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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

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You are alive


Now what?

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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.

 

www.cathilocatico.com       914.659.7777

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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