Comments on: Doctor, Doctor, give me the news . . .

By: LDA

LDA — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 08:40:36 +0000

A friend of our’s at 50+ was diagnosed w/ breast cancer. She had to have a mastectomy. To rebuild a new breast, they carved off a section of stomach muscle, rolled it up and tucked where the mammary structure had been. It’s painful in ways I can’t even imagine. But what’s worse is it kept getting septic. Ultimately, after being in and out of the hospital with high fevers and scary infections, they eventually had to resort to a double mastectomy. Despite the horrific experience, in celebration of surviving she went on to run the Honolulu Marathon the following year. She was pleased not having the bobbling two-some to contend with.

By: Caroline Spector

Caroline Spector — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 23:52:08 +0000

I should have made it clear in my post that I do think there are appropriate times for this sort of surgery.

For example, breast reduction to alleviate back and neck pain. Reconstructive surgery after mastectomy. One girl on the show had breasts that were very different sizes. She was young, but I understood her concerns. We look for symmetry in mates. Though there wasn’t anything “wrong” with her, the disparity between her breasts killed her self-image.

By: Bradley Denton

Bradley Denton — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 22:08:43 +0000

“I was born perfect. Been that way ever since.” –Bill Hicks

(Then again, Bill died at 32. Don’t know what he’d say now.)

By: Casey Hamilton

Casey Hamilton — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 21:55:43 +0000

You know, I can actually understand wanting to do something about the way one looks, about feeling one doesn’t look “right.” In my case, it’s mostly bone structure — much larger upper body comparatively speaking. Dresses are an issue.

There’s also the whole aging angst, what with gravity taking its toll, the incremental loss of muscle mass year by year, the inevitable graying, etc.

But surgery is such an extreme answer. In the last month, joining the gym and shelling out for the jump-start, ass-kicking trainer, I’ve seen a significant change. Getting better.

Modern society has worshipped youth for decades, at the very least. Youth is great, I had a great time, but I wouldn’t trade 48 years of experience and learning for a tighter butt and tummy.

I actually feel the sorriest for people like Cher, who has been quoted as saying that she sees NO upside to aging, no wisdom. She’s right, in a way, that getting old does suck. But getting old and aging are far from synonymous, in my experience. Aging is mandatory; getting old is completely optional.

Having just turned 48, I can certainly agree that I’ll never look like I’m 24 ever again. But I can easily pass for someone in their 30s, and I intend to spend what’s left of my 40s and my 50s as the freshest, funkiest person I can be. To hell with getting old.

By: Steven Gould

Steven Gould — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 20:43:19 +0000

We got a linkback on this post from a site that blogged it but it ended up in our spam filter. The key sentence that showed up involved “bleaching” and the site in question was about other activities with the noun that was referred to by “bleaching.”

I’ve decided to leave it as spam if that’s okay by y’all.

By: Steven Gould

Steven Gould — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 20:35:02 +0000

Yeah, my left one is sagging, too. I hate it. But not my right one. Oddly enough, that’s cause I had a mastectomy when I was eighteen.

Not actually kidding.

But it wasn’t for cosmetic purposes and it did turn out to be benign.

By: Maureen McHugh

Maureen McHugh — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 19:46:49 +0000

I might, you know, have actually seen an episode of the show. Not this episode. I don’t know what is creepier, the parade of attractive women who think there is something wrong with them or the doctor who works out obsessively and seems, in his own way, equally obsessed with his looks.

I sort of want to read Beauty Junkies by Alex Kuczynski, but I keep feeling it would be admitting to myself that I’m really a completely superficial person. But did you know there’s a New York podiatrist shortens toes so her clients can fit into Jimmy Choos? I’ve never even actually seen a pair of Jimmy Choos.

By: Doug

Doug — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 19:24:08 +0000

Caroline!

Actually, to a certain age the breasts do not lay down when the owner does and, what is that in her hand. It’s…not a remote, is it?

By: "CC"

"CC" — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 17:55:53 +0000

I laughed and laughed! So glad I missed the program but glad to read your redition.

By: Madeleine Robins

Madeleine Robins — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 17:52:39 +0000

My favorite train-wreck show is Airline, where people behave horribly, and then–and this is what gets me–sign waivers so that the production company can show them misbehaving on national television. Nothing like Tivo-ing a show which features grannie yelling at the Southwest Airlines clerk who can’t let her on the plane because she’s falling-down drunk.

There are some good reasons for body modification–I had a friend in her 50s whose natural breasts were so large that she had constant back-aches (this is no joke–the women who have breast augmentation never stop to consider what changing the architecture in front will do to the rest of the structure), and another friend whose breasts were of markedly different sizes. As for the rest? Eew. I am dismayed by the slow deterioration of my youthful elasticity and moderate looks, but I would not put myself under the knife so I could look like a Barbie, or a bad approximation thereof. I’ll do sit-ups if I must, but lipo is right out.