Health & Fitness
Ode to Breast Cancer Survivors: Take Heart!
Letter to survivors of Breast Cancer - Take heart - there is hope for aesthetic beauty!
Dear
Breast Cancer Survivor:
Take Heart
Find out what's happening in White Plainswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
You are alive
Now what?
Find out what's happening in White Plainswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
When you wake up in the morning they’re still gone (or maybe
just one is…)
When you take off your shirt and let it fall to the floor
There is still something missing
Although you say they don’t define you as a female
They do – don’t they?
Maybe not….
you know that if you could have them back though, as they
were, cancer free, you would say yes in a heartbeat
You run your hands over the scars and it doesn’t feel the
same underneath, not like it did before
The purple rage has calmed down and now there are stretched and missing places
Where they used to be
No one asks you; how does it feel now, to be you? How do you feel about yourself as a woman?
You try to imagine your lover being interested in you again,
with your shirt off… bare-chested
and you wince when you think of it – or, maybe not?
Maybe you’re ok with it and lucky to be alive yes, but you
do wonder….
Will someone, anyone desire me again? Will I, consider myself, desirous - again?
Your doctors say that’s as good as its going to get
We’ve cut and pasted, stitched and stretched, drained and
dried and waited then we’ve
Cut again and again and again and you have bled and cried
and spent
energy knowing you made it through,
you’ve done this thing that was so damn difficult
but now what?
Now there is someone
Someone born to implant pigment with a tattoo machine, your
chest
Colorful and shining, brand new, alluring
An illusionist who bestows beauty on both sides;
two fronts - the breasts: you looking out, others looking in…
Areolas big and small, nipples flat, pointed or tall
Breasts - part of a womans anatomy for one reason and one
reason only:
Feed the spawn that you bring into the world, keep them
alive with human milk that is generated, stored and delivered through the
female breast
That’s their physiological purpose
they exist for that function alone
Or do they?
What about the psychological aspects of breasts, the
emotional part when you look in the mirror?
Montgomery glands as part of the breast are a mystery to
most women – why are they there? What
are they in fact?
…pieces of our female bodies, that as women, we don’t even know
the names of
What are Montgomery glands for? Why do I have them? Why don’t I have them?
There is still so much we want to know, need to know, please
tell us – where are the answers;
from whence shall the solutions come?
Did you know in 1998
a federal law was passed (Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act):
“patients whose health plan covers mastectomies are entitled
to insurance coverage for post mastectomy reconstruction including nipple
micropigmentation”
And, you can choose the tattoo artist to do the work it
doesn’t have to be someone chosen for you…
And doctors say that’s all that can be done
Yes of course be glad you’re still alive
Be grateful for what’s left on your chest?
Then those doctors get a glimpse of the Michealangelo of
areolas and nipples, tattooed in living color, right there for everyone to see
And they know there is more that can be done
Micropigmentation is what it’s called
by a highly specialized professional
photo-realism artist right here in Tarrytown, New York
They know to call
Areola Architect
Cathi Locati Co
They know. Or if they
don’t
Now you do
It’s a place to start
To finish
With smiles, happiness and tears of joy for at last…
Take heart! There is hope for permanent, no fade aesthetic restoration
of the highest order
If you know someone personally who is a breast cancer
survivor, please spread the good word!
Take heart oh brave one.