| "am I really burned?...because that would be ridiculous"
**Drafts: Summary (up
to being burned) and an Outline (age
8 through 9th grade)** 
Tie photo --
1 month before burns --
12th birthday 13 months post burns --
7 years post burns --
12 years post burns --
16 years post burns --
21 years post burns --
21 years post burns --
24 years post burns --
29 years post burns --
My Image --
Unedited Random Thoughts From My Personal Diary--
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I try to exercise as much as I can. I jog and walk, but I've recently taken up tennis (teaching my son, and the recent addition of his two friends). After about two hours my clothes are drenched. I drink a lot and pace myself to not get overheated, but years of practice on that front are really starting to pay off with my endurance. My back is not burned so it does sweat a lot (actually everywhere not burned sweats a lot--sweat droplets forms on my legs). My parents had me doing yard work and jogging shortly after I was burned--I will confess I hated it very much (we lived and I continue to live in Florida). Some of parts of my body that never perspired now do become moist with sweat, but mostly the burned areas are dry. It is interesting to see the partners that form on my tee shirt: the back is soaked, but the front is mostly dry except for a few wet areas that escaped being burned.
The body has an amazing ability to adapt, but it does take time and experience (training or repetition).
Last summer I replaced my roof on the detached garage. It took me close to forty actual hours of work to scrape off the layers of old roofing--it was the most difficult aspect of the job. It was very hot, and I was drinking nearly 2 gallons of gatoraide each day. I finally found a rhythm that worked: 30-40 minutes on the roof and then an hour break to cool down. Right at 40 minutes my productivity dropped off to where I’d make a movement and then rest. But once I realized my threshold and the job became a lot more manageable. The last thing I needed was a heat stroke or some delirium from exhaustion causing me to fall off the roof. I love Florida and life too much to cut it short by some foolish disregard to my body’s capabilities. That said, I do tend to push myself--I hate the restrictions caused by the shackles scars have inflicted on my body. |
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Click Here to read more.
Thank you to those that have written thanking me for the site -- it is quite rewarding for me.
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Please consider checking out these books from other Burn Survivors:
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Some of these titles are about the author's burn experience; and another section will have books authored by burn survivors not about burns at all. |
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I'm in the process of redesigning the web site; again, any suggestions are welcome. Also, the Resources Page was updated with some info about burn survivor Robert Timberg, the author/biographer of several books on the Vietnam War and John McCain, and another burn survivor is the author of The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls (blog interview about her book).
For anyone that visits this site regularly, I've finally realized that I'm not going to make any progress continuing to dicker with updates that add no real value. This project is about being burned, and it is about me, and my accomplishments, and as delusional as this sounds, I’m not burned--that’s not who I am. Sure there are photos that show scars and ill fitting clothes (the daily struggle of uncomfortable clothing), but other than that you’d be hard pressed to find testimonials from my friends, co-workers, and family that would think to mention, “oh yeah, the burned guy.” Now, I'm sure they would say something like, “he needs to lose a little weight,” or “he talks a lot, but he does listen.” So, this site is best just a simple and perhaps cursory view of me than something in-depth.
Here’s the beginning words of my forthcoming book:
 He died. It was a crisp chilly Thanksgiving morning in north Florida on Lake Geneva in a blazing cabin fire that took his identity. The ten year boy reading Green Lantern comics the night before was gone.
His life had been pretty amazing, and perhaps it was appropriate that it ended eloquently in a cabin, his life exploding into fire from the ignition of gasoline vapor from a one gallon fuel can, which a moment before appeared picture perfect in his hands, very much like one of those old glossy magazine ads for Coleman camping gear, and the next moment a crumbled piping hot charred wreck of metal that a bored hitchhiker wouldn’t bother to kick if found on the roadside.
That, perhaps, may be the total extent to which I mention being burned. I’m still working on the format. [update--that book is dead!]
The timing of this site's debut marks the 30th anniversary of being burned by a gasoline can explosion in a cabin on Lake Geneva, Florida on a very cold Thanksgiving morning in 1976. I was burned over fifty percent of my body, including my face, and was treated at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, and then at the Shriners in Boston. I was ten years old at the time of the accident.
During the last thirty years, I've lived a rather exciting and mundane life,
and that is what this site is about--it's About Being Normal.
 Here are pictures [1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s]
in chronological order depicting my appearance over the years. However, here
are photographs I have taken
of things I've found interesting over the years.
Here's a short list of some facts about me:
- I love tennis; surfing, and working outdoors; Did I mention tennis?
- My father was working in the ER I was taken after I was burned;
- I earned both a master's degree and a juris doctorate degree;
- I created the first USO Internet web site (uso.org);
- My mother died from a brain tumor (brain cancer) two years before I was burned;
- After being burned the first hurdle I conquered was taking fresh baked chocolate cookies out of the oven;
- I really could live my entire life wearing nothing but shorts;
- I would like to think I'm creative, but this site clearly reflects otherwise;
- I'm 1/32nd Creek Indian (Florida);
- I once had an engaging conversation with Barbara Bach;
- I'm an avid writer, but I have nothing to say...
Shriners
Burns Hospital, Boston
Unit
Shands
at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Send any questions or comments to: christopherfitts
at yahoo.com
Christopher Fitts
Stories and Memories : Law School - Career - Music -
Stories - Family
Life - Self Worth - Poetry - Job Interviews
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Burn Survivors in the News, and Burn Related Tidbits: Click Here for Articles. Burn Survivor Projects
Celebrity Burn Survivors and Famous Fictional Burn Characters
The Atlantic Online | June 2009 | What Makes Us Happy? [case studies of normal people living normal lives]
Who links to my website?
Copyright © 2006-2010 Christopher Fitts. All rights reserved. (I could place disclaimers all over this site about all the burn survivors who are or were much worse off than I, so please keep in mind I’m not callous to the range of damage burns inflict on a person, and if I let my empathy for others overwhelm I’d never be able to create this site.)
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Burn Survivor Fire
