My 10 years with TEN

In the autumn of 2012 I developed Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN) as a reaction to medication. I was highly allergic to the drug Tegretol with the substance Carbamazepine. I lost more that 65% of my skin in only a couple of days. It was a life-threatening skin condition and I was admitted to the burn center of the Uppsala University Hospital in Sweden.
After approximately two weeks my skin had ‘healed’ again but the person inside had been altered in every single way possible. This life threatening illness caused life changing complications.
I tried to go back to the person I was before TEN. I tried, I failed, I tried again and failed again. Until I realised going back to the one I was before, had never been an option. I needed to adapt and to accept. I had to find and build a new version of me and to be able to do so I had to confront my physical and mental traumas. It took me 10 years to process and heal from my traumas until I was finally able to put them into words.
That is why I call my journey from experiencing the trauma to being able to put it into words my Ten years of TEN.