A Battle Won
My friend’s mom was diagnosed positive for the cancer of breast.I could relate with the trauma the woman must have gone through.The dreaded ‘C’ word-Countless stories about the dread of chemotherapy. Loss of hair, more than that, the loss of a breast .
My friend, a male, was confiding in me about his mother’s condition. Both he & his father were distraught at the thought of the operation, & the subsequent loss of a woman’s prized part of anatomy- her sign of ‘womanliness’- The Breast ‘!!! He wanted to know about the operation- how much damage will it do to her breast, will they carve carefully & remove only the malignant cells or cut it off completely?
Do they have to ??? Isn’t there some way The Breast can be saved?
To me, this was a prime indicator of universal male attachment & preoccupation with The Breast.
I answered patiently, as well as I could. It seemed to me that the fear was more within these two males in the family, the lady was fairly composed. I told him that with the fear of cancer recurring & spreading in future, it’s better to remove the breast completely. According to me, at 60 the woman had outlived the need to have a functional ( ?? ) breast. Her baby was now in mid thirties.
We had gone through a similar scenario in my house just a couple of years earlier. My mom had to go under the knife for the same reason but it was my Dad who told the doctors to remove the breast & further spread of cancer completely. A woman needs such an support from her man .
I felt my friend & his father shouldn’t have agonized over the loss. That must have made her feel even more incomplete and damaged.
Fables & Myths talk about Amazons, the race of warrior women who chose to remove a breast for easier & accurate archery. These one breasted women were a force to reckon with through out the world. I see a newly emerging race of urban Amazons around me, Women who have fought & won Their battles with cancer. Victors -each one of them.
It’s high time men too learnt to salute their courage.
My friend, a male, was confiding in me about his mother’s condition. Both he & his father were distraught at the thought of the operation, & the subsequent loss of a woman’s prized part of anatomy- her sign of ‘womanliness’- The Breast ‘!!! He wanted to know about the operation- how much damage will it do to her breast, will they carve carefully & remove only the malignant cells or cut it off completely?
Do they have to ??? Isn’t there some way The Breast can be saved?
To me, this was a prime indicator of universal male attachment & preoccupation with The Breast.
I answered patiently, as well as I could. It seemed to me that the fear was more within these two males in the family, the lady was fairly composed. I told him that with the fear of cancer recurring & spreading in future, it’s better to remove the breast completely. According to me, at 60 the woman had outlived the need to have a functional ( ?? ) breast. Her baby was now in mid thirties.
We had gone through a similar scenario in my house just a couple of years earlier. My mom had to go under the knife for the same reason but it was my Dad who told the doctors to remove the breast & further spread of cancer completely. A woman needs such an support from her man .
I felt my friend & his father shouldn’t have agonized over the loss. That must have made her feel even more incomplete and damaged.
Fables & Myths talk about Amazons, the race of warrior women who chose to remove a breast for easier & accurate archery. These one breasted women were a force to reckon with through out the world. I see a newly emerging race of urban Amazons around me, Women who have fought & won Their battles with cancer. Victors -each one of them.
It’s high time men too learnt to salute their courage.
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