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She felt it, and in her calm, clinical tone said, “You know, you should probably go to the doctor.” That wasn't the reply I'd expected. I had to wait three days for the final result to come back. I was told I had two types of breast cancer: ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS, and invasive ductal carcinoma, IDC, stage 2. I tend to be a pretty dynamic person, so of course I couldn’t just have one kind of cancer, I had to have two.After the diagnosis, I contacted the radiologist who had done the mammogram, and she asked if I wanted to get coffee.
When I was finally done with chemo, I had my breasts reconstructed. During the consultation appointment I was hit with devastating news: the surgeon said he could not reconstruct my nipples. In terms of all of the physical pieces that I had lost or that had been affected—from losing my hair to having surgery to harvesting my eggs—that was the most painful. I went home from my appointment and laid in bed for hours, heartbroken about the news.
I remembered a friend telling me about tattoo artist David Allen and his work with post-mastectomy tattooing. He'd worked with other breast cancer survivors to help conceal the scarring on their breasts by covering them with beautiful works of art. He recently partnered with ghd, a hot hair tool and hair accessories retailer, to create original tattoo designs for breast cancer survivors.