Breast cancer | ” Hi my friend ! You came back. »

Survivor of breast cancer, surgeon Cathie Guimond has traded the scalpel for the tattoo needle. Co-founder of the Se reconstruire health center in Longueuil, she wants to offer other survivors a way to turn the page.

Valerie Simard
The Press

” Hi my friend ! You came back. “After his passage on the table of the D^D Cathie Guimond a month ago, Liliane Cayer found a part of herself: her nipple which had been removed with her right breast due to cancer.

Visually, the effect is trompe l’oeil, but psychologically, it is very real. The Saint-Constant woman compares to a demolition derby what her body has been through since being diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in 2015 when she was 41. All the interventions she has undergone since are written and dated on carefully folded lined sheets that she carries in her purse: chemotherapy, radical mastectomy of the left breast, radiotherapy, breast reconstruction with her own tissues, infection of the wound.

This nipple and areola tattoo is her way of coming full circle by finding a part of herself she thought she had lost.

This intervention, also called “repairing pigmentation”, is covered by the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec when it is performed by a physician and requested by the attending physician. Tattooing can be done by some plastic surgeons in hospitals as the last step in breast reconstruction. However, the quality of the results varies a lot, notes the D^D Cathy Guimond. “It’s a specialty in itself, notes the one who is trained in dermopigmentation with a 3D effect. They are so good for taking bellies and reshaping breasts, but not necessarily for tattooing. In her practice as a tattoo artist, although still very recent (the center opened last February), she saw black nipples and others that were not in the right place.

What the D offers^D Guimond is a more realistic areola and nipple tattoo, created according to the skin tone of the other breast. She works with a tattoo artist to ensure the quality of the 3D rendering. Even when the nipple has been surgically reconstructed by a plastic surgeon, its volume tends to shrink. The use of 3D pigmentation is then necessary for a realistic effect.

In the province, tattoo artists offer this service, but since it is not, in these circumstances, covered by the RAMQ, you have to pay around $500 per breast. An intervention that will have to be redone in a few years, since the medical pigment used for this type of tattoo tends to fade. For the D^D Guimond, it is inconceivable that women should pay for this care.

“As much as the word ‘cancer’ cuts through both legs, it’s like seeing yourself with a nipple, it’s a door that opens to another chapter of life, she illustrates. That’s rebuilding yourself, rebuilding your femininity, your confidence. Even if we still have the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads. »

“It’s real without being! »

“Afterwards you look at yourself and you say: ‘My God, it’s real without being!’ It gives you confidence,” says Brigitte Deschênes, a woman from Amqui who traveled to Longueuil last July to be tattooed. She had a first cancer in 2015, then a second hit the other breast in 2020. “I had had a tattoo done, but it was not so beautiful. »

Convinced that there is a demand in the Bas-Saint-Laurent for this service — “I already have names! —, M.^me Deschênes is working to organize a visit to the D^D Guimond in the region.

Since the opening of the center last February, the latter has multiplied meetings with doctors to encourage them to recommend their patients to her. During her presentation, the one who, before her illness, operated on women with breast cancer tells the story of a patient she accompanied on her medical journey. “I held her hand when she fell asleep for her surgery. When, when she woke up, she didn’t have good news, I was there. I went to her house. His children, 1 year, 4 years. Her child who was traumatized from seeing the drain. This woman was her.

Due to the sequelae caused by the interventions she underwent, she was unable to return to the operating room. This is why she participated in the creation of this non-profit organization which also supports women in various ways (massage therapy, endermotherapie, sexology, psychological support, breast prostheses, adapted bras). “When a person is diagnosed with cancer, you have to tame the two monsters: fear of the unknown and expectation. »