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Radical Mastectomy & Going Flat | Interview with Alicia Duncan (Part II) by SurvivingBreastCancer.org

Summary: In this episode, the surviving breast cancer team discusses Alicia’s struggle with her stage III breast cancer diagnosis and the loss of her breasts. The team highlights how a fast cancer diagnosis can take a toll on one’s mental health along with the PTSD that may come in the aftermath of being cured of cancer. Lastly, Alicia explains her tattoos and both Alicia and Angela discuss the strength needed to be a caregiver.

Topics:
4:51 Losing your breasts
18:33 Types of mastectomies
22:39 Rapid cancer diagnosis
30:51 Alicia’s tattoo
34:46 Being a caregiver

Resources:
1:30 Patreon https://www.patreon.com/

Quotes: 
9:45 Alicia: “You're a woman trying to date another woman who, they're gonna want you to have breasts. That's part of what makes you a woman. That's one thing anyways, you know, it's a big thing. So when you don't have them, that's a very scary thing. You know? couldn't look at myself in the mirror. How do I expect some random stranger wants to date me to look at me in the mirror? So I had a friend tell me and I will PG this. But she said, if someone doesn't want to date you because you have no breasts because you lost them due to breast cancer then F them. And I said, you know, that is 100% true. And so when I did it, Angela and I talked about it. She said, before she even knew that conversation. You know, she said, I don't care that you don't have breasts, I care that you're here and that's what matters to me. So with breasts or no breasts.” 

14:10 Laura: “Some days I felt really, really empowered, like I'm doing it. And I'm excited, I can't wait. And then there were other days to talking to people of like, well, if I did reconstruction, and they're taking either like deep flap tissue, or taking like the lat muscle from your back to do the reconstruction, I was hearing interesting stories in my research of, yeah, every time I open the spaghetti sauce jar, and use this muscle, and my breast would twitch. Because your muscle from your back is now in your front. or anytime you do weird things like in your car, moving or like, I heard these interesting stories of like the muscle didn't yet pick up on the memory that it got moved. Oh, and it was flexing.. In weird times. And I'm like, interesting. Well, at the time I practiced yoga a lot, it was really important for me to stay fit. Like, what if? What if changing these body parts were no longer natural? And I just had so many questions.”

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