HOW WILL I LOOK AFTER BREAST (and other) SURGERY? HELP FOR OUR FEAR

https://magazine.hms.harvard.edu/surgery/reflected-anew  by Stephanie Dutchen.  I got this link through Twitter.

I love this article:
After many, maybe too many "tough girl" quotes like "take them both off before I get it again." in the recent press, I was glad that Dutchen quotes Barbara Smith ’83, an HMS associate professor of surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, as saying:

"It's not frivolous for someone to worry about remaining intact." 

  This is so important.  My very wise L.A. family doctor used to use the term "tribal" for some  thoughts and feelings that go far deep in our mental/psychological roots.  What's more tribal than wanting to stay all in one piece?

Beth Israel Oncology Social Work Chief//Author/mastectomy survivor Hester Hill Schnipper knows we can be embarrassed to talk about how we may look after we wake up,  

' “It’s hard for most people to bring that kind of thing up,”   

“so it would help if the surgeon would say it first. 

Acknowledge the patient’s fears 

and make those fears acceptable.” '

I especially love 'this article's facing hard facts about changimg the surgery status quo  (something we may have secretly wished for!)  for instance: one recurring theme of the article is better, less disfiguring procedures, something I almost never read about elsewhere.

Smith says: 

"Surgeons can also help their patients by looking for ways to improve the procedures they perform or by developing entirely new ones." 

How could I not love this idea, this resolve?  Please find this on line and read the whole thing. Here, far away from the same old "someday" and "if only,." there is hope.