Breast Cancer Videos
June 1, 2012 § Leave a comment
Here are all the videos I have made for oncolex.org of diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer, now with English voice overs. Oncolex is a cancer resource for health care professionals made by Oslo University Hospital in collaboration with M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. « Read the rest of this entry »
A Mastectomy in 1855
February 29, 2012 § 1 Comment
Hawaiian missionaries Asa Thurston and Lucy Goodale Thurston. Daguerreotype, ca. 1864. Public domain.
Letters of Note has published a remarkable letter from Hawaiian missionary Lucy Goodale Thurston to her daughter, describing Mrs. Thurston’s mastectomy in 1855. The operation was done without any form of anesthesia. The doctors had advised her to not use chloroform “because of my having had the paralysis” (probably polio).
Dr. Ford looked me full in the face, and with great firmness asked: “Have you made up your mind to have it cut out?” “Yes, sir.” “Are you ready now?” “Yes, sir; but let me know when you begin, that I may be able to bear it. Have you your knife in that hand now?” He opened his hand that I might see it, saying, “I am going to begin now.”
Read the whole account here.
As you can tell from the picture above, the operation was successful and Mr. Thurston lived for another 21 years.
Hat tip to Suture for a Living.
Cancer Vixen online
September 17, 2008 § 1 Comment
I just discovered that “Cancer Vixen”, an autobiographical comic book by Marisa Acocella Marchetto is available in its entirety online. « Read the rest of this entry »
Yo mammae
April 8, 2008 § 5 Comments
I was filming a nipple reconstruction. The last in a series of operations to reconstruct the right breast of a woman in her sixties. She’d had a mastectomy for breast cancer. This final operation would be the end of a long and winding treatment.
I had only filmed with this plastic surgeon (PS) once before. Then he’d complained about the senior surgeon’s music and demanded to play Metallica the next time they’d operate together. The nipple reconstruction was being done at the outpatient department. As I entered the small OR, PS was rummaging a drawer full of pink caps. “I have to find a green cap,” he said. “I can’t possibly appear on camera with a pink one!” « Read the rest of this entry »
The Sterile Eye 