My Second Letter to Dr. Lee

4390 Weeping Willow Circle

Casselberry, FL 32707

Oct.19, 2012

Dr. Kenneth Lee, MD

Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery

1400 Orange Ave. MP760

Orlando, FL 32806

Dear Dr. Lee,

I once promised you that I would never be rude to you again. I have kept that promise. When your staff asked me how I felt, I used some pretty harsh language. That was never meant for your ears. Have you ever heard the expression, venting? I was venting to your staff with the understanding (naively) that they would respect my privacy and what I said in the examining room was in confidence.

Please do not take what I say in anger and frustration personally. It has nothing to do with you. In fact, you are my savior in this situation. I have nothing but the utmost respect for you and the work that you do. I understand how long and hard you have worked to get where you are. Your parents must be very proud. You are the best of the best and that is why I want you as my surgeon. Unfortunately, you are as much a victim of 20^th century technology as I am.

You are still performing the same surgery that has been performed on women for the past 50 years. Aside from a little tweaking, it is the same thing. It is the same surgery that is perpetrated on woman all over the world every day, by plastic surgeons in small towns and with little skill. The result is the same. There is nothing new or groundbreaking here. Thirty years ago I worked for a woman who had a mastectomy followed by reconstruction. I felt so sorry for her, and now I am going through the same thing.

It is despicable that the makers of implants have never seen or felt a genuine human breast.

It boggles my mind that after decades of research and millions of dollars spent that there is no other treatment for breast cancer other than surgery. Excavating a woman’s chest and defiling her body is an atrocity that is inflicted on 100’s of thousands of women a year, the vast majority over 50. The reason is because no one believes that women over 50 have any value as objects of beauty. The common wisdom is that they no longer have sex and no one is interested in looking at them. Therefore saving their womanhood, their humanity is a worthless effort.

There are so many of us, hundreds of thousands a year, we all simply become a number in a breast removal factory, lined up to obediently have our breasts removed and live life maimed. It is a crazy cancer world, because we, me, Amy, and all the others are expected to be “happy” about this.

Take the case of Joe, who lost his hand in a construction accident. The orthopedist did an amazing job of attaching a shiny silver hook to his arm where his hand had been. Do you think Joe was happy that he had this awesome hook? That he would never be able to touch his wife and children and feel them again? Do you think the orthopedist’s feelings were hurt that Joe was not happy about having a hook for a hand?

I apologize if I am rude and hurtful. It is not directed at you. I am grateful, pleased and impressed with what you have done. But you can understand my disappointment with being told by some stranger that I am gravely ill and in danger of dying when I feel perfectly wonderful and fine. And to further the nightmare they are going to cut part of my body off and replace it with plastic. And I have no choice. I have no choice. It’s insane and it is terrifying. Why did I listen?

I am sorry; I am trying to regain control but I have very mixed feelings. I wish I had never gone for that screening mammogram and I promise you, I never will again.

Thank you for understanding,

Amy Myrin