Reappearing scars

tips on how to cope: dealing with your feelings, dealing with the consequences of self-harm in your life. share your ideas and maybe pick up some new skills, too. you don't have to want to stop to learn something new here.

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Invisible_tears
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Reappearing scars

Post by Invisible_tears » Fri Apr 15, 2005 12:53 am

I've noticed that my oldest scars, on my forearms, are sometimes hardly noticeable, but sometimes they're really red and obvious and scary-looking. Why is this? I always notice they're obvious when I have my skating lesson, so I was wondering if it was something to do with exercise - are scars more visible when blood is pumping faster? Does the blood show them up more or something? If anyone knows or has noticed the same sort of thing, please let me know...I'm all curious now ;-)
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Post by narcoleptic » Fri Apr 15, 2005 4:13 am

I didn't shave for a while (yea...gross) and thought my ankle was healed, and then after shaving realized scars were quite visible. I have no medical knowlegde on it, but I think blood pumps more when you excciersize so maybe youor scars were near the veins? ...strange though, am really curious now.

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Post by shadow of a smile » Fri Apr 15, 2005 4:30 am

my scars show more when i exercise too. and especially when i take hot shower. i'm not really sure why it is tho. there's got to be some sort of explanation. something to do with blood supply, like ya'll said. sorry i couldn't be more helpful.
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Post by mallie » Fri Apr 15, 2005 5:32 pm

I have some scars show up a lot more when I'm really cold. Never noticed anything with exercise or heart rate or anything though.

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Post by save_me_from_myself » Fri Apr 15, 2005 9:34 pm

yeah im the same as mallie, either when im really hot or really cold. havent noticed it when im ecersising but i suppose ud be really hot then? im not too sure

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Post by WhoAmI_NoOne » Fri Apr 15, 2005 11:08 pm

I notice that about mine too. When I am cold, hot, and when I excercise. I think it is also when they are wet they seem more visable, but then again, I am a swimmer, so, I am wet when I excercise *shrugs* I hope someone knows the answer. Good luck finding one
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Post by pretty » Sat Apr 16, 2005 11:10 am

Sometimes when I'm hot (from exercise or whatever) they go much redder, sometimes when I'm cold they go purpley, in some light they really stand out, but in natural daylight on a warm but not too hot day they're virtually invisible. Scars are weird.
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Post by *Stella* » Sat Apr 16, 2005 4:35 pm

Hi. I also notice that my scars are very visible when I get out of the shower. Warmth dilates blood vessels and cold constricts them. When the vessels are dilated, more blood is flowing through, thus making your skin look pinker, etc. (sorry, I'm a nurse and I'm getting all nursey on you folks! :wink: ) The only thing is that scar tissue isn't very vascular at all, but you may be seeing redness from blood vessels underneath the scars?

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Post by Invisible_tears » Sat Apr 16, 2005 11:26 pm

Thanks for all the feedback! It's good to know others have magical disappearing/reappearing scars as well ;-) Plus you all have made me think it's perhaps more to do with heat than exercise itself...I'm quite a warm person anyway, so I'm *always* hot when I exercise (even when I ice skate, hehe ;-)). I haven't noticed the shower thing, but that's most likely because I don't have my glasses on/lenses in while in and getting out of the shower...and therefore cannot see a darn thing ;-) but I'll look specially next time I'm in the shower...to test the heat theory!
Thanks again everyone for replying to me :-)

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Post by _MessedUp_ » Mon Apr 18, 2005 1:59 pm

mine show more in extreme hot or cold. otherwise they are really quite faded
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Post by theatregeek » Wed Apr 27, 2005 2:53 am

mine turn like purple when im cold, people think i have some weird skin disease lol
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Post by Copasetic » Wed Apr 27, 2005 7:08 am

Yea, I think it has to do with blood flow or something.

In extreme hot or cold, or after exercise, mine (especially on the forearms) are MUCH more visible.
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Post by ComfortablyNumb » Thu Apr 28, 2005 5:29 pm

If I take a hot shower mine turn very red. I haven't noticed the same thing when I'm excercising so I don't know what to tell you about that. Also the lighting really does effect the look of my scars. If it's a really bright light, then they stand out bad. They also get really itchy when they get cold. Scars are like the weirdest thing, and really tricky to figure out.

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Post by lauryn » Thu Apr 28, 2005 11:13 pm

circulation of blood during exercise is improved
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Post by Wandering » Fri Apr 29, 2005 3:12 pm

Mine are also more obvious when I'm hot or cold. Don't have any theories for the hot times, but when I'm cold I reckon they show up more because the skin becomes paler as the blood goes away from the surface.

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Post by Ananya » Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:21 pm

The cold is always the worst thing for enabling my scars show up.

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