burnalcohol or peroxide. The alcohol won, but not in the way I expected. Thank God someone was home, because they got me into the bathtub immediately.

I was burned over 46% of my body that day.

I had my last surgery at 18 and thought that chapter of my life was closed. I'm 40 now. My doctor recently told me that's not the case — I still need scar releases, and decades of pulling and tightening tissue have finally caught up with my body. This will be my 14th surgery.

I won't pretend I'm okay going into these. Every time, there's that moment where you don't know for certain if you'll wake up. But it has to be done — the pain has become unbearable, and I can't keep putting it off.

I can cover most of the cost myself. I'm just asking for help getting to $2,500 so I can move forward with scheduling. Any bit you can give means more than you know