More than 100,000 American women undergo mastectomy and breast reconstruction every year because of breast cancer. Thousands more are having double mastectomies to prevent it. So much has been written about breast cancer, and so much overlooks the reality of reconstruction when a woman has a mastectomy and opts for this process. It is difficult, painful, and traumatizing at times. Most women do not emerge with a new set of breasts and nipples in a single operation. Breast reconstruction usually takes months and can take years to finish. Some women never do, living without nipples or with imperfect results. Others opt not to have reconstruction at all. Still others struggle with one of the biggest women's health questions today: lumpectomy and radiation or mastectomy?
Breast Cancer Surgery and Reconstruction offers a glimpse into the big picture of the various stages and types of breast reconstruction using stories and photos of real women. It offers a true picture of what breast reconstruction entails, and offers hope to those facing it. This is a book to help women with a variety of issues surrounding their choices, with powerful insights from women who have been there.
Patricia Anstett is an experienced medical writer who worked 40 years in newspaper journalism in Chicago, Washington D.C. and Detroit, her hometown. For the last 22 years of her professional newspaper career she was a medical writer for the Detroit Free Press, retiring in 2011. Her award-winning stories covered various aspects of breast cancer and breast implant surgery. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons honored her work in 1995 with an unsolicited national award. The same year, she also received the Vivian Castleberry Award, a national competition honoring top reporting on women's issues, for her coverage of new breast biopsy options. The American Cancer Society and the Barbara Karmanos Cancer Institute each have given her awards for the accuracy and comprehensiveness of her breast cancer reporting. Anstett's reporting has won national, state and local awards for breaking news, beat, and feature writing. She has been honored as Journalist of the Year, Detroit chapter, Society of Professional Journalists, and received the top Headliner award from the Detroit chapter of Women in Communications. Her freelance articles have appeared in the Reader's Digest; the National Observer; the Chicago Tribune; Washingtonian magazine; and Paris MatchShe was part of a reporting team that published The Suicide Machineabout the first 47 patients to seek help from the late Dr. Jack Kevorkian.
Kathleen Galligan, photographer, is a two-time Emmy award-winning photographer and videographer who specializes in women's health, social justice, mental health, poverty, and juvenile justice issues. A single mother with two sons, Galligan worked as a newspaper and plastic surgery center photographer before joining the Detroit Free Press in 2002. Her first online documentary project, "Christ Child," about a residential treatment center for severely abused and neglected boys, was awarded a national news and documentary Emmy in 2009. Her work also has captured a National Headliners Award in journalistic innovation as well as numerous national and state awards in photography.
