LIPeSfYLES / The Charlotte f>ost
October 3, 1996
leTT
She’s a real survivor
Continued from 9A
bons.
“I was the only one without
a pink ribbon,” she said,
Massey began chemotherapy
the week before Thanksgiving.
She and her doctors opted not
to use radiation chemothera
py, but to do it by injection.
She said it was not too bad.
The procedure left her cold
and shivering for several
hours. It also took over two
hours for the medication to be
injected through her hands.
Most white women are wor
ried about hair loss, Massey
said but it didn’t concern her.
She wears her thick black bair
natural.
Massey knew about the loss
of appetite and the other
changes her body would
undergo. Her nails turned
dark brovm.
“You can always make
lemonade,” she said. “When
my nails got dark, I just wore
darker nail polish. When I lost
my hair, I just wore my
scarves even more. I still
wanted to my bald head to
show though. I figured if it
was good enough for Michael
Jordan, it was good enough for
me.”
Massey still remembers dis
tinctly the day her hair came
out. She was sitting on the
couch by herself. Every time
she ran her hand through her
hair, handfuls would come
out.
“I remember thinking where
are my friends,” she said. “I
am sitting here going bald and
no one is at home.”
After her chemotherapy,
which ended February 2,
Massey was ready for the next
step, choosing prosthetic
breasts or implants.
A local plastic surgery clinic
harassed her, she said and
even went as far as to sched
ule an appointment to have
implants. Massey made it
clear she didn’t want silicone
implants.
“I didn’t want those things,”
she said, laughing. “I like the
way I am. I can be any size I
want to be. I can take a blouse
and make my chest fit.”
The only problem she has is
with the color of her prosthe
sis. They are not, she main
tains, the correct shade of
brown. She will never forget
the feeling of looking in a book
to find perfect breasts.
“They really don’t make
enough shades,” she said. “For
African American women,
there is little or no choice on
color.”
It has been almost a year
since Massey’s surgery and
she is ready to begin the next
phase — telling people about
her experience and starting a
support group for other
African American women.
There is much black women
need to know about breast
cancer, she said. Since she
talked about her mastec
tomies at church, several
women have come up to share
how they survived the
surgery.
She also wants to address
the color issue in prosthetics
for women of color.
Massey survived because of
her faith and friends like Don
Kincaid, a leukemia survivor
who gave her a book on cancer
that answered many of her
questions.
Her hair has grown back and
she proudly shows off her nat
ural hairdo.
She looks back over the last
year with wonder and appreci
ation.
“I believe my life was spared
for a reason,’' she said. “I sur
vived to tell everyone that
Jesus is good.”
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