Gee Mom, where's the scar?

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33675, 26 October 1974, Page 6

Gee Mom, where's the scar?

(This article, submitted by a reader of the "Chicago Daily News" who wishes to remain anonymous, was transmitted through N.Z.P.A.)

Since Mrs Ford and Mrs Rockefeller had mastectomies, many doctors and patients are finally complaining out loud that most women are not psychologically prepared to lose a breast.

In fact, most have only a few hours or days to contemplate the future. And it usually looks pretty bleak.

What one needs is not days or weeks or months, but years. About 20 years. At least that’s how much time I’m taking. Now before you think I’m at the funny farm, let me give you my reasons for getting such an early start. Some of •you may find yourself in a similar situation. TWO CHANCES My grandmother had a radical mastectomy many years ago. Shels 80 years old. My mother, her daughter, had the same operation. She died two years afterwards. She was 50. Since cancer of the breast seenos to run in families, I figure I’ve got two chances to avoid it—slim and none. That’s why I’ve begun my preparations already. I’m 30. The first thing I did was find out why my grandmother survived and my mother died. Apparently, my grandmother’s cancer was slow growing and located away from the lymph system, so the chances of spreading was minimised. On the other hand, my mother’s cancer was fast growing and very close to the lymph nodes, 1 guess she never had a chance. SHOT IN ARM Believe it or not, this grim information made me | feel better at least, I knew i spme cancer wasn’t as bad ■ as others. One is like being ■ shot in the arm. Another | is like being shot in the heart. The next thing I did was my mother’s idea. About a I year after her breast was I removed, my mother I thought I should see what ! her scar looked like. 1 said I no thanks. I’d probably ; pass out or something. But : mothers being what they are, she showed me anyI way. What I was expecting

and what I saw were as different as Woolworths and Dior. Instead of a disfiguring, ugly scar where her breast used to be, there was nothing — only the barest, faintest curved line, extending from a point below her armpit to a point just past her ribs. The area was as smooth as her back. I was surprised, to say the least. "Good heavens, Mom, why does everyone say it’s so ugly afterwards?” She pointed to her head and said: “The ugliness is up here.” Then she added: “It also helps to have a plastic surgeon sew you up.” LEG MAN So now I was prepared for how one looks without a breast. One’s front without a breast looks very much like one’s back without a breast. I was also prepared to have a plastic surgeon standing by just to close me up if I lost one. The next think I did was marry a leg man. Then, when our children arrived, breast-fed them — something my mother and grandmother didn’t do very much or very well. When I was pregnant I had read some statistics about .. lower incidence of breast cancer among women who breast-fed their babies. Of course, some doctors say that just isn’t so, but I figured what the hell. I nursed our first for six months. And our second for ten months. They still think I did it all for them. LONG- WAIT Two things I continue to do now are standard procedure for most women. One was learning to examine myself for lumps. The other was to visit my gynaecologist twice a year. About the only matter I haven’t worked out is which side will get the lump. But, some things you have to leave to others ... In any case, I’m ready to lose a breast. And willing to wait 120 years. Besides with ail this advance preparation, I’ll probably get hit by a car and lose a leg.