About Me
Focused Anxiety-reducing Community-based Empowering Individualized Teaching
When Nancy Maltby, a good friend of mine was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, I kept her spirits up through surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments with talks of taking part in a dragonboat racing team.
What started as a motivational exercise, soon morphed into London, Ontario’s Rowbust, a branch of the Vancouver dragonboat racing team for breast cancer survivors. In 2009, they’ll celebrate ten years of racing to help promote awareness of breast cancer and celebrate the gift of life. They aptly named their dragonboat, “Annette’s Hope.”
But it wasn’t until 2007, while undergoing palliative training at the Cancer Centre that I learned that mastectomy surgery in London was now done as day surgery. I was horrified.
After extensive research, I started FACE IT because I understood how overwhelming cancer diagnosis is and the lack of available support and education. It is not necessarily that more information is needed, but the same information instilled over and over again in different formats. FACE IT echoes the teaching that patients receive from their surgeons and from pre-admit – but I do it using a life-like 3D format.
By using a life-size teaching model, I can prepare breast cancer patients for their “reveal” – both for themselves and for their partners. It removes the anxiety of wondering how they will look after surgery – and more often than not, it is less upsetting than expected. It clearly shows the mastectomy site and a completely functional drain device (complete with theatrical blood for the hemovac, compliments of Robin Phillips, Stratford Festival).
FACE IT receives referrals from various sources and sees breast cancer patients and their families in the comfort of their own homes – both before and after surgery. I give each patient a specially designed, ultra soft pillow that provides comfort and support after surgery. Because it is day surgery, the patient goes home and does not have nursing access for 24 hours. FACE IT helps to fill that gap.
If you have been diagnosed with breast cancer, or know someone who has, please refer them to this Web site. There is no cost for these services.
FACE IT relies solely on private donations.
What started as a motivational exercise, soon morphed into London, Ontario’s Rowbust, a branch of the Vancouver dragonboat racing team for breast cancer survivors. In 2009, they’ll celebrate ten years of racing to help promote awareness of breast cancer and celebrate the gift of life. They aptly named their dragonboat, “Annette’s Hope.”
But it wasn’t until 2007, while undergoing palliative training at the Cancer Centre that I learned that mastectomy surgery in London was now done as day surgery. I was horrified.
After extensive research, I started FACE IT because I understood how overwhelming cancer diagnosis is and the lack of available support and education. It is not necessarily that more information is needed, but the same information instilled over and over again in different formats. FACE IT echoes the teaching that patients receive from their surgeons and from pre-admit – but I do it using a life-like 3D format.
By using a life-size teaching model, I can prepare breast cancer patients for their “reveal” – both for themselves and for their partners. It removes the anxiety of wondering how they will look after surgery – and more often than not, it is less upsetting than expected. It clearly shows the mastectomy site and a completely functional drain device (complete with theatrical blood for the hemovac, compliments of Robin Phillips, Stratford Festival).
FACE IT receives referrals from various sources and sees breast cancer patients and their families in the comfort of their own homes – both before and after surgery. I give each patient a specially designed, ultra soft pillow that provides comfort and support after surgery. Because it is day surgery, the patient goes home and does not have nursing access for 24 hours. FACE IT helps to fill that gap.
If you have been diagnosed with breast cancer, or know someone who has, please refer them to this Web site. There is no cost for these services.
FACE IT relies solely on private donations.
I'd like to share a poem with you by Suzanne Fenske
