Society tells us to be ashamed of our scars but I say let the world see them so that they can see part of our story. Our scars do not define us rather they help show us what we have overcome and what we are capable of. I hope you love the second installment of this project entitled as scars part II.

I was inspired to do this project because a photographer friend of mine, Abi Q, took a picture of my scar three years ago and I found much healing in it. I started to truly see how beautiful my scar was and the story it told when I saw it captured on camera. I hope you enjoy the beautiful pictures of these wonderful woman’s scars and the stories that they tell.

My vision for this project was to make it in black and white so the focus in on the scars. I truly hope and pray this project helps these women see how beautiful their scars really are and how brave they are for overcoming so much at such a young age.

Photo shot and edited by Jana Contreras Photography

1. Evelyn, 4

“When Evelyn was born, we just sat and reveled in her – our perfect and beautiful baby girl. We had no idea that we were about to be blindsided just 12 hours later by a diagnosis of a congenital heart defect (Transposition of the Great Arteries), meaning open heart surgery ASAP. We were rushed to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford and were told to prepare to anywhere from weeks to months for a surgery date. We had thousands of people from all over the world praying for her and sending us messages of hope and comfort. Amazingly and very suddenly, there was a last minute cancellation in the OR only 6 days later, July 11, 2014, and she was next to fill the spot instead. Today, 4 years post-op, we still revel in her, now with her beautiful “scarf” (as she calls her scar). I pray that she wears it proudly as a badge of courage and with honor and that it always points her back to the love and goodness of her Father.”

– As told by her mother Grace

2. Aliyah, 18

Photo shot and edited by Jana Contreras Photography

3. Sarah, 24

“I was home alone in a new city, hours away from everything and everyone I knew when I got the call the call from my doctor that would change my life forever. He told me that he found a brain malformation and that the only treatment was surgery, there was no cure. My health took a steady decline until I couldn’t eat or sleep. I fell in to a deep depression.

My husband and I did our research and eventually decided to fly out of state to see an expert neurosurgeon. After a long and lengthy evaluation, the surgeon decided I was a candidate for surgery. He told me there was a chance my worst symptoms were not related to the brain malformation, but he knew that my brain and spine were affected to at least some degree. We decided to go forward with the surgery and thank God we did, it turns out it was worse than they could see in my MRI’s. Now, more than 6th months after my surgery I am still struggling with my worst symptoms. In fact, we’re finding this is a complicated, multi-factorial issue.

I spent a lot of time angry. How could a good God allow this to happen? Why me? Does He hear my prayers? Does He care? It seemed everyone else was living a carefree life but me. But in the midst of so much pain, I have found that the grace and love of Christ are much deeper and truer than I ever had before. My frailty leads me into the arms of The Savior again and again. My weakness kept me resting in His strength and clinging to His promises. Now, as I continue to search for answers and wait on God’s healing I have a constant reminder of His truths. Just as my scar is always with me, I know my God is as well.”

Photo shot by Sarah and edited by Jana Contreras Photography

4. Tiffany, 29

Down center scar & chest tube: Double lung transplant

“As I grew up, My Cystic Fibrosis didn’t take a break. I was in and out of the hospital for “tune up” which is a 2-3 week course of IV antibiotics to get rid of the cf bacterial infections. Every infection caused irreversible scarring of my cystic fibrosis infected lungs. As I got older, my health began to deteriorate. My infections became very frequent and I had an episode when I was 21. My lungs went from 50% down to 22% because of an infection. I was rushed to the hospital and I did get better. However, after that, my lungs began to progress faster. When I was 23 I was told I needed to be evaluated for a double lung transplant. I was scared and was resistant but I did end up being listed when I was 24. I waited 973 days on the double lung transplant list. On November 30th, 2016 I received the gift of life from my selfless donor. I am very blessed. The surgeon did a sternotomy incision which is vertically down my sternum and they cut the sternum in half and when they were done, they wired me shut. I had 5 chest tubes, 2 of which stayed in for almost 30 days.

Side scars where just breathe tattoo: Pneumothorax (VATS): I went to my Transplant clinic about 3 months after my transplant. I have a good appointment but something was off. I went to my normal infusion and then I went back to the apartment we had next to Stanford. I got a call from my nurse practitioner stating that I needed to go to the ER right away because my X-ray shows that I had a pneumothorax in my left lung (a collapsed lung). My mom and I got to the ER where they took me back right away. I did a CT scan and then they took me to a room where I was admitted. The thoracic surgeons came and placed a pigtail chest tube. This inflated my lung and we kept it in for 10 days and the pneumothorax was not healing on its own. The thoracic surgeons and my doctors decided that they needed to go in with Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. This allowed them to staple my lungs leaks and suction my lung into the pleural cavity to keep it up and healthy. This was a 5.5-hour surgery and let me tell you it hurt a lot. I came out of surgery with a couple inch incision and 2 chest tubes.

Meconium ileus /blockage and Feeding tube:

When I was born in 1989, the doctors knew right away that I had Cystic Fibrosis due to the blockage in my intestines. This caused me to have to get a meconium ileus surgery to remove the blockage and part of my intestines. This surgery left a horizontal scar across my stomach. Because CF causes the digestive issue, I am not able to absorb nutrition like a normal human being. When I was a baby I had a rough time keeping weight on so they placed a GJ tube in my stomach, this helped me get to a good weight and it was taken out when I was 5 years old. I didn’t need another one until after transplant. With a transplant, I had a complication that my heart could not keep up and my lungs could not handle working on their own, so I was intubated a second time, a couple days after my transplant. This was scary, but in the end, I needed more time to heal.

When they put in an emergency intubation, the tube was too big for my throat causing my left vocal chord to be slow and lazy. This made it unsafe for me to swallow. I was not able to eat real food, so they placed an NG tube. The NG went up to my nose to my stomach, but this was not comfortable and kept coming out of place. We decided to put in a GJ tube which is the same thing I had when I was a baby. This allowed me to get nutrition and it was more comfortable. After 21 days post-transplant, I was cleared to eat. I lost 20lbs and I needed to eat plus do tube feeds. 3 months after transplant I got to my pre-transplant weight and was able to maintain it for 4 weeks. Once I did this, I was able to get it removed and become Tubeless Tiff! Now I have a second belly button because that’s how it heals!”

Photos shot and edited by Jana Contreras Photography

5. Belle, 24

“I knew I was a weirdo when the school nurse gasped at the sight of my crooked spine during the 7th-grade health evaluation. I had always felt a little different from my classmates, so finding out that I was a “crooked” kid just reaffirmed that even more. My scoliosis was so severe that the doctor did not believe a spinal brace would even help, so I went through the rest of my adolescent years feeling pretty out of my element.

It was not until I graduated high school that I finally underwent spinal fusion surgery to straighten everything out (literally and figuratively). I’ll never forget the confidence that these titanium rods gave me. Not only did I stand a few centimeters taller, but I felt like such a badass with a 6-inch scar running down my lower torso. There is a perception that scars are “ugly” or “imperfect”, but I think my scoliosis scar is one of the most beautiful things to happen to me. I almost feel incomplete without it”

Photo shot by Stormie and edited by Jana Contreras Photography

6. Stormie, 25

Photo shot by Maisy Weiss and edited by me

“My story is a recent one. I awoke early in the morning of October 30th, 2017 in a horribly uncomfortable way. As soon as I was able to stand, I had an intense pinching feeling in my lower left abdomen, so painful, I actually fell onto the floor trying to make it to the bathroom. The rest of the day I was in bed, in the dark, afraid to move, due to the bizarre pain and exhaustion I had. I tried to ignore it, until the early morning hours came again, except this time I could barely stand. I went into the ER, was tested on for half of the day, with the conclusion that I had Ovarian Cysts on my left ovary. Since this was a common thing among women, I was referred to a doctor to monitor it. When I had my appointment with the Ovarian Cyst Specialist, I was informed that the cyst was extreme in size and I would need emergency surgery to remove it. I had a 1% chance that it would be life-threatening, so I was told.

When my surgery day arrived, I spent over 3 hours on the operating table when it was supposed to be a 45 min- 1-hour procedure. As I awoke, I had all the doctors in the room with me, explaining that my cyst was accompanied by several tumors, other cysts, and endometriosis. I was told that my ovaries were oversized, uncommonly shaped and basically I had no chance to ever have children naturally and may have cancer developing inside at any moment in the future. So, I gave the specialist permission to refer me to an Oncology specialist, who assisted me when deciding if a radical full hysterectomy was needed. And it was. Due to my age of 25, the surgeon, of course, was hesitant but was certain that if I did not have absolutely everything removed in my reproductive area, I would develop cancer and it would most likely spread fast, due to the many tumors floating around, uncontained. In as little as 3 weeks later, I was across the state of Colorado, receiving the surgery with a few days stay in the hospital.

I had over 26 staples in my abdomen, starting above my belly button, all the way down to my groin. It was a very painful, long, exhausting, tough recovery. I went through SO MANY emotions, but I really started to appreciate how beautiful my body could be. Scars, no scars, I always held the strength inside, and beauty is truly skin deep. Today, I am 6 months recovered, healthy and active. Happy, much more confident and proud of the body I live in.”