Chemotherapy Port Scars | Dr Cynthia Bailey

Port scars are one of the souvenirs of surviving cancer chemotherapy for many of us. When you get a cancer diagnosis, your future chemotherapy port scar is the last things on your mind. It wasn’t for me. I’ve seen so many old port scars in my years of dermatology practice and I want to tell you it will matter down the line WHEN you survive.

What can you do to help hide your port scar?

Ask the doctor placing the port to make some changes to how the scar is fashioned when your port is placed. This can give you a scar that blends nicely with your skin as you go from cancer patient to cancer survivor. 

I know a lot about port scars because I’m a BRCA breast cancer survivor who is also a dermatologist. – Dr. Cynthia Bailey

When my oncologist told me that I needed a chemo port as part of cancer treatment, I was in shock for many reasons. Port placement was the first procedure followed by 4 months of hardcore chemo and many surgeries. I wasn’t sure I was going to survive the cancer but IF I DID SURVIVE, I knew that I did not want an ugly horizontal scar across my décolleté to remind me of cancer forever. I intervened by talking to my doctor about the maximal skin tension lines during my port placement procedure.

What are the Maximal Skin Tension Lines, and Why They Matter for Your Chemo Port Scar?

I went to my port placement appointment ready to ask the doctor to orient the scar in the skin lines that will form my future chest wrinkles. Maximal Skin Tension Lines are well known to dermatologists and plastic surgeons, but not to radiologists who are often the doctors that place ports. The lines go by a variety of names. I use the name ‘Maximal Skin Tension Lines’. They are also known as Langer’s Lines.

Every person’s lines vary because they are determined by movement of your underlying muscles over the course of your lifetime. 

Maximal Skin Tension Lines are also known as Langer’s Lines.

Surgical scars that are fashioned parallel to the Maximal Skin Tension lines will look better and feel better over the years. Following the surgical rule of orienting a scar parallel to these lines is important to getting the best cosmetic result. The scar will become more comfortable, because the skin tension vectors won’t pull on the scar as you move and the skin sags with age. This will lower the chance of the scar being inflamed, irritated, or thickened into a keloid.

How to Talk to Your Doctor About the Scar from Your Port Placement for Chemotherapy Treatments.

My port was placed by an interventional radiologist who I knew would do a great job of getting the port into the correct vessel while protecting me from infection. Because I had never seen a port scar oriented in the Maximal Skin Tension Lines in my community, I knew I was going to have to speak up. I brought a beautiful dress that I had purchased right before my cancer diagnosis to my appointment. It had a flattering wide scoop neckline. I wanted the scar well away from that opening!

I asked the radiologist to do 2 things for my port placement that would have a big impact on my future scar:

1. Please orient the scar in the maximal skin tension lines and,
2. Please do not put the scar in the dress’ scoop neckline.

He laughed (thank goodness)! He said, “I get it — the no-fly zone”. Then I described how to find the maximal skin tension lines on my chest. It was actually a new concept to him!

Dermatologist’s port removal scar results

Here I am wearing the dress with the scoop neckline. See the good job my doctor did orienting the scar out of the “no fly zone” — I’m grateful.

I also wanted my port scar to be placed under the bra strap. His concern was the bra would rub the port while the port was in place. I assured him I would watch for that and take care. My chemo port never rubbed on my bra for the entire 6 months that I had the port buried under my skin.

You can see in the second photo how I had the scar placed and how it looks now. These are my maximal skin tension lines. In this location, the lines are typically oriented more up and down.

Port scar hidden on the side of my chest under the bra strap wrinkles which buckle into vertical lines. Those are your maximal skin tension lines. Any scar oriented here will heal better and look the best. If the bump of the port is under the bra strap, then it will have to be cushioned or protected from too much rubbing. I simply chose to wear bras that did not rub on my port.

How to fix brown and red marks from your port removal scar 

Brown and red discoloration of a port scar is common. The port is repeatedly accessed in the chemo suite, for blood tests and IV infusions. It is handy but this is traumatic for the skin and it will gradually create a brown discoloration from the trauma of being stuck over and over again with the port access needles.

The brown and red discoloration of your port scar can be treated by IPL. 

Intense Pulsed Light, also called BBL or Broad Banned Light, is like a laser treatment though technically different. Wavelengths of light are flashed on the discoloration and the energy is transferred to the discoloration and breaks it up. This can be done once your port has removed and the skin has healed for a number of months. I had my IPL treatment done about 6 months after my port was removed. 

How do you treat lumpiness and thickening of your port scar once your port is removed?

The area of your port can develop a lumpy scar called a hypertrophic scar. A keloid scar is even a possible port scar complication.

Any lumpiness or thickening of the scar can be lessened with erbium ablative fractionated laser (Profractional Laser). I’ve had all these treatments and my scar looks pretty darn good. I’m 7 years out from cancer, and the scar never bothers me. It is now almost invisible so even if it shows in a garment nobody really notices it.

Two important steps to get a port scar that is not big, dark and noticeable.

1. If you are facing a port placement, the most important aspect of its future scar appearance is to consider how your maximal skin tension lines are oriented.
2. If your port area does not look good after your port is removed, see your dermatologist about laser or light treatments to lessen the appearance of cancer wear and tear.

Here is what my port and port scar looked like on the morning of my double mastectomy. This is after 4 months of ACT dose dense chemo which is tough chemo given every 2 weeks and includes a blood test. Thus, my port was accessed with needles at least twice every 2 weeks. Note how I had the radiologist orient the scar. The port was placed medially (towards the middle of my chest from the incision).

How do you find your Maximal Skin Tension Lines or Langer’s Lines on your chest for your port scar placement?

Look at this diagram of maximal skin tension lines and then look at your own skin. Squeeze your skin to pinch it towards a line and see how your skin wrinkles and crinkles in the direction of the lines. Ports are usually placed in the upper chest to the side near your arm. See the red lines I have drawn there? My port was placed to the side of my upper chest right under the arm strap of my bra. I wanted the line oriented up and down in line with the bra strap and well out of my decollate. I’m really pleased with my scar 7 years later! If you are researching the subject, know there is a lot of confusion between the terms maximal skin tension lines, relaxed skin tension lines, and Langer’s Lines. 

During treatment for breast cancer I developed my dermatologist’s Chemotherapy Skin Care Kit 

I had a lot of time on chemo to watch my skin. I was also very active on the cancer forums and heard a lot about the side effects that many people were going through with their own chemotherapy. Of course, I had also treated many chemo patients in my dermatology practice over my career. I could do something to help prevent and relieve suffering from skin side effects and I put my 30+ years of dermatology experience to the cause and developed my Chemotherapy Skin Care Kit.

I donate all the profits from each sale of my Chemotherapy Skin Care Kit to cancer advocacy and research organization FORCE.

My Chemo Skin Care Kit has the key products we need to care for our skin during chemo. Good skin care helps prevent and sooth the most common chemo-related skin rashes and nail problems.

Click here to learn more about my Chemotherapy Skin Care Kit.

Chemotherapy | Everyday Health

Chemotherapy is a term for the various drug therapies used to treat cancer. In use since the 1950s, chemotherapy, or chemo, now encompasses more than 100 different cancer-fighting drugs.

How Chemotherapy Works

Your body is made of trillions of cells, which die off and multiply as part of a normal growth cycle. Cancer develops when abnormal cells in the body multiply at a rapid, uncontrolled rate. Sometimes these cells grow into tumors, or masses of tissue. Different types of cancer affect different organs and different parts of the body. Left untreated, cancer can spread.

Chemo drugs are specifically designed to stop cancer cells from dividing or slow their growth and may also be used to shrink a tumor prior to surgery. The drugs may also affect healthy cells, but they can usually repair themselves.

How Chemotherapy Is Administered

Chemotherapy can be administered in a variety of ways, depending on the type of cancer you have and where the cancer is located. These drugs include:

• Injections into the muscle or under the skin
• Infusions into an artery or vein
• Pills that you take by mouth
• Injections into the fluid around your spinal cord or brain

You may require a minor surgical procedure to have a thin catheter, called a central line or port, implanted into a vein to make it easier to administer the drugs.

Goals of Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy plans — along with other cancer-fighting therapies, such as radiation or immunotherapy — can have different goals, depending on your type of cancer.

• Curative This treatment plan is designed to wipe out all the cancer cells in your body and permanently put the cancer in remission.

• Control When curative treatment isn’t possible, chemotherapy may help manage the cancer by stopping it from spreading or by shrinking a tumor. The goal is to improve your quality of life.

Types of Chemotherapy

The type of treatment you’ll receive will also vary depending on your cancer.

• Adjuvant chemotherapy This treatment is usually given after surgery to kill any cancer cells that may remain undetected, which helps prevent recurrences of the cancer.

• Neoadjuvant chemotherapy Because some tumors are too large to be removed surgically, this type of chemo aims to shrink the tumor to make surgery possible and less drastic.

• Palliative chemotherapy If the cancer has spread and is impossible to completely remove, a doctor might use palliative chemotherapy to relieve symptoms, make complications less likely, and slow the cancer’s progress or stop it temporarily.

Potential Side Effects

Chemotherapy drugs are divided into several different groups. Each works in different ways, and knowing how a drug works is important in predicting the side effects. Most people worry about the chemotherapy side effects, but the fear is often worse than the reality.

Chemo drugs are sometimes used in combination, depending on the type of cancer and its severity. Some interfere with the DNA inside cells or enzymes involved in DNA replication, and some stop cell division. The side effects depend on your chemotherapy treatment.

Side effects can occur because chemotherapy attacks healthy cells as well as cancer cells. Those healthy cells may include blood-producing cells, hair cells, and cells within the digestive system and mucous membranes. Short-term effects of chemo may include:

Your doctor can often effectively treat these side effects. For example, blood transfusions can improve anemia, antiemetic drugs can relieve nausea and vomiting, and pain medication can help relieve discomfort.

Cancer, an organization that provides support, counseling, education, and financial assistance for people with cancer and their families, offers a free guide to help you cope with side effects.

If your side effects are particularly bad, your doctor might perform blood tests to see if you need a lower dose or a longer break between treatments.

According to the American Cancer Society, it’s important to remember that the benefits of chemo can outweigh the risks of treatment. For most people, side effects usually end sometime after treatments end. How long that takes is different for each person.

How Will Chemo Affect My Life?

Chemotherapy’s interference in your normal routine depends on several factors, including how advanced your cancer is at the time of diagnosis and which treatments you undergo.

Many people can continue working and managing daily life during chemo, while others find that the fatigue and other side effects slow them down. But you may be able to get around some of the effects by having your chemo treatments late in the day or right before the weekend.

Federal and state laws may require your employer to allow flexible work hours during your treatment.

Scar Revision | Cosmetic Surgery Center in Port Arthur, Texas

This thick, over-grown cluster of scar tissue on the earlobe is a keloid. Here it has been removed and the incision closed with stitches, leaving a thin scar.

This hypertrophic scar has formed a contracture, restricting finger motion.

Using Z-plasty, the scar is removed and several incisions are made on each side, creating small triangular flaps of skin. Then the flaps are rearranged and interlocked to cover the affected area.

The incision is closed with a Z-shaped line of sutures. The new scar is thinner and less visable, and allows the finger to be extended.

The scar crossing the natural line, or crease, between the nose and mouth is removed and repositioned using Z-plasty. The forehead scar, located in the natural lines, is excised with tapered ends. The skin is then loosened and brought together with stitches.

The repaired scars now lie partly within the natural skin crease, where they are less visible.

If You’re Considering Scar Revision…

Scars -whether they’re caused by accidents or by surgery- are unpredictable. The way a scar develops depends as much on how your body heals as it does on the original injury or on the surgeon’s skills.

Many variables can affect the severity of scarring, including the size and depth of the wound, the blood supply to the area, the thickness and color of your skin, and the direction of the scar. How much the appearance of a scar bothers you is, of course, a personal matter.

While no scar can be removed completely, plastic surgeons can often improve the appearance of a scar, making it less obvious through the injection or application of certain steroid medications or through surgical procedures known as scar revisions.

If you’re considering scar revision, this will give you a basic understanding of the most common types of scars, the procedures used to treat them, and the results you can expect. It can’t answer all of your questions, since a lot depends on your individual circumstances. Please be sure to ask your doctor if there is anything about the procedure you don’t understand.

Making the Decision

Many scars that appear large and unattractive at first may become less noticeable with time. Some can be treated with steroids to relieve symptoms such as tenderness and itching. For these reasons, many plastic surgeons recommend waiting as long as a year or more after an injury or surgery before you decide to have scar revision.

If you’re bothered by a scar, your first step should be to consult a board-certified plastic surgeon. The surgeon will examine you and discuss the possible methods of treating your scar, the risks and benefits involved and the possible outcomes. Be frank in discussing your expectations with the surgeon, and make sure they’re realistic. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions or express any concerns you may have.

Insurance usually doesn’t cover cosmetic procedures. However, if scar revision is performed to minimize scarring from an injury or to improve your ability to function, it may be at least partially covered. Check your policy or call your carrier to be sure.

All Surgery Carries Some Uncertainty and Risk

While scar revision is normally safe, there is always the possibility of complications. These may include infection, bleeding, a reaction to the anesthesia, or the recurrence of an unsightly scar.

You can reduce your risks by choosing a qualified plastic surgeon and closely following his or her advice, both before surgery and in follow-up care.

Keloid Scars

Keloids are thick, puckered, itchy clusters of scar tissue that grow beyond the edges of the wound or incision. They are often red or darker in color than the surrounding skin. Keloids occur when the body continues to produce the tough, fibrous protein known as collagen after a wound has healed.

Keloids can appear anywhere on the body, but they’re most common over the breastbone, on the earlobes, and on the shoulders. They occur more often in dark-skinned people than in those who are fair. The tendency to develop keloids lessens with age.

Keloids are often treated by injecting a steroid medication directly into the scar tissue to reduce redness, itching, and burning. In some cases, this will also shrink the scar.

If steroid treatment is inadequate, the scar tissue can be cut out and the wound closed with one or more layers of stitches. This is generally an outpatient procedure, performed under local anesthesia. You should be back at work in a day or two, and the stitches will be removed in a few days. A skin graft (see the section on skin grafting) is occasionally used, although the site from which the graft was taken may then develop a keloid.

No matter what approach is taken, keloids have a stubborn tendency to recur, sometimes even larger than before. To discourage this, the surgeon may combine the scar removal with steroid injections, direct application of steroids during surgery, or radiation therapy. Or you may be asked to wear a pressure garment over the area for as long as a year. Even so, the keloid may return, requiring repeated procedures every few years.

Hypertrophic Scars

Hypertrophic scars are often confused with keloids, since both tend to be thick, red, and raised. Hypertrophic scars, however, remain within the boundaries of the original incision or wound. They often improve on their own-though it may take a year or more-or with the help of steroid applications or injections.

If a conservative approach doesn’t appear to be effective, hypertrophic scars can often be improved surgically. The plastic surgeon will remove excess scar tissue, and may reposition the incision so that it heals in a less visible pattern. This surgery may be done under local or general anesthesia, depending on the scar’s location and what you and your surgeon decide. You may receive steroid injections during surgery and at intervals for up to two years afterward to prevent the thick scar from reforming.

Contractures

Burns or other injuries resulting in the loss of a large area of skin may form a scar that pulls the edges of the skin together, a process called contraction. The resulting contracture may affect the adjacent muscles and tendons, restricting normal movement.

Correcting a contracture usually involves cutting out the scar and replacing it with a skin graft or a flap. In some cases a procedure known as Z-plasty may be used. And new techniques, such as tissue expansion, are playing an increasingly important role. If the contracture has existed for some time, you may need physical therapy after surgery to restore full function.

Facial Scars

Because of its location, a facial scar is frequently considered a cosmetic problem, whether or not it is hypertrophic. There are several ways to make a facial scar less noticeable. Often it is simply cut out and closed with tiny stitches, leaving a thinner, less noticeable scar.

If the scar lies across the natural skin creases (or “lines of relaxation”) the surgeon may be able to reposition it to run parallel to these lines, where it will be less conspicuous. (See Z-plasty)

Some facial scars can be softened using a technique called dermabrasion, a controlled scraping of the top layers of the skin using a hand-held, high-speed rotary wheel. Dermabrasion leaves a smoother surface to the skin, but it won’t completely erase the scar.

Z-Plasty

Z-plasty is a surgical technique used to reposition a scar so that it more closely conforms to the natural lines and creases of the skin, where it will be less noticeable. It can also relieve the tension caused by contracture. Not all scars lend themselves to Z-plasty, however, and it requires an experienced plastic surgeon to make such judgments.

In this procedure, the old scar is removed and new incisions are made on each side, creating small triangular flaps of skin. These flaps are then rearranged to cover the wound at a different angle, giving the scar a “Z”pattern. The wound is closed with fine stitches, which are removed a few days later. Z-plasty is usually performed as an outpatient procedure underlocal anesthesia.

While Z-plasty can make some scars less obvious, it won’t make them disappear. A portion of the scar will still remain outside the lines of relaxation.

Skin Grafting and Flap Surgery

Skin grafts and flaps are more serious than other forms of scar surgery. They’re more likely to be performed in a hospital as inpatient procedures, using general anesthesia. The treated area may take several weeks or months to heal, and a support garment or bandage may be necessary for up to a year.

Grafting involves the transfer of skin from a healthy part of the body (the donor site) to cover the injured area. The graft is said to “take”when new blood vessels and scar tissue form in the injured area. While most grafts from a person’s own skin are successful, sometimes the graft doesn’t take. In addition, all grafts leave some scarring at the donor and recipient sites.

Flap surgery is a complex procedure in which skin, along with the underlying fat, blood vessels, and sometimes the muscle, is moved from a healthy part of the body to the injured site. In some flaps, the blood supply remains attached at one end to the donor site; in others, the blood vessels in the flap are reattached to vessels at the new site using microvascular surgery.

Skin grafting and flap surgery can greatly improve the function of a scarred area. The cosmetic results may be less satisfactory, since the transferred skin may not precisely match the color and texture of the surrounding skin. In general, flap surgery produces better cosmetic results than skin grafts.

After Scar Revision

With any kind or scar revision, it’s very important to follow your surgeon’s instructions after surgery to make sure the wound heals properly. Although you may be up and about very quickly, your surgeon will advise you on gradually resuming your normal activities.

As you heal, keep in mind that no scar can be removed completely; the degree of improvement depends on the size and direction of your scar, the nature and quality of your skin, and how well you care for the wound after the operation. If your scar looks worse at first, don’t panic-the final results of your surgery may not be apparent for a year or more.

A Survivor’s List of the Pros & Cons of Chemo Ports |…

The day before I started 16 cycles of chemo over 20 weeks, an interventional radiologist implanted a power port on the left side of my upper chest during an outpatient procedure. I quickly learned that this quarter-sized port was key to making chemo run smoothly because it connects a catheter to one of the main veins leading to my heart. Why was this a big deal? It meant chemo drugs could be delivered quickly and safely into the bloodstream—and I didn’t need to get pricked with new IVs at every infusion.

Wondering whether you or your loved one should get a port for chemotherapy? Here are few pros and cons based on my experiences over six months of chemo and pre-op testing.

Disclaimer: These are my tips and suggestions as a survivor, not as a clinician. Please consult your doctor when making a thought-out decision.

Some Pros of a Port:

1. It Speeds Up Chemo Infusions

ONcology nurses are skilled at quickly inserting the special Huber needles into the port, which hook up to the IV chemo drugs.

2. No More IV Bruises

Before I got my port, nurses struggled to find good veins on my arms, and my pale skin registered lots of bruises from failed attempts.

3. Less Pain

About 90 minutes before my infusion appointments, I used an over-the-counter cream with lidocaine to numb my port. I liberally applied it with cotton balls and then covered it with Tegaderm transparent film (Glad Press’n Seal works, too). Nurses peeled off the film and, one pin prick later, the needle was in.

4. It Can Stay In As Long As You Need Treatment

You can bathe, swim and perform whatever activities you are well enough for with your port.

5. It Can Be Used for Other Therapies

My port allowed for quick blood draws, one blood transfusion and two IV fluid replenishments during my chemo. Post-chemo and pre-surgery, my port allowed me to have an MRI with contrast without another pesky IV.

Some Cons of a Port:

1. One More Procedure, One More Scar

Once the port is removed, you will have a small scar as a reminder of where your port was inserted.

2. It Looks Awkward Poking Out of Your Skin

My port looks like a black-and-blue quail egg bruise sticking out of my skin, but I wear clothes that easily cover it for self-confidence.

3. It Gets In the Way Of Seat Belts

I bought a fuzzy seat-belt cover for driving so the belt didn’t rub against my port. It was an easy solution.

4. It Can Malfunction or Break

While this is rare, I had a slight scare toward to the end of my chemo when the blood draw wasn’t working because my port seemed blocked. But my oncology nurse patiently flushed and re-flushed until the blockage was clear.

5. It Needs to Be Flushed When Not In Use

If your port won’t be accessed for four weeks, it will need to be flushed with heparin.

Again, the decision is yours and your doctor’s whether to get a port for your treatments. For me, the convenience—and relief from more discomfort—the port provided during my treatment easily outweighed the negatives.

What advice can you share about treatments that you’ve undergone? Share them in the comments below!

Trocar port scar quality in morbidly obese patients after bariatric surgery

Abstract

Background

Patient satisfaction of scar quality and their influence on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) have never been investigated in morbidly obese patients.

Objectives

Our objectives were (1) to assess scar quality 1 year post laparoscopic bariatric surgery by means of the Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale (POSAS), and (2) to examine the influence of patients’ perception of scar quality on patients’ HRQoL.

Setting

A large Bariatric Center of Excellence in the Netherlands.

Methods

This was a descriptive pilot study of patients who underwent primary laparoscopic bariatric surgery. One year after surgery, patients and 2 observers completed the POSAS. HRQoL was assessed by using the RAND-36. Agreement of POSAS scores between patients and observers was calculated with intraclass correlation coefficient. Correlations between POSAS scores and HRQoL scores were calculated with Spearman’s rho.

Results

A total of 50 patients were included. Patients scored their scar quality worse than observers (21 versus 15–16), particularly on visual parameters (4–5 versus 2–3). Patients and observers showed poor agreement on all POSAS items (intraclass correlation coefficient = .16–.32). No significant correlations were detected between POSAS and HRQoL scores.

Conclusion

While patient scar quality satisfaction was relatively low after bariatric surgery, these outcomes were not correlated with HRQoL. Bariatric surgeons should be aware that patients could have a different view on scar quality compared with them. This realization is important to manage patient expectations regarding scar quality after bariatric surgery. Effective communication may improve patient satisfaction as an outcome.

Keywords

Bariatric surgery

Scar assessment

POSAS

Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale

Interobserver reliability

Recommended articlesCiting articles (0)

View full text

© 2018 American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Recommended articles

Citing articles

Scar tissue: Causes, prevention, and treatment

Although doctors remain unsure of what causes scar tissue to form, they do know that hypertrophic scars and keloids can result from burns, insect bites, acne, chicken pox, piercings, tattoos, and surgery.

Researchers have also found that keloids develop more often in people with darker skin.

Both keloids and hypertrophic scars tend to occur more frequently in younger people between 10 and 30 years old.

The most important guideline for scarring is prevention. People who have risk factors for developing abnormal scars should avoid elective surgery when possible and treat conditions that can result in scarring, such as acne.

Sometimes, surgery is necessary.

People may experience itchiness and pain at the location of the scar. Other scars can restrict movements. Some people may experience emotional and psychological distress from the appearance of scars.

Doctors can prescribe treatments to reduce the appearance of scarring, but they must also address the psychological impact and physical restrictions a scar can cause.

Researchers estimate that scar treatments in the United States cost over $20 billion every year.

There is a variety of treatments available for scars, but they may not all be successful for everyone. It is important that doctors explain the limited effectiveness of these treatments and set reasonable expectations for people managing their scars.

Treatment options include:

• topical
• injectable
• cryotherapy
• radiotherapy
• laser therapy
• mechanical

Onion extract

Sometimes a doctor may recommend applying onion extract topically to prevent a scar from forming after surgery or laser tattoo removal.

Onion extract may have anti-inflammatory properties and the ability to kill bacteria.

People usually tolerate onion extract well, but researchers have not found consistent evidence that this treatment is effective. One study found that it was no better than a petroleum-based ointment, such as Vaseline.

Mitomycin C

Mitomycin C is a type of chemotherapy agent that has limited effectiveness for treating keloids. Most studies have investigated the efficacy of topical mitomycin C when used alongside other treatments, such as radiation therapy and surgical removal of the keloid.

Researchers do not suggest mitomycin C for scar management because there is not enough reliable evidence to support its use.

Imiquimod

Imiquimod is available in a 5% cream formulation. Some doctors prescribe imiquimod cream to people with keloids after surgical removal. Once again, this topical treatment has not shown consistent results in clinical trials for treating and preventing keloid scar formation.

Bleomycin

Some doctors might inject bleomycin into the scar to stop the production of collagen at the site of the injury. Only a few studies have tested the effect of injectable bleomycin on improving the appearance of hypertrophic scars and keloids.

Some researchers have found that bleomycin may also reduce redness, itchiness, and pain associated with these scars.

Bleomycin is a treatment that doctors use in cancer treatments. It is a toxic substance, but doctors rarely report toxic side effects from injecting it into a scar.

Interferon

Interferon also affects the production of collagen, and doctors can inject it into injured tissue. Researchers have found in clinical studies that injecting interferon decreased the size of a keloid by 50% in 9 days. This produces a more significant effect than injecting a corticosteroid.

Another study showed that after injecting interferon into a hypertrophic scar, the quality and volume of the scar improved.

Doctors do not typically use interferon because it is expensive, and current evidence is not strong enough to support its use. It also requires three injections per week, which may be inconvenient for some people.

Corticosteroids

Share on PinterestCorticosteroid injections are a common treatment option for keloid and hypertrophic scars.

Doctors prefer corticosteroid injections as the first choice for treating keloids and second choice of treatment for hypertrophic scars. Doctors use triamcinolone acetonide, which is an injectable corticosteroid.

The recommended dosing schedule may vary, but a typical injection schedule involves three to four injections every 3 to 4 weeks. Some people may require more than four injections. Researchers have demonstrated that between 50% and 100% of people responded to the treatment.

Some doctors will administer triamcinolone acetonide injections along with cryotherapy to improve a scar’s thickness and decrease itchiness.

Botulinum toxin A

Some doctors have been injecting botulinum toxin A to prevent and treat scars for several years, but researchers have found inconsistent evidence for its effectiveness in scar management.

Cryotherapy

Cryotherapy involves using liquid nitrogen to cool body tissue to below zero temperatures. This seems to have an effect on scar management. This treatment may have a benefit in improving the appearance of scars by affecting the underlying scar tissue.

Some studies have reported a reduction of 51% of the volume of a scar following one treatment, but some experts think cryotherapy is more effective when used in combination with other treatments, such as injectable corticosteroids.

Radiotherapy

Doctors may use radiotherapy along with other scar treatments. Typically, people will receive radiotherapy after having a keloid removed to reduce the formation of another keloid.

Radiation can help to reduce cell growth and prevent collagen from depositing in the injured tissue.

Doctors caution the use of radiotherapy on scars located on the neck or chest because there is an increased risk that a person may develop thyroid or breast cancer as a result of the radiation.

Laser therapy

There are two types of laser therapies for treating scar tissue: ablative and nonablative. A doctor will use ablative laser therapy to flatten scar tissue. Nonablative laser therapy can disrupt the blood supply in the scar tissue, which will eventually kill off the abnormal tissue.

Overall, researchers have shown that laser therapy demonstrates good results for surgical scars, hypertrophic scars, and keloids.

When a doctor chooses the appropriate type of laser therapy, people may notice improvements in the thickness of the scar, redness, itchiness, and texture.

Silicone treatments

Doctors sometimes recommend silicone treatments for scar management. After using silicon-based treatments, people may notice an improvement in the volume, elasticity, color, and firmness of hypertrophic scars and keloids.

Different silicone treatments are available, such as silicon gel sheet and creams that people can apply to the scar for 12 hours a day. People may need to use the treatments for 12 to 24 weeks before seeing any results.

Pressure therapy

People can apply dressings onto the scar tissue that apply pressure. Mechanical pressure can also reduce blood supply to the scar tissue, which will help to flatten the scar.

These dressings are uncomfortable, and people need to wear them for at least 23 hours a day for 6 months.

Unfortunately, researchers have shown that pressure therapy may offer only slight improvements in scar height.

Adhesive microporous hypoallergenic paper tape

Researchers have noticed that people have a higher incidence of developing a hypertrophic scar on an area of the body that is under increased skin tension. Another method to reduce the formation of scar tissue is a nonstretch adhesive microporous hypoallergenic tape.

This tape can help reduce tension across a wound and may prevent scar tissue formation.

Surgical Scar Tissue: a Less Talked-about Side Effect

When the short-term effects of surgery – such as oozing wounds and incision pain – have long faded, an unseen complication, surgical scar tissue, may be lurking beneath the skin.

Excess scar tissue, layers deep, can significantly reduce function and movement months after surgery. And on the skin’s surface, visible, lingering scars might be noticeable enough to really bother patients. Before you undergo surgery, here’s what to know about reducing scarring as you heal.

The job of a scar is to close the wound in your skin as quickly as possible, even if the wound is from a planned surgery. When experiencing a surgical wound, the body will quickly form scar tissue. Scar tissue is not made from the same great material you were born with. Scar tissue is contracting and tightening for 6 months to a year and can be dry and irritated. Learning how to care for scar tissue can improve your surgical outcome.

LAYERS OF SCARRING

Bend and straighten your elbow. The folds that form in your skin, known as Langer’s lines, represent the direction and orientation of the collagen fibers, similar to the grain of wood, says Dr. Robert Klapper, director of the Joint Replacement Program in Orthopaedic Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. During surgery, it’s not always possible for surgeons to cut parallel to the grain with their scalpels.

If you are not able, because of heart surgery for example, to get down to the sternum, we as surgeons have to violate the Langer’s line,” Klapper says. “This can often lead to keloids and bumps and poor healing, and extra scar tissue can take place.

Performing joint surgery, Klapper says, involves cutting into multiple layers of anatomy: the epidermis or skin surface; subcutaneous fat; fascia or connective tissue; muscles, tendons and ligaments; and the lining around the bone called the ostium. “It’s kind of like a seven-layer cake, if you will,” he says. “As a surgeon, you must respect in your repair of the surgery all layers of the seven-layer cake. All should get closed properly.”

The initial length of an incision after surgery could be deceptive. “You can’t tell a book by its cover – you can’t tell a surgeon by the skin incision,” Klapper says. “Oftentimes, if the surgeon can extend the length of the incision a little bit more, then your retractors are traumatizing the tissues less and you may end up with more of a disappearing scar than someone with a tiny incision. ”

While surgery of the knees, wrists or ankles is meant to improve movement and function, excessive scar tissue around the joints can do just the opposite. Frozen shoulder, which sometimes follows surgery, involves a buildup of scar tissue around the shoulder joint, caused by irritation and inflammation. The result is pain and reduced range of motion. For unknown reasons, Klapper says, people with diabetes are much more prone to postoperative frozen shoulder.

Surgery anywhere in the body can lead to scarring. If your appendix is removed, for example, the small surgical scar on your belly is usually no big deal. But if you develop adhesions during abdominal surgery, that’s different. Adhesions are bands of tissue that form between organs and abdominal tissues, sometimes making them stick together. That can lead to bowel obstruction or chronic pain in the abdomen.

Pelvic adhesions that form after gynecological surgery lead to pain and infertility in some women. Surgical techniques, including using certain types of suture or creating adhesion barriers, can reduce pelvic adhesions. It’s worthwhile to ask surgeons how they plan to minimize adhesion risk.

SCARRING SOLUTIONS

Surgery is a form of trauma. “Any type of trauma ends up causing inflammation – swelling – of the tissues,” says Dr. Janet Yueh, who specializes in hand surgery with Cohen/Winters Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgeons, based in Maywood, New Jersey. “Over time, that inflammation ends up being converted into scar. That scar can demonstrate itself in many different ways.” Healthy young people tend to form more surgical scar tissue than older patients, she says, because they have a bigger scar response to surgery.

At the skin level, a thickened, whitened, elevated scar, called a hypertrophic scar, can develop. Keloids occur when collagen buildup creates a larger, puffy-looking scar that grows beyond the boundaries of the surgical wound. Gels, silicone scar sheets and related products might be enough to even out skin color and improve the texture of a superficial surgical scar.

Injections, such as steroid compounds, can change the appearance, texture and size of elevated scar tissues. Other injectable treatments fill in caved-in scars. Surface treatments such as dermabrasion, laser or light therapy or chemical peels may also improve the appearance of scars. A dermatologist can guide you through cosmetic scar-revision choices.

With deeper scar tissue, Yueh says, patients complain about a sense of tightness rather than sharp pain. “That tightness can translate to soreness, to pain and to difficulty making a tight fist,” she says. If there’s no improvement after several months, surgical removal might be the next step. Although that comes with a risk of more scar tissue, it’s relatively small.

“I always counsel patients that with revision surgery, in the majority of cases it gets better,” Yueh says. “The numbers I usually quote are 70 percent that get better, 20 percent stay the same and about 10 percent get worse. It really depends on the surgeon and what the issue is.”

MOVING BEATS SCARRING

Before surgery, ask your doctor about how much scarring to expect and what preventive treatment you’ll receive. Also, ask whether minimally invasive surgery is an option. According to Cleveland Clinic’s Health Essentials webpage, minimally invasive surgery is the No. 1 method for reducing the risk of abdominal adhesions. And whether it’s knee surgery or cataract removal, Klapper says, the concept of minimally invasive surgery is so successful because it minimizes the scar.

Moving your joints the right way after surgery not only improves function, it helps prevent excess scar tissue from forming. “The earlier you get the patient moving – and I don’t care what the surgery is – the better the outcome,” Klapper says.

After surgery, Yueh recommends that her patients work with hand therapists – occupational or physical therapists with specialized training in conditions occurring anywhere from the shoulder to the fingertips. Targeted exercises and spring-loaded splints help stretch the skin and guide joints back into proper position. Massage and ultrasound therapy help soften scars. “With the combination of different therapies, over time the scar will soften and the patient is able regain motion of their fingers,” she says.

Contact BoulderCentre (303) 449-2730 for your hand therapy appointment with one of our specialists Sally Brown, Bridget Myers or Charla Stilling.

See all of BoulderCentre’s Physical Therapists.

At home, dedication to treatment plays a big role. By sticking with therapy and doing prescribed exercises at home, patients can do a lot to manage and minimize scarring.

The main thing is working with a doctor who can diagnose why they’re having the scarring and at what levels they’re having the scarring to figure out a good plan for them afterwards,” Yueh says. “Because often what’s going on underneath is much more than they see on the skin.”

BoulderCentre for Orthopedics & Spine can help. Call us (303) 449-2730 and ask to see one of our surgical specialists.

Article courtesy of U.S New Word Report.

90,000 Scar – Reading Together Magazine. Navigator in the world of books “

Another novel about the world of Bass Lag, partly related to Mieville’s magnificent debut, Station of Lost Dreams. The more books you read, the more you will see in this one. The number of layers here is innumerable – it seems as if the books of a huge library have disintegrated into words and phrases, and then, whirling around, combined into a bizarre mosaic. Actually, there is no other way to describe the phantasmagoric world of Bas-Lag – the once unprecedented catastrophe shook it, splitting and mixing layers of reality, at the same time creating an unprecedented number of possibilities.So is the novel, whimsically winding between colonial prose, adventure novels of our childhood (yes, Belyaev’s “Island of the Lost Ships” and “Amphibian Man” immediately come to mind – only now they are strangely connected with Borges’s “Babylonian Library”), a legend about King Arthur, Lovecraft’s dark fantasies and Melville’s parables, revealing allusions and parallels the most unexpected, when suddenly Joyce’s and Eliot’s lines are intertwined with the motives of Alexander Green, about which the ordinary English-speaking reader has no idea at all. But such is Mieville, perhaps the most paradoxical science fiction of our time. And this is only a purely linguistic, literary layer. There is also social, political, philosophical and even cosmological.

Philosophical dialogues for several pages, a frighteningly realistic description of the battle of the times of coal and steam (the British, I must say, masters of sea battle studies), the battle with rebellious vampires, almost lyrical pictures of a bizarre port city, the terrible island of Anopheles, inhabited by human comrades, where males indulge in subtle philosophical thoughts and publish articles in scientific journals, and brainless females in a matter of minutes drink blood from any living creature … And also – the classic detective and spy intrigue, with frames, deception, double and even triple play … But love, of course, because it moves – and literally – the whole plot is inconceivable, almost inhuman love.For the most powerful power in a harsh pirate power is possessed by a strange couple, which they call that – the Lovers. As a sign of love, they inflict wounds on each other – and “these wounds suddenly became a symbol of purity.”

Another layer of the book is political. Mieville, one of the most politically engaged science fiction writers (yes, he is a real young leftist, a member of the British International Labor Party, honoring the behests of comrades Lenin and Trotsky), is true to himself here. The Pirate Armada is the undoubted analogue of America.And all the heroes have scars, even the zoologist Johannes Tiarfly – he got it while trying to catch a dangerous animal. The metaphor of a scar, a healed wound, permeates the entire novel, which tells how the philologist Bellis Khladovin, among the passengers of the ship captured by pirates, was drawn into the search for the great world Scar left in the world of Bas-Lag by some kind of universal catastrophe.

The convict Florin Sak, freed by pirates, “converted” in a penitentiary factory (there are such sinister institutions in this fantastic world where criminals are made into terrible chimeras), finds happiness in free soaring in the waters, and the homegrown surgeon who converted him into an amphibian says: “Some of the cuts and holes may harden as they heal. They can turn into scars. In this case, I ask you not to be upset or disappointed. Scars are not wounds, Florin Sack. A scar is a healed place. Once injured, the scar rebuilds your body. ” Scabbers inflict wounds on themselves to become invulnerable. She gets her very real scars and Bellis is flogged.

Yet the main idea of ​​the book is the mortal danger of baseless fantasies. All the main and most attractive characters in the book betray themselves, because they allow their imaginations to be carried away with fantasies.The lovers are eager to catch the avank – the otherworldly Leviathan lurking in the abyss, so that he carries the Armada to the Scar – a gap in reality in which countless possibilities are simultaneously realized. (Avank, by the way, is a water monster from Celtic mythology, according to some legends, he was killed by King Arthur himself or one of the Knights of the Round Table, Peredur; as in the legend, in the novel, Avank is chained). But their efforts turn into a failure into the abyss. “Seeing Scar is like seeing God,” says Hedrigall, who has returned from another world and sincerely believes everyone to be dead.

And of course, this is a book about how big fish devour small ones – literally and figuratively. The book by Johannes Taarfly, which Bellis reads to figure out what is going on, is called Predation in the Coastal Waters of the Iron Gulf. But the pirates of the Armada also act as predators in relation to the ship that carries Bellis and the unfortunate convicts to the colony. The same predator is the vampire, the enlightened ruler of the quarter in which the pirate library is located, in which Bellis had to work.

Mieville, unlike most science fiction writers, is concerned not so much with the bizarre world he created as with human nature. In the strange world of Bas-Laga, human appearance means much less than essence; you can be completely inhuman, but more human than anyone. To paraphrase a well-known saying – if you feel like people – then you are people.

90,000 Tariffs for stevedore access to USPA berths will enter into force on January 1, 2016

The Cabinet of Ministers has agreed on tariffs for services to ensure access of the port operator to the berth, which is under the economic jurisdiction of the Administration of the Seaports of Ukraine (USPA), except for the berth, which is used by the port operator on the basis of a lease, concession, joint activity concluded in accordance with the law.This is enshrined in government decree No. 1331-r of December 14. The document comes into force on January 1, 2016, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

Earlier it was reported that the proposal by the Ministry of Infrastructure to introduce such tariffs, calculated in US dollars, caused a mixed reaction among stevedores.

Thus, the TIS group of companies considered the idea of ​​systematizing relations between USPA and stevedores without their own berths to be correct. “Sometimes USPA berths are required by other stevedores to perform one-time cargo operations, and it is not advisable for them to conclude a long-term lease agreement.Such stevedores each time have to agree with the USPA the price of access to one or another berth on a one-time “contractual” basis, – noted in TIS.

General Director of PORTINVEST Holding Alexander Smirnov, commenting to the DHS portal, noted that the methodology and formulas for calculating the amount of payment for the use of berths (nor, moreover, the amount of this payment) were not published and were not discussed with stevedoring companies. According to Smirnov, the payment for the use of berths should be unified in all ports for situations when several operators work at one berth.

Read more Berth Access Fee: Compromise Price

Bunge Ukraine Trade Director Vitaliy Shram noted that the company does not support the mentioned draft order. “The components of the tariffs are not clear. How were they determined? It is necessary, at least, to see the methodology by which they were calculated. By what principle are the ports divided into groups? Why are the tariffs determined in dollar terms?”

Nikolai Kapatsyna, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Dnepro-Bugsky Sea Terminal, also criticized the document.”Compared to lease or easement,” access “to the berth will be exactly 10 times more expensive,” he said.

The Ministry of Infrastructure (MIU) said that port operators have a number of facilities located outside the berths, and therefore usually several port operators can use one berth. That is, the berths can be attributed to the objects of public port infrastructure, which, in particular, include objects that ensure the activities of two or more business entities in the seaport.At the same time, the MIU clarified that they do not exclude the use of berths on the terms of lease agreements, concessions, joint activities within the framework of the current legislation.

According to the Ministry, the introduction of tariffs for the access of port stevedores to the berths operated by the USPA will lead to predictability of the costs of using them when transshipment of goods, the ability to plan this component of costs and take them into account without commercial risk when developing tariffs for loading and unloading operations that are free.

Read also Vaskov will join the work on the new collection of port tariffs – Vaskov

90,000 All the worst is left behind, all the best is ahead

Growing a good harvest is our main task.

It has always been like this, but in recent years (and they are also the first years of real success, growth and development of the agro-industrial complex), nuances have emerged.It turns out that growing crops is only part of our main task. It turns out that it takes a lot of effort to get the most grain at the lowest cost. That is, to grow a good harvest with a good (that is, low) cost. It turns out that it is extremely important to dry grain (preferably inexpensively), transport (preferably cheaper) and sell (as expensive as possible), and all these are key points, since without them a good harvest is just a mountain of perishable product.

Agricultural production has become a business, and in business, how to start if you do not know to whom you are selling it.And how much.

The times when salesmen bought grain on the current for cash, for ridiculous money, from loaned peasants, are over. The era of grain traders has begun.

In this regard, I have always been keenly worried about the questions: since there are a dozen grain traders in the world, and in Ukraine there is only one Ukrainian, is the market monopolization taking place? Do not merchants and processors stifle the farmer with extortionate prices? 2012 showed that they did not seem to be strangling, prices were abnormally high. 2013 is the opposite.But in 2013, grain prices dropped sharply on the world market, so grain traders seem to have nothing to do with it.

In general, wandering in paradoxes and market fluctuations alone is a useless task, and the Zerno magazine asked to talk about everything frankly to one of the most authoritative experts and market participants – Vitaly Shram, Trade Director of Suntrade. For the uninitiated, this is the structure of one of the world’s most famous grain traders Bunge, a 100% American company.However, Suntrade, Bunge in Ukraine, does more than just trade. Powerful logistics, efficient production – this is also Bunge.

Area of ​​responsibility

– In our company I am responsible for trade, for logistics, for the elevator business in the company, for practically everything, except for the sale of bottled oil … – Vitaly, frowning, went over his areas of responsibility in his memory. Outwardly, it seems to correspond to the scale of Bunge, where everything is big and serious. The Ukrainian division of the company employs almost 1,200 people.

– Does this mean, excluding the sale of sunflower oil for the retail market?

– Exactly. The Bunge company in Ukraine owns the Dnepropetrovsk oil extraction plant, where sunflower oil is produced under various trade marks (the flagship is Oleina), five linear elevators (two in the Odessa region, one each in Kirovograd, Vinnytsia, and Dnepropetrovsk). Bunge is one of the five largest Ukrainian exporters. Last year, we handled 2 million 292 thousand tons through our terminals.tons of grain, and our market share was 23% of soybean exports, 12% of corn exports. I love these two cultures, I consider them the most promising for production in Ukraine and the most effective for making money. As for bottled sunflower oil, we have the oldest and most recognizable brand: Oleina has been produced in Ukraine since 1998 and is the first bottled refined sunflower oil produced in Ukraine. Now a new team has come and we are expanding the range of brands. For example, unrefined oil “Oleina” Dukhmyana the First Vidzhimu “appeared.This product requires a seed of a special quality, we call such seeds “golden” not only for their highest quality, but also because there are not so many raw materials in Ukraine that meet our stringent requirements.

– What were the criteria for the selection?

– The company controls not only the conditions in which sunflower is grown, but also how it is transported and stored. Seeds for “Oleynya” Duhmyanoy First Vidzhimu “are transported in special vehicles and stored in a separate elevator.In addition, if it is not possible to select seeds that do not require drying, then modern gas technology is used, and not diesel, traditional for Ukraine, which is one of the main sources of sunflower pollution with such a dangerous carcinogen as benzopyrene. A rigorous multi-stage procedure for selection, control and prevention of seed contamination – and all this in order to produce fragrant homemade oil, of high quality and absolutely safe.

Where can a farmer get money for sowing

– If you are not indifferent to how sunflower is grown for you, are you also interested in agricultural technologies?

– Of course, we are interested.Since 2006, the company has been successfully implementing the program of pre-financing (forward purchases of crops) for farmers working on areas from 50 to 20 thousand hectares. At the moment, the amount of purchases under the program amounted to $ 64 million, and a number of its participants have grown from small farms to fairly large agricultural enterprises, many of them have increased their land holdings 2-3 times.

– But you put forward any requirements for technology compliance?

– This is the second stage.We formed a team three years ago; we employ 10 agronomists, technologists, and they began to give farmers not just money, but seeds and plant protection products. As an American company, we only work with first-class companies, Syngenta, Monsanto and others. The volume of this business is small, today it is $ 30 million. My plans and the plans of the company are to increase financing for farmers up to $ 100 million, because this is the future. In the future, farmers will receive technologies with agronomic support.We still have little experience – we placed an order in one seed farm, provided the seed of Canadian production there, where we grew soybeans on 96 hectares. The grown seeds were sent to the farmers. Why do we think we can triple in this business? Because no one deals with it, this is a niche. There are companies that simply give money for the harvest; there are companies that sell seeds, plant protection products, but no one is selling technologies professionally yet. There is a desire, a good team and a base for the formation of consignments – our elevators in key agricultural regions of Ukraine.In addition, the company intends to expand its fleet of high-tech elevators in Ukraine to twelve, this plan has been approved. This means that the program of cooperation with agricultural producers will also expand.

Terminal

is growing

“Everything will depend on the situation in the country,” Vitaly came close to introducing a large project. – In the next three years, after the completion of a fairly large project that we are currently implementing, the development of local trading networks will be required – they will fill the created capacities.Our complex should process and transship 4 million tons of products in two years. In 2010, we began to build and in 2011 launched a grain terminal with a capacity of 120,000 tons of simultaneous storage in the Nikolaev MTP and are successfully operating it. The efficiency of this direction led to the fact that the parent company allocated funds to us for the second and third stages of the terminal. In October-November, we plan to launch the second stage, which will include meal and oil terminals.We have already received funds for the third stage, we will build a large oil extraction plant that will process 2,400 tons of sunflower or 1,700 tons of soybeans per day. The total volume of these investments is almost $ 300 million. Here I am in charge of this whole household. There is something to do.

– It’s curious … Indeed, in recent years, investment programs in many companies were suspended, businesses were taken away from people, the rules of the game were not clear …

– In 2010 we did not stop our programs, we invested in the first place.It was quite difficult for us to carry out the construction, there was a difficult format of communication with the authorities, but we survived all this and continue construction. The second stage of the terminal will include a specialized warehouse for all the products of the plant – meal, husk, no one has such a warehouse in Ukraine yet. Then the oil terminal will be commissioned, and the third stage is the plant itself, multicolor, capable of processing both sunflower seeds and soybeans. Here it is necessary to clarify that the professional term – “crash”, comes from the English crush – to crush, crush, and sunflower oil producers actively use it.

The uniqueness of Ukrainian soybeans

– Will you also process soybeans for oil?

– The main product of soybean processing is still meal, soybeans are fundamentally different from other crops, because in sunflower the main product is oil, and meal is secondary. Soybean meal is a protein, and in Ukraine there is already a culture of using this product, which was considered exotic in our country three or four years ago. Soybeans are the most profitable crop for an agricultural producer.According to forecasts of our analysts, soybean production in Ukraine will increase significantly in the next five years. The only limiting factor today is the lack of proper technology. Now everyone wants Ukrainian soybeans, because it is not entirely of high quality in terms of protein content, paradoxically. Soybeans produced in Brazil and Argentina are 35-36% protein-wise, and Ukrainian soybeans – 31-32%.

– Canadian varieties can contain more than 40% protein …

– There are such varieties, but I have statistics – on the ships that I shipped, and on the product that I handled.Ukrainian soybeans, since they are “underprotein”, are cheap, and they are very happy to mix them with high-protein soybeans. When 10 percent of low-protein soybeans are added to 90% of high-protein soybeans, the difference disappears, and the benefit in the final price is significant. And there is no alternative to Ukrainian soy. While Ukrainian soybeans are a small player on the market, there are only 1 million 200 tons – 1 million 300 tons, but when there are three million, it will be more interesting. And I easily believe in the figure of three million, even with an increase in domestic consumption.Soybean areas are growing.

Our expensive logistics

– In your understanding – “everything will be fine” – what does it look like?

– I will not talk about things that are unpleasant to talk about … I think that normal laws will be adopted, unnecessary paper obstacles that hinder business development today will be removed.

– This process has already started on the sly … It is designated at least …

– I also actively participate in this process, communicate with all industry associations, with those who write changes to laws.Today there is a dialogue with legislators, daily work is underway. The second question is the correct use of the infrastructure. If we remove the inappropriate, improper use of rolling stock and use the existing infrastructure efficiently, Ukraine can already export 50 million tons annually. If we eliminate the “direct options” used by some market participants …

– What is behind this term?

– “Direct options” is a situation when a group of people withdraws a thousand cars from our fleet of nine thousand wagons and transfers them not through the terminal, but “using a direct option”.These wagons accumulate at the junction station, where a consignment of goods is being collected, and during this period of time the wagons do not move, they stand. The “direct option” was relevant when the country did not have a sufficient number of port facilities. Today the ports can handle much more, there is enough capacity. The “direct option” today, apart from product damage and inefficient use of wagons, does nothing. But the main message is the ability to export 50 million tons annually. Therefore, the infrastructure will develop, it has not yet been filled.Logistics in Ukraine is still expensive, but with the filling of the infrastructure, the cost of these services will decrease. More money will remain for producers, more money will be invested in agriculture, and there will be more harvest.

– It seems that last year the railway took 70 dollars for the transportation of a ton of grain …

– Probably, if you transport from Western Ukraine to Lugansk, such a figure could be, but on average, transportation to the port ranged from 35-40 dollars.

– It’s still expensive.

– Expensive, but today we have a monopolist – Ukrzaliznytsya …

– But today we have the opportunity to correct something, you yourself said, there is a dialogue with the authorities.

– Can be corrected if the market corrects it. If you fix something artificially, nothing good will come of it. We have an alternative to the railway, this is motor transport. If the railway does not change its pricing policy, commodity flows will switch there.

– But after all, last year, they wrote in the media, the terminal services were very expensive, $ 22. And in Russia, figures were given, terminal services – $ 7 per ton.

– This data is invalid. Russia today sets unjustified, the highest transshipment prices. So, in Novorossiysk, transshipment costs today $ 30-32 per ton. Here, in an American company that pays all the necessary fees and taxes, the transshipment rate today is about $ 18 per ton.And we predict a rate cut as the infrastructure develops and as competition grows. We are a public terminal – any person who wants to receive a service from us can come and receive it. We consider the terminal business to be a separate business. We do not subsidize trade in terminal business and vice versa. Russia does not have enough transshipment capacities, so there is also a transshipment of $ 30. There, all the port facilities fell into the same hands … If the market is civilized, it regulates correctly. There are examples in the post-Soviet republics, Liepaja, Ventspils, where transshipment costs 5-6 euros.And in Rouen it also costs 6 euros.

– So it is better to carry grain to the Baltic States, we have the same railway track with them.

– Our track is the same, but this is a completely different market. There you find yourself in the northern seas, from where you can only take to Norway and Finland. And our main markets are the part of Europe where grain crops do not grow, this is Spain, this is Egypt. In addition, Belarus lies on the way to the Baltic States, through which it is not cheap to travel, it can cost $ 50 per ton.We calculated this. As Bunge, we are minority shareholders of the Liepaja terminal, we have a share of about 30% there. But, unfortunately, it is quite difficult to direct the flow there from Ukraine in the presence of its own profitable asset and a high railway component.

– I started talking about logistics prices, because these prices hit farmers painfully during the period of low grain prices …

– With low purchase prices, and even after heavy wet harvesting, many agricultural producers were on the brink of profitability.Ukraine is a very significant player in the market, but it does not form grain prices yet. After all, the United States grows today 300-350 million tons of corn, and Ukraine – 20-25. And thank God that 25, because six years ago we had six million. We have practically eliminated quality issues today. If earlier Ukrainian grain was considered problematic in quality and was discounted, today, according to our experience, we have shipped 1.5 million tons of corn, and we have not had a single complaint or a single return. And the bulk of the goods went to Egypt and Europe, where there are very strict quality requirements.

– Did the quality suffer from weeds and bacteriosis?

– Problems with quality were with broken and damaged grain … People did not understand what FAO was before and they harvested corn with a moisture content of 35%, then it was dried, and the quality decreased. If today the technology is better and the culture of agriculture has grown, it is easier to bring grain to export quality.

Today we are interested in the Mediterranean market. There is Egypt, Spain, we are seriously competing with Russia. There is also Saudi Arabia, which consumes large quantities of barley.Fortunately, Ukraine has begun to grow it much less, because it is an unprofitable crop for agricultural producers. The farmers replaced it with corn. Our directions include both Algeria and Jordan, all are present, but the main market for the consumption of our products, corn and soybeans, is exactly that.

Why Bunge in Ukraine never stops development

– Why didn’t you stop investing in 2010 and don’t stop now? In 2010, it was clear that the government came, which would not allow business to develop … Now the situation is tense …

– They did not stop for one simple reason: because they believed that this business is needed here.In addition, we know that there are no easy ways. We always had a mountain of questions, we were not refunded VAT. We have about 560 million hryvnias of non-refundable VAT, but we have never agreed with anyone about anything, about any corrupt options for refund. We continued to invest, build, develop. We got an insane amount of all kinds of cases, but we did not make any deals with the law or conscience.

– What did you do during the period when grain exports were completely closed?

– They waited for us to be given the opportunity to export, handed in documents, went for permits, lost market share …

– You do not give the impression of a person who can argue – “we worked because we believed …” and so on …I have a suspicion that you are based on serious forecasts and serious analytics.

– Our analytics are very simple. Ukraine’s potential has been used by 50% today.

– Maybe even 40%.

– Maybe 40%, I’m ready to give in to you in this discussion. All our analytics and long-term forecasts indicate that our company should be here, should develop, should make real investments in real projects.

For whom the year will be good, for whom it will be difficult

– What are your forecasts for the current marketing year?

– The current year will be difficult for Ukraine in terms of volumes, because the instability of the political situation affected the underfunding of some cycles of agricultural technologies.Ukraine’s exports today consist of two main crops – corn and wheat. If in this marketing year until July the export of corn will be 19-19.5 million tons, then, according to analysts, we expect a decrease in exports to 15-16 million tons, due to a decrease in areas and a decrease in the profitability of agricultural producers. If this year Ukraine exports only up to 34 million tons of grain, then next year – about 30 million tons. Forecasting a decrease in exports by 4 million tons, we assume less loading of elevators and terminals, less transshipment, less budget revenues.We see a price forecast for the future. Based on these data, agricultural producers who have reduced the area under corn and increased it under soybeans will earn more. Whoever replaced the crops of barley with sunflower and soybeans will also earn more. For agricultural producers as a whole, the year will be good, but the logistics sectors and terminals will be more competitive. And if there is competition for the volumes that need to be handled, this automatically reduces the transshipment rate.

Processors do not set prices, they compete with prices for raw materials

I decided to clarify in a conversation with the director of the Suntrade subsidiary one acute topic that arose last summer at the seminar of Maisadur seed growers – then the representative of Bunge was literally pecked at by the farmers why the price on a seed so fell, they say, the processors pinch the manufacturer … Was it so?

– Tell me, are you aware that in many regions last year they harvested 40-50 centners of sunflower per hectare? There was a chain of unique yield achievements.

– I am aware of yields, but I have no data on an exceptional increase in yields. Although the year was fruitful, about 10.8-10.9 million tons were harvested. Officially, processing enterprises are designed for 11 million tons, excluding the factories that will be launched this year. The volume of processing in our country exceeds the volume of the harvest, and even if the gross yield grows, processing will still outstrip.

– A prohibitive duty of 17% was introduced on the export of sunflower …

– It is no longer 17%, but 12% after Ukraine’s accession to the WTO and government decrees.I think it should stop at 11 percent. But harvesting oil is still more profitable today than selling raw materials. If we look at the volume of exported sunflower seeds, we will see extremely small batches that do not have any impact on the market.

– But what happens? The market is monopolized by crushers, you can sell only to them, since there is an export duty, they also dictate prices …

– Now the duty is not 23%, which was before, and it was introduced very wisely.Its introduction made it possible to preserve the Ukrainian processing industry and gave it an opportunity to develop. When we process raw materials in Ukraine, we sell finished products with added value and save jobs. Today every second bottle of sunflower oil sold in the world is of Ukrainian origin. We fully cover our needs, this is our national product. And we export not only crude oil. Only our company sells refined oil to dozens of countries, including European ones.

– But after the harvest, the price of a seed was half the price it was last year.

– It was not twice as low, although it decreased significantly. This is solely the influence of market factors. If we look at the level of margins received by paint companies, we will see that they are indeed higher in September-November than in January. This is what the market dictates.

– We have more processing than production. And it so happened that processing is in the hands of several entities …

– We have only 5% of the processing market, we are not big players, but there is serious competition today: there is Kernell, there is Cargill, which has two production facilities, there is There is Creative, there is Glencore, there is ViOil, there is Mayola, there is MHP, which is launching the second plant, and there is no monopoly.The price of oil fluctuates, and the purchase price of a seed remains quite high, because someone always needs raw materials. In the meantime, the volume of production will lag behind the volume of processing, the price will remain at the market price.

– Are you saying that oil producers do not dictate prices to seed producers?

– I want to say that oil producers today are competing with each other for sunflower seeds. And I do not believe that these people will ever come to an agreement and agree to a cartel agreement, as happens between supermarket owners … I have been in this market for 10 years, and in terms of purchasing sunflower seeds, I consider it impossible.If Ukrainian companies can still come to an agreement, then Western companies will definitely not join them. We will never participate in such a conspiracy.

Global Warming – Will It Affect the Business Climate?

– Are you forecasting an improvement in the business climate?

– We really hope so, we predict it. Indeed, in addition to the ongoing project, we also have ambitious projects. An improvement in the business climate is inevitable, because we believe that all the bad is left behind, all the best is ahead.The first steps have been taken, there are first laws aimed at improving the business climate.

– But these first laws and regulations are outline. But what kind of things do you see as basic?

– Basic things are the elimination of an excessive number of inspection bodies, inspections, commissions. We have prepared analytics on grain inspections and certificates for all market participants. Neither in the EU countries, nor in America, nor in Australia, in the countries – the main market participants, there are so many absolutely unnecessary documents.The second is the protection of property, transparent tax legislation and the establishment of the rules of the game for a normal period of time. The rules should not change today and come into effect tomorrow.

Business should be beautiful

– Where do you study, where do you improve your professional level? Are you in America, at other Bunge factories, communicating with agricultural producers?

– I communicate a lot with my colleagues, I have been to America, I visited our terminal in New Orleans (USA), which, with a storage capacity of 100,000 tons, handles five million tons of corn and another three million tons of crash per year.There is an oil extraction plant nearby.

– How do they do it?

– This is how they work. Well-established technology. The terminal is located in Mississippi, in the Corn Belt, where all the corn elevators are located. We have good contact with our European enterprises, we exchange experience, participate in meetings and trainings.

– Do you export the profit?

– Today we earn less than we receive from the parent company in the form of investments for new projects.Our factories are budget-filling enterprises. We pay all Ukrainian taxes.

– But the parent company has a vision of the payback period of the investment.

– We have a business plan and we are guided by it. When we complete the business plan and show the target rate of return, they talk to us about the next projects and investments in development.

– You are still an infrastructure enterprise … Do you communicate directly with agricultural producers, do you know their problems, hopes, needs?

– We constantly communicate directly with agricultural producers – from small farmers to large holdings, build long-term mutually beneficial relationships with them, and they see us as a reliable partner capable of giving a good competitive price, a good range of services for transshipment of grain for export, for services storage of grain in our elevators.

– What is your opinion about Ukrainian agrarians?

– The Ukrainian agrarian has changed a lot lately. People began to value their reputation, their name, their history of relationships with companies. They get the same response from us. I really like the changes that are taking place with Ukrainian producers, especially those who do not strive to mindlessly increase their land bank, but who are fighting for the growth of production culture, the level of technology, for the beauty of the business they run.Maybe it sounds pretentious …

– No, not pretentious. This is just a subtle observation: Ukrainian agrarians strive to make their business look aesthetically pleasing in the broadest sense of the word, so that it is beautiful, modern, neat, so that, doing it, you can get real pleasure.

Text – Yuri Goncharenko

Publications in the media

back to the list of publications

“East Coast” No. 24 (1310) June 19-25, 2019
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LizYT5Np_UEehLI9M6Lc5EV2SuoQXgmE/view

Each of us had and still have parents, grandparents who saw the war, felt it, felt it. They lived through the longest days and months of their lives, which took shape in four terrible years. They did not reckon with the harsh conditions of rebuilding the country after the occupational devastation. Some of them were not even a year old when the war began, someone, already at a conscious age, peered with inner concern at the frightened faces of their parents, when Levitan announced to the entire Soviet Union that the Great Patriotic War had begun.

Different fates awaited our mothers and fathers, grandparents, but each of them could tell a lot about those days and those trials that left an unhealed scar in the soul with short words – “If only there was no war.”

Why this project is especially important today, says Vladimir Lagunovsky, Chairman of the Board of the Family Information Center, head of the Children of War project:

“Preserving the memory of eyewitnesses of the Great Patriotic War is one of our main tasks today, if we are talking about patriotic education.Today, every grain of memories of people who lived in the terrible war years becomes especially valuable. Childhood experiences carried through the years allow us, regardless of age, to face war without politics and statistics. We can feel her unprotected and sensitive childish consciousness. Each story is unique. In each, the heroes share their deep suffering, in some, mixed with joy, because even a military childhood remains childhood. And for us, the creators of the book and future readers, it is incredibly valuable to touch them with our hearts.It happens that life seems to be very difficult, and your hands give up under the weight of problems. On such days, it is enough to read one or two stories from the book to clearly understand that all our difficulties are not difficulties at all, and we live in a wonderful time with a peaceful sky overhead. ”

The book includes thirty stories of people whose childhood was scorched by the Great Patriotic War. The volume of the book is in a wide range of destinies and territories that the reader can touch. And this is its special value as a teaching material for educational institutions.It is enhanced by a collection of wartime photographs, which is unique for our region.

Elena Susorova, founder of the Family Information Center, tells about how she was going, says: “We collected photographs of our wartime area that open the book for almost six months. It was painstaking and responsible work. In the fall we made a request to the Central State Film Archive -, photo, soundtrack, with which I previously collaborated on other projects.Archive director Oksana Morozan treated our request with great attention, and, like pearls on the ocean floor, together with the archive’s employees, we began to look for pictures. Each photo is worth its weight in gold. I remember the moment when I pulled out from the card index a photo with the shot residents of the village of Yamskovitsy, next to my native Weimarn. My hands trembled, I could not immediately continue to work. At such moments, you realize that the history of the Great Patriotic War is not distant, it is about us, in each of us, like a genome.And it is this feeling that we would like to convey on the pages of the book to the younger generation. ”

A special contribution to the collection of photographs presented in the book was made by the collector Alexander Chikalov. His author’s unique collection of photographs has significantly added to the collection of the archive. Alexander searches for photographs and postcards with our city all over the world, buys out rare frames at auctions, making his huge contribution to preserving the history of the Kingisepp region. Alexander introduced us to Pavel Kornakov, whom we sincerely thank for the photograph placed on the cover of the book.

So, by joint efforts, we managed to collect a selection of photographs, which was printed in a separate block in a book on coated paper in order to maximize the quality of unique frames and give readers an opportunity to peer into the pages of the history of our land.

Young journalists from the Bright Youth TV studio took part in the work on the book. Together with the teacher Vera Fedotova and the compilers of the publication, the guys prepared several interviews for publication.We were very worried and tried to treat each story with reverence.

The book “Children of War” was published on the eve of May 9 this year. The circulation of the book is 1000 copies. The circulation is small, but the team of the Family Information Center has disposed of it so that tens of thousands of residents of our area can read the book. Most of the circulation was donated to schools and libraries of the Kingisepp region. In schools, books will be given out to children per class and used as teaching material.

“A week before going to print, when all the stories were collected, the book was typeset, we were in a desperate situation, because there was no money at all for printing. The undertaken obligations to the heroes of the book did not allow us to postpone its publication. We continued to search for everything. new and new opportunities for financing the project, but for the most part received sympathetic refusals and warm wishes for success in further searches.
The support of the Ust-Luga Oil company came at the very moment when we planned to reduce the circulation to 500 copies and get into new debts.We express our deep gratitude to the General Director of Ust-Luga Oil JSC Konstantin Viktorovich Khamlai for the opportunity to publish the book in the planned volume “- emphasized Natalia Esina, founder of the Family Information Center, compiler of the book Children of War.

We invite everyone to a meeting with the heroes of the book “Children of War” on June 22 at the “Center for Creative Development” at the address: st. Zheleznodorozhnaya, 8. In the program: presentation, meeting with heroes, showing a video about the creation of a book, a concert.

Collection of guests at 12.30. The beginning is at 13.00.

Free admission.

“I personally tied it up and carried it out of the battlefield …”

Ivan Egorovich (Georgievich) Novokhatsky

December 10, 1914 – December 2, 1968

According to the archives of the Volga Region State Historical Archives in the documents of the archival fund of the Holy Trinity Church of the Pokrovskaya Sloboda Sloboda.Pokrovskaya Pokrovskaya volost of the Novouzensky district of the Samara province according to the birth and baptism register for 1914 it appears:

“No. 122. John (in honor of the martyr John, church holiday on November 28) was born on November 27, 1914, baptized on November 30 of the same year. Parents: In the city of Pokrovsk, peasant Georgy Ivanov Novokhatsky and his legal wife Anastasia Nikolaeva, both Orthodox. ”.

According to the new style, the birthday was celebrated on December 10th.

Ivan finished 7 classes, went to work at the age of 15 as an auxiliary worker. He mainly worked in temporary jobs, after which he was fired.

In October 1940, Ivan was hired for permanent work at the plant No. 250 in the city of Saratov as a turner, where he worked before the war. At the same time, he, apparently, graduated from the courses of medical workers, because he came to the front with the rank of foreman of the medical service in the position of a medical instructor. And just like that, the title and position were not given.

The Saratov regional military registration and enlistment office provided a journal of conscription for military service in 1941, which indicates that Ivan Novokhatsky was called up on June 25, on the 3rd day of the war.He was 27 years old. He is 124th on the list, his brother Pavel is 112th.

First, he got into the 57th reserve regiment, then into the 82 separate horse-drawn transport company, where he served for 10 months as a medical instructor.

In April 1942, Ivan was assigned to the 341st penal company as a medical officer, where he served until February 1943.

Who served

There was a constant and variable composition in the penal units. Permanent staff – commanders, political workers, company foremen, medical instructors, etc.d.

PENALTY units – battalions and companies – appeared in the Red Army only in July 1942 after the order of the USSR People’s Commissar for Defense N227 “Not a step back!”

For middle and senior command and political personnel guilty of violating discipline due to cowardice or instability, from 1 to 3 penalty battalions (800 people) were created within the front. For ordinary soldiers and junior commanders guilty of similar violations, from 5 to 10 penal companies were created within the army (from 150 to 200 people in each).Penalty units were supposed to be sent to the most difficult sectors of the front in order to give them the opportunity to atone for crimes against the Motherland with blood.

The official date of creation of penal units (July 1942) and the date of transfer of Ivan Novokhatsky (April 1942) are somewhat different. Apparently, they were created earlier, and the official date is the appearance of the famous order “227”.

According to the award lists, Novokhatsky fought in 341 penal company until August 5, 1944, then was transferred to the 366 penal company as a sanitary instructor.

Data from award documents and combat characteristics:

In August 1944 Novokhatsky Ivan Yegorovich joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The recommendation to the party has been preserved:

RECOMMENDATION

I, Polevoy Alexander Petrovich, a member of the party since 1939, party ticket No. 2589247, I know comrade.Novokhatsky Ivan Yegorovich joint work since April 1944. Comrade Novokhatsky I.E. as the foreman of the medical service of the 341st separate army penal company, he coped with his work and carried out all orders of higher commanders with excellent marks.

Especially comrade. Novokhatsky distinguished himself in the battles for the village of Komarovka and other settlements, for which the command was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

Recommend Comrade. Novokhatskiy I.E. to the candidates of the CPSU (b).

08/05/1944

Guard Lieutenant A. Polevoy.

And in November 1944, Ivan Yegorovich was wounded in the lower part of the palm of his left hand. Until the end of his life, he bore this mark of war – a scar drawn into his hand, oblong, the phalanx of the little finger was still missing.

After the hospital, Ivan Yegorovich was sent to the 210 reserve regiment, where he stayed from December 1944 to February 1945.

He was demobilized in October 1945 on the basis of the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 25.09.1945

Archival information

We inform you that Sergeant Major Ivan Egorovich Novokhatsky, born in 1914, native of the Saratov region, the city of Engels, sanitary instructor of the 366 penal company of the 4th Guards Army, awarded:

— Order of the Red Star Order No. 44611 Guards Army No. 020 / n dated 02.23.1944;

– Medal “For Military Merit” No. 919433 by order of units of the 5th Guards Airborne Division No. 011 / n of 03/01/1944;

– Medal “For Courage” No. 1980794 by order to the troops of the 4th Guards Army No. 0182 / n of 12.10.1944 of the year;

– a medal “For the Defense of Stalingrad” without a number by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 12/22/1942.

Awards presented, order book № 741408.

Foundation of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, a card index of the awardees.

Head of archive T. Kiseleva. Isp. S.A. Veshkina, Registration number 389827

Participant in the battles at Stalingrad, participated in the liberation of Budapest, Vienna.

During the period of battles from December 1943 to July 1944, he removed from the battlefield more than 200 wounded soldiers and commanders with their weapons.

Awarded Order of the Red Star , medals “For Courage”, “For Military Merit”, “For the Defense of Stalingrad”, “For the capture of Budapest”, “For the capture of Vienna”, “For the victory over Germany”.

Demobilized in September 1945.

Novokhatskiy Mikhail Ivanovich,

Deputy Director – Chief Geologist

PF Privolzhskgazgeofizika LLC Gazprom Georesurs

“I will bequeath to you in that life to be happy2 Alexandru Dedicated to the Kalyagins

Author: Vera Krivorotova

On May 9, barely light, my grandmother began work: she put dough on pies, put on her best dress, carefully put tools and flower seedlings in a basket.Then we all went together to the cemetery – to the grandfather. Representatives of several generations put things in order, shared news. And they walked aside, and grandmother thoughtfully swept away leaves and reddened spruce needles from the monument for a long time, talking with grandfather about something … By evening, pies, a decanter with homemade liqueur and a simple snack were on the table – there was a moment of silence … What were your grandmother, mother, her brothers and their families thinking at that moment? I, the youngest granddaughter, remember my sensations, waves flooding the child’s soul: involvement in something, undoubtedly, great, joyful and bitter at the same time … The spring breeze flirts with the open window, as if looking with curiosity at bowed heads, and the echo of memory from From childhood, the solemn voice of the announcer is heard: “Let’s remember …”

My grandfather, Alexander Andreevich Kalyagin, was born in June 1917 in the Saratov province, in a village with the affectionate name of Sinenkiye.Sasha was the last of eight children, and that was what saved him in the early 1930s, in the years that were hungry for the Volga region. The elder sister Evdokia, feeling sorry for the youngest, was not afraid to take another hungry mouth with her family to Gorky.

Since childhood, Sasha had golden hands, any business in them argued. In the family, the sisters loved the smart boy, but Sasha, not wanting to be, according to the classics, a “medal around his neck”, went to study at the Lyskovo Pedagogical School, which he successfully graduated in 1939.

Service in the Red Army for Alexander Kalyagin began in 1940: from April – a Red Army soldier, then – deputy political commander of a company, from June 1941 – a cadet and listener of the Yaroslavl Infantry School for the command staff.He went to the front in April 1942 as the commander of a rifle platoon. It was not by chance that motorized rifle military formations were called the main striking force of the ground forces. The “Queen of the Fields” infantry, which took the brunt of the blow, saw the mud and pain of the war more than others …

Alexander received his first wound in the battles near Orel, after a couple of months at the front. And in the hot summer of 1942, he was already among those who were given the well-known order “Not a step back!” The company, commanded by the Guard Lieutenant Kalyagin, defended Stalingrad in the most difficult days for him: the Germans were rushing to the city, at any cost trying to capture the “city of Stalin”, the key to the Volga and the oil Caucasus.

I do not know if my grandfather told any of his relatives about what he had to endure there, in the area of ​​Mamayev Kurgan. I think that even remotely we, today, cannot imagine this: the incessant crossfire, under which it was impossible to raise our head from the trench, smoke and soot covering the sky, fierce battles, with the last of our strength and in inhuman tension – for each house, for every meter of Stalingrad land! Our ancestors were in this hell. And they survived!

Grandfather did not wait a bit before the start of the Red Army’s offensive and a turning point in our favor: he was severely wounded in both legs on September 11, 1942.Along the Volga, as once in childhood, he was taken by steamer to the Kazan hospital.

Grandfather came to the Gorky region, to the village of Kamenka to recover from his injury. Here he met a young teacher Tamara Andreeva, evacuated at the beginning of the war from Smolensk and working in the rear. They say about their meeting in the family – “we sang”: Alexander played the balalaika perfectly and took part in amateur performances, Toma sang along with him. This was the beginning of a great mutual feeling – the same one that is for life.

With his 21 mechanized brigade of the 1st Belorussian Front A.A. Kalyagin reached Berlin, participated in the capture of the Reichstag. Our family cherishes his Order of the Red Star, medals “For the victory over Germany” and “For the capture of Berlin.” True, the grandfather again met Victory Day in the hospital: he was wounded a few days before the main date. In the award list his feat is described as follows: “Comrade Kalyagin, commanding a company, showed examples of courage and courage in the fight against the German invaders. April 29, 1945, performing a command assignment, while cleaning the quarter along Berlinstrasse g.Berlin in battle with its company took 327 German soldiers and officers prisoner, destroyed 59 Germans, 6 machine guns. ”

Guard Lieutenant Kalyagin was transferred to the reserve on December 1, 1945. The post-war, difficult, but peaceful, and therefore happy life began: Alexander returned to Kamenka, to his Tamara, who, of course, was waiting for him. They got married, in 1947 the first-born Vladimir was born to the Kalyagins, five years later twins, Valery and Svetlana. In the 1950s, the family moved closer to Gorky: the All-Union Shock Komsomol construction was unfolding 20 kilometers from the regional center.In a place called Kstovo, the largest oil refinery in the European part of the country was being built. Alexander Andreevich Kalyagin was offered the place of director of a school for children of first builders, Tamara Grigorievna also taught literature and primary classes there. No matter how pompous it may sound, they were teachers from God, my grandfather and grandmother. It is no coincidence that their children also chose the pedagogical path for themselves, later became honored educators, doctors of science, outstanding teachers of higher education.But that’s another story …

Everyone who knew grandfather Sasha speaks with one voice about him: he was an extraordinary man. Crystal honest, discreet in assessments and at the same time funny. He did not like to draw, and if he talked about his participation in the war, then without concealment and only on May 9. An exception, perhaps, was made only for beloved grandchildren: once a first-grader Zhenya, leafing through an ABC book, asked to explain what a wound is. My grandfather showed a scar on his leg and told a story about an elderly woman doctor who left him after being wounded in Stalingrad and helped save his legs, despite the terrible prescription: amputation of both limbs.

Granddaughters adored their “walking grandfather” – he devoted every free moment to them. And even at the festive table, Alexander Andreevich’s favorite toast was “To the snub-nosed children.” Numerous friends who came to visit the hospitable house of the Kalyagins were looking forward to when Uncle Sasha took up a balalaika or began to tell stories: he was a man of extremely intelligent and subtle humor, an optimist and a lover of life. Alexander Kalyagin was rich in the inner strength that kept him, the infantry commander, until the last day of the war, and which he generously shared with his loved ones.

… I have never seen my grandfather – he died three months before my birth, on November 10, 1980. On November 10, 2004, my grandmother, Tamara Grigorievna, passed away. So, one day, 24 years apart, the living reminder of the war in my family disappeared. But, wherever I am, on May 9, I will definitely include the Minute of Silence, as I once did in my childhood. And I say to myself: I remember. And I’m proud!