How a sister looks at the end of radiation treatment

Behind the pink ribbon | My Fabulous Boobies

What the pink ribbon doesn't show you... is what you need to see

A few days ago, my pink ribbon sister Shay, posted a picture of her chest at the completion of her radiation therapy. This is Shay's second bout with breast cancer. She recently had a mastectomy for this cancer and now is done with the radiation treatment. I don't know all of the details about her second diagnosis and what I do know, I've learned by watching her instagram channel.

Watching her go through it all again, reminds me clearly of my time with breast cancer a few years ago. When I saw the picture, I shed tears. I soooo remember looking at my chest and it looked the same. Same breast missing. Same scorched burned skin, the after-effect of the radiation treatment. I was happy that she had a picture because I didn't think to do so then. And now I wish that I had.

Post by Nicole McLean.

I re-grammed her picture and shared it on my Facebook page. My friends on Facebook were stunned and shocked. Several offered their prayers to Shay and their condolences to me. I'm sure because I've been through the same thing. While I appreciated their well-wishes, I didn't share it for sympathy points. I shared it because this is the side of breast cancer that most people are not aware of.

The pink ribbon is a grand and beautiful symbolism of the hope for this disease and a cure. It is effectively memorable and feminine at the same time. I have no problems with the pink ribbon at all. But I know it is not enough to help people to understand exactly WHAT breast cancer does to us. It is devastating in a very real, very tangible way. Sometimes I think that people minimize the impact of breast cancer because they see so many of us get diagnosed and then go on with our lives as though it was nothing more than a blip in our past.

It is never that. Ever.

I don't care how many survivors you see marching in parades, running marathons, starting businesses and generally looking like they're taking over the world... we all have gone through something so deeply traumatizing to our bodies, our spirits and our lives -- whether we've had a mastectomy, a lumpectomy or no surgery at all. None of it is easy. But we get through it the best we can. Some of us survive and go on to live full lives afterwards. Some of us don't. We're all survivors though... from the day they tell us that we have cancer, our lives become different and bigger in that moment.

Occasionally I mention how difficult it was for me to get comfortable again in my body after my mastectomy and my reconstruction. It is no small thing to go to sleep with two breasts and wake up with one. Or none. It is no small thing to go to sleep with one breast and wake up with two, either. Both the mastectomy and the reconstruction were jarring episodes in my life. That most people looked at me and didn't realize that I'd been fighting a war from the neck down was hard to cope with. But I am here. Just as Shay is here.

I will continue to pray for my pink ribbon brothers and sisters. I will continue to pray for a cure. I will continue to fight for the life that I feel entitled to have -- my dream life -- because if I can fight back from this, I've got to have something worthwhile to live for.

Click [ here ]to purchase a breast cancer awareness t-shirt from my store.
Or [ here ]for the shirt pictured above.

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I want to ask you to share this post with people in your networks because I think it is a viable teaching moment. However, I am uncomfortable asking anyone to risk their social capital as I did. Facebook does state that mastectomy pictures do not violate their terms, but I do know a few people who lost their personal pages and/or their business fan pages because of shared pictures of breast cancer patients. If you choose to share, be careful. Not everyone is comfortable with this level of openness.

(And no, that shadow is not a nipple, it appears that Shay doesn't have one on her other breast. Nipples can become casualties in this fight.)

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