Survivors' Tales

.

Breast cancer survivors tell their stories
in language women will understand.

battling the disease, the forces of radi-
ation and chemotherapy" Raz did
not want to be a victim of this lan-
guage.
ilda Raz's mission was to
Born in Rochester, N.Y., and edu-
bring women's language to
cated at Boston University, Raz
breast cancer discourse. In
moved to Nebraska in 1963. She
Living on the Margins —
teaches in the Department of English
Women Writers on Breast Cancer
at the University of Nebraska -
(Persea Books, $25.95), she succeed-
Lincoln, where she edits Prairie
ed.
Schooner, a literary journal, and pub-
Any woman who has ever had a
lishes essays, articles
mammogram can fol-
and poems. Her
low the voices of these
most recent book is
women and feel their
Living On
the poetry collection
fear, their dread, their
Divine
Honors.
emotional burdens.
the Margins
"As
editor,
I am
There is no relief in
always talking to
Winnen Misers on Breast Gower
these stories. There is
writers, male and
no "Come back in a
female," says Raz.
year, and address this
For some unknown
envelope so we can
reason,
after my diag-
remind you for your
nosis,
when
someone
next mammogram.
called
and
casually
The book is an empa-
inquired how I was, I
thetic response to these
replied, 'Not so
women's words, and it
good; I have breast
is more.
cancer.' 'I have it
It is a physical
too', said several.
knowing, again experi-
"I had no idea.
encing the machine
Some
were breast
that pinches and flattens and com-
cancer
survivors, one
presses a breast so that an X-ray can
had a double mastec-
be taken of the questionable area.
tomy when she was
It is reliving the panic and surg-
younger because of
ing adrenaline that throws you off
her family's history of
balance when told a couple more
breast cancer and
photos of the right breast are need-
more than one was
ed.
undergoing radiation
It is embracing, once again, that
Hilda Raz
or
chemotherapy.
helplessness when the biopsy says
"I asked if they
cancer.
would write an essay or a poem about
It is knowing the sometimes absur-
their experience. Their quiet respons-
dity of the medical system. It is
es validated my mission. The result .
empathy and it is much more. It is
was a collaborative effort and this
looking in the mirror.
book."
It took Hilda Raz nine years to
When Raz began, one out of 10
compile this book. "Nine years ago I
women were diagnosed with breast
was diagnosed with breast cancer,"
cancer. Today the figures are one out
she says. "I researched the medical lit-
of eight.
erature. I asked questions. I also
I am teaching in Vermont. When
looked for literature about breast can-
colleagues and acquaintances ask casu-
cer that was written by women,
ally about my year, I answer that it's
believing it would help me under-
been a hard one. Only if they persist for
stand and articulate my own experi-
particulars
do I force myself to say,
ences. I couldn't find anything.
"Breast
cancer.
"A part of me still resists
"What I did find was a militant
this truth. I also suspect that questioners
language — the war on breast cancer,

RUTHAN BRODSKY
Special to the Jewish News

E

33

do not want to hear so much.
— Carole Simmons Oles
Eighteen women writers describe
their experiences with insight and an
intensity that comes with good writing.
"My purpose was to portray a new
paradigm for women," says Raz. "I
didn't stop writing because of breast
cancer nor did any of these women.
It was almost as if their illness was
stimulus to write even more. They see
breast cancer as an interruption in
their lives, not as the end of their
worthiness or their productivity or
their sexuality."
The writers have a sense of self that
includes breast cancer, describing the
disease in human terms, often berating
the bodies that betrayed them.
Not all of the authors know each
other. Some will never know Amy
Lang, author of the poem Bone Scan;
she died before Raz' book was pub-
lished.
According to the American Cancer
Society, an estimated 175,000 new
cases of invasive breast cancer are
expected to occur in U.S. women this
year; about 43,000 women, like Amy,
are expected to die from the disease.
Breast cancer remains the second
leading cause of cancer death among
women.
From diagnosis through treatment,
the stress on patients cannot be
understated. Women who must
undergo a mastectomy can suffer
intense feelings of humiliation; many
describe the experience as mutilation.
Then I went into practice and the only
patients I was referred were women with
breast problems. It became clear to me
pretty quickly that they were being very
badly treated and not being given any
information. Those were the days of
"Don't worry my dear, we'll take care of
it". Then you'd wake up without a breast.
— Interview with Dr. Susan Love
by Carole Simmons Oles
As breast cancer survivors who
have endured mastectomies, recon-
structive surgery, chemotherapy and
radiation, the authors offer the per-
spective and understanding of some-
one who has been there.

"...IF All WOMEN
0E1 50
IND RESER
MAMMOGRAMS,
DIEM DEAN RE
FROM BREAST
CANE

VYgID
EP BY
A NIRO."

— ACOG

Take the first step.
Call 1-800-ACS-2345 for
information that can help
you make an impact.

MOGRAM

EVERY YEAR AFTER 50

A Public Service of
This Publication

' , 41N\WW;

❑

Hilda Raz will speak at Jewish
Book Fair 6:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Nov. 10, at the D. Dan & Betty
Kahn Building of the Jewish
Community Center in West
Bloomfield, co-sponsored by the
Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer
Institute.

SHOP FOR
FALL!

on the Boardwalk
248-626-.7/76

Detroit Jewish News

10/29

1999

113