Many adjectives come to mind when thinking about the physical changes that accompany cancer treatment. While "attractive," "elegant" and "fashionable" are not the first words most people think of, I've had the good fortune to learn from some Healthy Survivors over the years that it is sometimes possible to create "cancer chic."
One Healthy Survivor had lost her eye to cancer when she was a youngster. As a teen, she got frustrated with a series of ill-fitting prosthetic eyes, so she decided to go the route of the good-old eye patch. But not "old-fashioned" eye patch. Oh, no. "No black pirate's patch for me," she told me.
Instead, she bought dresses or shirts that had some extra fabric in the hem, which she then used to sew herself a matching eye patch. If she found a hemless dress or shirt that she just had to have, she bought fabric that blended well. This life-loving woman created looks that were elegant, dressy-casual, funky, you name it. What most people hide or try to deny, she flaunted in fun and fabulous ways.
By the time we met, the technologies used to create lifelike prostheses had improved remarkably. Yet she never considered trying again for a replacement eye. She saw no need: She felt completely whole and beautiful as she was. And she was.
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