As Pink October comes to an end, this month dedicated to information about breast cancer, France Bleu Touraine is interested in the reconstruction of women who have been affected by this disease. Those who get by often do very different choices after their medical course. Like these two Tours, Karine and Eléonore.
This word, Karine had dreaded it for years. It was finally announced to him five years ago. At the announcement of the disease, it is moreover this word of cancer which immediately shocked him, much more than the idea of the loss of his right breast. “It’s more the fact of having cancer that was a shock. Afterwards, removing the breast…. In fact, I wanted so much to have the cancer removed, that was my priority . I was really scared when they told me I had cancer. So I didn’t think so much at first about the fact that I wouldn’t have that breast anymore. At first.”.
Saying goodbye to my breast helped me move forward – Karine
So as not to have a too difficult awakening, Karine has this gesture, the morning of her operation. “Before leaving for the operation, I said goodbye to my breast. I thanked him for what he had done for me in my life before. From my 47 years of breastfeeding my children, things like that. I thanked him. Then I said now you’re sick, so here we have no choice, it’s like that. So, it helped me to move forward . To say goodbye”.
It touched an organ which, for me, was quite essential in my image – Eléonore
This goodbye was on the other hand impossible to say for Eléonore. And it was a certainty, as soon as she learned of her cancer four years ago. “The question of reconstruction, I think at each appointment with my surgeon, I talked about it. The chest was something important. I had breast cancer, so it affected an organ that , for me, was quite essential in my image”.
Eléonore underwent several operations, before finally having this reconstruction a year ago. A new breast that she celebrated in her own way. “Me, I like lingerie, it’s something I appreciate. And suddenly, my great happiness is to have pretty lingerie again”.
If she didn’t want reconstruction, Karine still wanted to put “beautiful”beauty on this scar several centimeters long. She chooses a tattooa peony surrounded by cherry blossoms. “It’s even too funny because when I had my last check-up with the mammogram and the ultrasound, the doctor told me I can’t see your scar very well, where is it? I said oh yeah, that’s huge, because it really hides it”.
I regain a positive image of myself – Eléonore
Two routes, two different reconstructions. And in the end, the same feeling. “I found myself complete. I did not redo my breast, but I put something in its place. Here, I am complete now” says Karine. “With this I find a positive image of myself” abounds Eléonore. “It’s my story and therefore my story, it continues. The page is turned, but the book continues”.
In France, nearly one in eight women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime.
loading