How I battle the beast of breast cancer.
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 30, 2018
Khevin Barnes is a Male Breast Cancer survivor, magician and speaker. He is currently writing, composing and producing a comedy stage musical about Male Breast Cancer Awareness. He travels wherever he is invited to speak to (and do a little magic for) men and women about breast cancer. www.BreastCancerSpeaker.com www.MaleBreastCancerSurvivor.com
Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. Despite the zombies, vampires, witches and ghosts that symbolize the celebration, there is a kind of trust and confidence that we, as children, learn to identify with in the face of all that spookiness.
Somehow the sight of gruesome and disfigured beings loses its power, and we learn to accept the harmlessness of the horror.
So why is it that I am still sometimes reluctant to show my mastectomy scar at our public pool? I realize that being a man with breast cancer, as far as the social and emotional responses go, is very different than being a woman, so I can only speak of my own experience here. I have never felt personally self-conscious about my missing left breast, and I talk openly and even passionately about breast cancer to everyone who expresses an interest, but I sometimes fall into the trap of assuming that other people are uncomfortable with what might be seen as my "disfigurement."
Somehow the sight of gruesome and disfigured beings loses its power, and we learn to accept the harmlessness of the horror.
So why is it that I am still sometimes reluctant to show my mastectomy scar at our public pool? I realize that being a man with breast cancer, as far as the social and emotional responses go, is very different than being a woman, so I can only speak of my own experience here. I have never felt personally self-conscious about my missing left breast, and I talk openly and even passionately about breast cancer to everyone who expresses an interest, but I sometimes fall into the trap of assuming that other people are uncomfortable with what might be seen as my "disfigurement."
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