The Art That Made Medicine

 

Tonight I went to an exhibit @cuboulderartmuseum titled “The Art That Made Medicine”, looking at the connections between artistic practice and medical knowledge in anatomical illustration. It was very well done. Of course out of only 30 or so pieces, there was one about breast cancer - this photo of a surgical textbook from 1886. The picture is of a mastectomy. 

From the text: “ Whenever amputation of the breast is performed for malignant tumor, the operation must be radical…No regard whatever should be paid to cosmetic considerations, the object of the measure being the extirpation of a deadly disease…”

Amen to that. 100+ years later, and now we’re ALL about the cosmetic considerations, to the point where some women aren’t even offered the option to just do nothing. 

Mastectomies used to be brutal, extensive procedures with too little regard to functional outcome so I’m glad we’ve made some changes there (I still have pectoral muscles, for example). But I feel like maybe we’ve swung the pendulum a little too far in the “cosmetic considerations” department with the assumption that women need breasts to feel feminine, womanly, or whole. 

There are a lot of things I’m determined not to let breast cancer take away: my life, my joy, my intimacy, my exercise, my hair, my health. It can have my breasts.

#doublemastectomywithoutreconstruction #standtallafc#aestheticflatclosure #lobularbreastcancer#noboobsnoproblem #medicalhistory #cuartmuseum