Read This Book

I initially heard from this book in a review from a New York Times review on their website. It was a short, unemotional review about a woman grappling with the reality of a breast cancer gene. I was taken by the title of the book, Pretty Is What Changes. I wondered what that had to do with breast cancer and felt that it must have something to do with the horrible side effects of chemotherapy & radiation or perhaps she had a mastectomy and felt disfigured… So I added it to my request list at the Queens Library and finally picked it up today… And read it cover to cover in one sitting.

No, it wasn’t such an easy read that I flew through it. It was also not a difficult read, despite quite a bit of medical terminology used throughout. Instead, it was an engaging story, almost as if the writer were sitting next to you and telling you the story of her experience with breast cancer.

The book begins as the author is on her way to work, contemplating her future. She is a writer for a popular tv show and works in Hollywood. A Hollywood standard of beauty was instilled in her since the beginning, owing in part to the fact that her mother was an actress and simply lived the Hollywood lifestyle… However, that was all to change when the writer’s mother is diagnosed with breast cancer. The writer was with her mother through the treatments, hair appointments, sickness, etc as her mother insisted she was fine, despite not being able to live her life as she wanted.

The author soon finds out that both she and her sister are carriers of a gene that predisposes them both to the same fate. They have an over 80% chance of getting breast cancer, and a very significant chance of getting ovarian cancer. The rate of return of these cancers after remission was over 50%. The author’s sister opts to wait it out and see what happens. She is young, single, and wants to marry and have children before she must think of what to do.

However, the stats and a suspicious lump in her breast, coupled with watching her mother suffer as she cared for her push the author to seriously consider having a preventative double mastectomy. Not because of cancer - but to prevent it and lessen her chances of getting it. It’s a radical decision that she does not take lightly but manages to involve all aspects of her life into it… She is single, wants to marry and have children as well… She can have the mastectomy now and leave the ovaries for later… But still feels slighted. Who would want to marry her if she has her breasts removed? She feels slighted that she will never get the opportunity to breastfeed.

The author consults several plastic surgeons, both in New York City and Los Angeles (and one in New Orleans), several breast surgeons, consults with friends and family, talks to people that have had the procedures done (and sees the work in person)… But ultimately, this is a decision she must make herself… Remove both breasts on the CHANCE that she COULD possibly get breast cancer in the future - as a merely preventative measure - or wait and see - knowing that by the time it’s found, it could be too late and her life measured up in mere months remaining…

This is a story about more than breast cancer. It is a story about how we perceive our body image vs how others see us, a story about family, friends, their undying love and support, and a lesson about the things we learn from our parents - never knowing why - only to find it so necessary and so useful in these extreme cases of need.

I would recommend this book to cancer survivors, their families, women and men alike. It is a touching story that in being told, raises awareness of breast cancer, the breast cancer gene, and the struggles that cancer survivors endure every day.

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