AUTHOR PROFILE
A
survivor’s tale
Metro
alumn and author explores illness, regenerative
power of recovery
By
Nicole Queen
nqueen@mscd.edu
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It’s hard to imagine waking up one day,
only to realize your body and life as you know it will never
be the same—that you will be without a part of yourself
for the rest of your life. Even more unimaginable is the
prospect of living through a life-threatening trauma like
cancer, having
a part of your body removed, and living with the fear of
it all coming back and being glad or even celebratory.
For Metro alumna and campus language tutor, Leonore Dvorkin,
there was no need to “imagine” those possibilities — for her,
it was a reality. She walks her readers through this epiphany in her
book, “Why I’m Glad I Had Breast Cancer,” published
in 2005.
Dvorkin discovered she had breast cancer
in 1997 after she visited the Auraria Health Center and underwent a biopsy.
She was faced with the decision of going through chemotherapy, radiation,
and surgery to remove only the affected part of the breast (with the
risk more cancer would show up later) in a lumpectomy or removing the
entire
breast in a mastectomy. Without a second
thought, Dvorkin chose the latter.
“ Did I scream? Did I cry? No, I didn’t. But my
calmness was not due to any extraordinary
bravery on my part. It came from the fact that the grim news was not
really a surprise
to me,” she explains in an excerpt from the book. However, the
slow and painful recovery
from the removal of a body part and how it was handled was indeed an
amazing act of bravery and strength.
Dvorkin stresses to her readers that it’s normal to feel grief,
pain, and resentment after experiencing a trauma such as cancer, but
it is possible to move beyond (but not forget) and learn from surviving
such an emotional and physical feat.
“ I don’t expect all other breast cancer survivors to feel the same
as I did,” Dvorkin
said. “I just want them to know that it’s possible to look
past the pain and fear and physical changes, to a better and happier
emotional landscape ahead.”
The message in “Why I’m Glad I Had Breast Cancer” is
one not usually considered when dealing with cancer and a mastectomy,
however, it should not be overlooked.
“ I’m not always optimistic, but I do try hard to find the good side
of most situations.
It was the same with my cancer and mastectomy. Yes, I suffered, and
the scarred left side of my chest is no longer attractive,
but I look perfectly normal to the outside world,” Dvorkin said. “The
changes on the inside have all been for the good. As I try to sum it
up: surviving cancer left me a happier, calmer, more focused, and more
appreciative person.”
While Dvorkin has made the best of her circumstances, she is not in denial
of what the future may hold.
“ The only thing that still disturbs me is the knowledge that I could get
more cancer in the future and that it could metastasize and kill me. However,
there is no sign of more cancer at this point, so I merely try to keep on with
my life, enjoying
each new day, taking good care of myself, and hoping for the best.”
Anyone who has experienced, or might have breast cancer, can rest assured
Dvorkin’s
accounts are far from sugarcoated anecdotes,
but rather, are told with complete honesty.
“ I felt no hesitation about describing grim medical details, nor did I
hesitate to write about such personal things as the photographs
my husband took of my bare torso, both before and after the mastectomy,
or about how our sex life was affected by the loss of my breast,” Dvorkin
said. “Such details
were important parts of the experience as a whole. I know they’re
of great interest and importance to my readers, (who) have thanked
me profusely for my honesty.”
Rather than writing the book for personal
healing and closure (Dvorkin explained that, at the time the book was
written, she had pretty much completed the healing process),
she wanted to get her experiences out to the public.
“ I felt a strong desire to get onto paper a summary
of the amazing emotional benefits
I had reaped. I wanted the summary as a sort of souvenir of all that
I had passed through and learned. I wanted very much to try to help
other women and their loved ones. I wanted them to understand how it’s
at least possible to consider breast cancer and mastectomy a net gain.”
“ Why I’m Glad I Had Breast Cancer” is available at the Auraria
bookstore and was the Auraria Book Club’s choice for February.
For more information on Dvorkin and her book, visit http://www.dvorkin.com.
Why
I’m
Glad I Had Breast Cancer
by Leonore Dvorkin
Paperback, 56 pages
Publisher: Eye of the Tiger Productions
Metro alumna and campus language tutor Leonore Dvorkin recounts her experiences
surviving breast cancer.
“Breast
cancer does not have to be counted among the greatest traumas
of (survivors’) lives...they can come out on the other
side of the experience better than they were before, both
healthier and happier.”
Leonore
Dvorkin, excerpt from “Why I’m
Glad I Had Breast Cancer”
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