Would You Show Off Your Mastectomy? This Woman Did

By Jessica Ashley, Sr Editor, GalTime.com

Jackie Morgan MacDougall as
Jackie Morgan MacDougall as

I am afraid of my breasts. I haven't always been and I don't want to be. But over time and by finding my way through several major life crises, anxiety has rooted in the center of my chest.

I am afraid of breast cancer. And worse, I am afraid, as a single mom, of dying of breast cancer and leaving my child to be raised by someone else. Feel free to judge: I am a therapist's dream with this issue.

I am quite sure my own therapist has taken several cruises on the co-pays for sessions I've spent breathing my way through this fear. You can also feel free to nod along: I know many of us who know we should be doing monthly breast exams or just consider an annual mammogram to be one of the things we have to do, but are scared to touch our bodies because a lump may already be there.

I do faithfully follow through with mammograms. I also have a deal with my gynecologist that she will perform more breast exams for me than normal throughout the year to allay some of that fear. I also send emails and hugs and prayers to my many friends who've been diagnosed and treated and survived and succumbed to breast cancer. So the cycle continues on.

Related: Breast Cancer on TV: 7 Characters Who Got It Right

My fear peaked last week, in the midst of lots of other unrelated stress and on the day when I had my mammo appointment, when I read this article by one of The Ricki Lake Show's Executive Editors Jackie Morgan MacDougall ( a longtime friend to GalTime), which was also featured in The Huffington Post. MacDougall -- who flashes her strategically covered upper-half with a bouquet of red roses, crown and sash that claims the title Miss Tectomy -- tells all who can see her almost-bared prophylactic breasts how losing her boobs made her love her body.

MacDougall, one of 11 children, lost her mother to breast cancer when she was three years old. At 30, her older sister tested positive for the BRCA gene and opted for an elective mastectomy to "kill the risk of cancer before cancer killed her." MacDougall didn't get it, until four years later, as a wife and new mom, she also tested positive. The result carried startling statistics - am 87% lifetime chance of breast caner, 50% odds of ovarian cancer.

Then came the lump, and with that, consultations and research and the decision to have surgery to remove both breasts and her own elevated risks of cancer.

As the surgery approached, MacDougall, clearly a whipsmart and funny woman, turned raw and emotional. She writes:

Related: Breast Cancer: The Kids Are Alright

She called on friends to lighten the load -- and mood -- and together, they laughed, prepared and ate double-Bundt cakes fashioned to look like "perky, sugar-filled breasts". The surgery and recovery and feel of newly placed implants were all hard for MacDougall. But time, and more laughing, she says, helped her to be more comfortable in her own skin.