Treating Vulnerable Populations of Cancer Survivors: A Biopsychosocial Approach by Tanya R. Fitzpatrick

Author:Tanya R. Fitzpatrick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Unspeakable Losses and Challenging Stereotypes

In the theme of unspeakable losses faced by the young women, the following quotes from the interviews address the point—“It’s not nothing” [i.e. what I’m going through is more significant than some might think] and ‘I got a timeline’ [i.e. I have to plan my life around the fact of my imminent mortality]. Also relevant here is a related theme of ‘challenging the face of cancer’. When hearing, through voice and image, the stories that the young women shared about their experiences being diagnosed, and all the impacts and losses they experienced, one cannot help but see the overwhelming number of symbols relating to their pain and loss. Teardrops, wounds, blood drops, internal body workings and venous imagery, fear, hair loss, and jagged lines predominated. The painful inner workings and effects of the cancer are brought to the surface. The invisible becomes visible. Through these symbols and discussion with the young women, they challenge the face of cancer.

For young women undergoing chemo, early onset of menopause and infertility are common. One woman spoke of being pushed into menopause artificially, and of a lack of opportunity to progress or age naturally. This hurt deeply. The teardrop, blood drop, or chemo drop were featured in several of her artworks (Example 1—See Artwork Appendix). The same woman used the teardrop form when referring to her chemo treatments. She spoke about the physiological and emotional impacts by saying “All the inside of me was a whole universe of things going on and it felt that if I pushed myself, I would ignite a big bang so it seemed best to not push myself and just to let things seep”. She referred to feeling poisoned and ‘freaked out’. She continued by saying ‘I was being hit from behind almost … with that deep sense, that deep mortality trip that comes. That really deep, like incredibly open sense of possibility that I could not wake up tomorrow, and being the single parent and not having all my affairs in order”.

Infertility and motherhood were common themes in the group. Two of the women were single mothers struggling to raise children alone while battling their illness. The others tried to grapple with the inability to have children following their treatments (infertility or early menopause). One woman underwent procedures to conserve her eggs before treatment. It proved unsuccessful and highly unlikely that her eggs would survive for future pregnancies. ‘It’s not nothing’ to go through any of this, she said. She was able to explore this loss through a body-based book exercise. She said it was ‘very important to speak of the unspeakable’. She spoke about her purple-paper-covered three page book as containing herself on the exterior, with the outside brown layer reflecting how she was actually feeling, and a raw interior depicting her scars and her loss following surgery and chemo treatments. The interior page was a pink sheet representing cancer. She said the book allowed for layers of complexity—internal, external, and real. She

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