Page 62 - Reflections of you 8-12

Bilguun

Grade 11

Pain

One of my most unforgettable, and worst memories I have is the time I felt unmeasurable pain for around 3 months. It
was the pain I felt after getting 2 surgeries and getting my index finger of my left foot cut off and stitched the front
half back together because I injured my tendon. That hurt me so much physically and emotionally.

In the year 2018 when I was in 7th grade my family decided to breathe fresh air and visit my aunt in Burgan. I was a
little hesitant to go out because it was January and it was cold outside. But I was really excited to go because my
cousin and I were really close and we used to hang out a lot if we met. So, right after we arrived at Bulgan my cousin

and I went outside to screw around in the woods and on the frozen lake. We played with snow and ice a lot till we
almost froze and we jumped off from high places for fun. I think that was the reason I injured my tendon.
At first, I thought I just injured my bone and it was not a big deal because it wasn’t hurting too much but after 10-15
days, I couldn’t bear the pain to walk and my family decided to go to the hospital. The doctors thought it was starting
to suppurate in my toe so they decided to cut it open and clean out the pus. That was the start of my nightmare.

I had to get surgery. My first surgery they cut 3 holes that were connected inside to clean my toe out. I was
unconscious, so it wasn’t that bad, but the pain of the cleaning after the surgery was the worst. They used a steel

forcep to hold fabric with some cleaning fluid and shoved them in 1 of the holes and got it out from another hole. The
worst thing is the steel forceps would go in one of the incision holes too and it would hurt like getting my foot
chopped off. After 3 days of daily cleaning the doctors stopped giving me pain killers so my family decided to go to a
private hospital in Murun while celebrating Tsagaan Sar at my grandma’s place.

There we discovered that it was not suppuration and my tendons were snapped and it was too late for a full recovery.
So, after Tsagaan Sar we went to a children’s hospital in Ulaanbaatar and got my second surgery. The scary thing
about this one though was that I was awake the whole surgery but the lower half of my body was numb. Although, I

could still feel the push to my upper body and hammer sound of cutting, crushing of my bone.

After the surgery I was able to walk and at least half of my toe was on my foot using stiches and nails. I could not feel
or move the toe, but I was happy because I could finally walk and say goodbye to those hellish cleanings.