This week on CBS Sunday Morning they presented a themed show on the topic of cancer. A group of women, myself included were interviewed for a subsegment named, “The flat movement”. Read the CBS article related to the segment, A Matter of choice: Mastectomies without Reconstruction.
And watch the individual segment here.
I love the women I am surrounded by in this piece. Rebecca Pine of the Breast and the Sea is a gentle giant. Read this New York Times article, ‘Going Flat’ After Breast Cancer, where Rebecca is pictured. Thedra Cullar-Ledford is an amazing artist! Samantha Tiger West is a local friend as well as audio and visual artist. Marianne DuQuette Cuozzo is an artist whose big heart can be seen alongside Debbie Sue (here is her FB page, no website) in this video:
I took this photo, last month, after filming for this segment. Samantha West had to cut out before we took this photo in front of the Equinox ad which is featured in the CBS Segment. The ad features Samantha Paige, of Last Cut, whom I follow through social media. This ad is epic! It is an epic contribution to the ‘flat narrative’.
If you have arrived here due to the CBS Sunday Morning show interview. Welcome. Poke around. Check out my art galleries and my breast cancer advocacy resume. Soon, I will resume my regular program of art making here on my artist’s blog. 🙂 Until then…
Melanie Testa 
Why didn’t you give information/education about Free TramFlap breast reconstruction??
After numerous surgeries and systemic infections, allergy to implants, I found out about Free Tram surgery. I found a surgeon who had done about 300 of these surgeries. Dr. Robert Cooper in Spokane, WA. This was in 1997.
Free Tram Flap beast reconstruction uses your own skin, fat, veins, arteries, and muscle. The blood supply is furnished by microscopic reconnection of the inferior epigastric artery and vein(s) at the mastectomy site. While this procedure is more technically exacting and formidable compared with other TRAM techniques, experienced microsurgeons routinely perform free-tissue transfers with success rates of more than 98% at most centers. When performed properly in the properly selected patient, the free TRAM flap procedure may produce a breast reconstruction superior to that of any other technique.
FREE TRAM FLAP takes full advantage of the primary blood supply (inferior epigastric blood vessels) of the TRAM flap tissues. This technique completely removes the abdominal tissues from the body and transplants them to the chest area.
Because the tissue is part of the patient’s body, it does not incite foreign-body reaction or capsular contractures, which have plagued implant reconstructions. Furthermore, since scars fade and tissues soften, the reconstruction only improves over time, which is not true of implant reconstructions.
Of course, as with numerous cancer patients eventually my cancer has returned and is stage 4 metastasized cancer. But, if this information helps anyone it will make me happy. It certainly has made my life a lot easier and better.
Barb Hallauer
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