, and that's it, yeah. Making sure people remind me but think of me as the guy who likes bikes.

There are times when Frazer feels vulnerable about his burns, but on the whole, he feels he has “dealt” well with the support of his friends and family.

Because, you know, somebody might make a bit of a personal joke about it. he doesn’t really know you wherever you’re at, you know. So, I mean thoughts I’m just like, you know, tears are bringing it back up or, you know, you might be out with a couple of friends. there’s someone new there and they might make a joke and then that new person takes a step further. you’re like that’s not okay. and there have been times where you sort of think God, you know, have I dealt with this, have I not? On the whole I haven’t sorted any support, there’ve been thoughts there. But for the most part, as I say, I would say my support network’s good enough anyway to, you know, at least support me. Actually, some people might not be so lucky but to... you know, I was very lucky to have that.

Frazer experienced anxiety growing up, he said his anxiety returned after he was burnt when he was an adult. He said having a good friendship network helped him to cope.

I suffered anxiety in the past to the point I couldn't go into stores like when it was sort of growing up. I sort of learned how to cope with that, so it sort of came back a little bit. I thought I don't want to go to a bar alone, so having my majors to come up, you know, but always together just things like that. They sort of, I guess I don't ever appreciate how much it helps but yeah, just having someone to go out with who would, he doesn't care about you, your appearance anyway, you know, they like you for you, but the fact that they make me feel so comfortable that it didn't matter if I had some, you know, dressing on my wrist, it didn't matter if people asked because, he was there next to me and he'd always make me feel comfortable, you know. And if they ever got too much, we'd sort of be able to leave it.

Getting support before you need it but surround yourself with people that are going to help you recover because it's not just a recovery of the burns, the recovery of your, you know, your mental thinking, that whole anxiety of dealing with that, and digesting it all and coming to terms with it, and learning how to live again, you know.

Frazer told us that using humour as a coping mechanism came naturally to him.

So, it was sort of, it was nice to have a network of people who would just understand and care or not necessarily understand people just care without needing to understand. And maybe, you know, there'd be the occasional joke, but half of those would be led by me, there's a sort of coping mechanism. You know, making a laugh out of it, you know. Maybe not, but that’s what I thought like it would never be about my appearance, it would never be personal, it would be about what happened. The fuel line say, you know, so no, I think it was good to both have a laugh with people I could feel comfortable enough to go outside with.

So, I think always whenever something went wrong, I’d always sort of make a joke about it, and then just sort of get back to it. So, I guess it came quite natural to me, but the fact that it was so serious this time, the humour helped hugely in my-, I never realised it could. As I say it wasn't necessarily humour being personal about it, just hearing about the situation, for example, oh, you know, “The scar will be quite cool to tell stories about” or, you know, “When we're doing that again”, you know, silly things like that kept it going.

Frazer quit smoking after he was burnt to avoid having a skin graft.

I remember bringing this machine in that sort of they take a double check the oxygen levels in your blood, the blood circulation or something. And I think this is one reason I look so bad. You know, I’m not saying I think about positively about the burn, but I sort of associated give up smoking or vaping with the burn because they wanted to do a skin graft and I was so adamant. I wasn't going to have one.

I remember the doctor coming in just saying “Do you smoke?” I said, “Yeah”. And I think he said to me “That's such a silly thing. You're killing yourself but anyway, if you give up smoking there's a chance you may not need a skin graft”. And so, I just completely, you know, kicked it in the can there and then.

I hadn’t that much to focus on, you know. that would have been a time would have been hey, I would have been bored. a), I would have been smoking more anyway, and b), it’s quite a stressful ordeal anyway. So to have just, you know, gone cold turkey and done it that way it was such a help and relief because it almost proved to me I can go through stress ordeals without a cigarette, you know.

Frazer suggested that employers should not put pressure on their employees whilst they adjust to working after a burn injury.

A bit flexible, and just don't put too much pressure on it, you know, just accept that things might happen a little bit slower, and don't put the pressure on it because it will eventually rise again when it becomes part of normal life, and they've made the adjustments, but it's like sort of anything. You get something new you've got to adjust to it. So that sort of period of adjusting needs to happen, and just don't put the pressure on right, you know, you've had a week. You need to be back at your normal levels, you know. It's so unreasonable. So, it's got to be fair.