In 2012, Emily Helck was diagnosed with breast cancer. Watch the viral video above to see the progression of her cancer treatment. These photos are true breast cancer awareness, and they aren’t wrapped up in pink ribbon. “Cancer is embarrassing,” she told ABC News. “As a friend or co-worker or acquaintance, it’s hard to know what to say, when it’s OK to make a joke, and when it’s OK to cry.”
Helck’s fantastic blog, “The Real Tumors of New Jersey,” catalogs her patient experience. But it comes with a disclaimer:
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Kids, gather round. Here’s the deal: In July of 2012 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had a bilateral mastectomy, did chemo and radiation, and recently finished Herceptin. . . .
I’m sorry to say that it’s not the faint of heart (breast?), squeamish or sensitive. It’s for the kickers, the screamers and the drinkers.
Her fierce, blunt descriptions of what treatment and cancer really mean are often laced with humor. For instance, this excerpt from the post in which she says goodbye to her hair, which was “[a]ll golden and flowing and shit”:
Okay, so you know that Taylor Swift song “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together?” (I’ve never actually heard it, I swear! I’ve just seen the title.) I’m beginning to think that my hair actually wrote that song about me. I know I’m less than a month out of chemo, but sometimes I get the sinking feeling that my hair is never coming back.
I guess I kind of deserve it, you know? I never paid it much attention. I hardly ever got it cut by a professional. I never blew it dry, didn’t buy it any nice products. When my oncologist told me I would lose it, I said, “I don’t care.” That was probably the last straw.
Then she shares an “artist’s rendering” of her then-newly shorn self, claiming she looks “[b]asically like a skinned Idaho potato.”
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These kinds of patient stories truly spread awareness and change caregivers’ approaches, or remind them what the heart of caregiving means. Stephanie Rivers commented on YouTube:
“You are an inspiration. I’m an oncology nurse and we are the same age. Whenever I see personal stories like this.. people in their every day lives.. it reminds me to take that extra minute to be patient and kind at work, no matter how busy and stressed I am. I read your blog like it was a novel that I couldn’t put down. P.S. I love that star constellation shirt!”
