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Looking good in the face of cancer

Attending to appearance can lift patients’ morale

BY DEBBE GEIGER

July 13, 2004

Vivian Littman of Great Neck doesn't want to look like a cancer patient. Found to have lung cancer in January, Littman says her friends tell her she's never looked better, and she agrees. Despite undergoing chemotherapy and radiation, during which she lost her hair, including her eyebrows, and her complexion changed, Littman insists, "I feel I'm looking better than I've looked in a long time, and that makes me feel better inside."

Littman, who turns 61 next Tuesday, credits her good looks and positive outlook to a free, two-hour class called "Look Good, Feel Better" that's available at most area hospitals. "Just seeing other people in the same boat, having to go through the same thing, really helped," she says.

During the American Cancer Society-sponsored workshop, which she attended in May, Littman learned to apply makeup in a way that perks up her drab skin color and masks her facial hair loss. She discovered how to choose comfortable wigs and how to wrap attractive turbans around her head.

Boosting self-esteem

Looking and feeling good is important to people suffering from the harsh effects of cancer treatments. Surgery can cause scarring and physical changes such as breast removal or the need for colostomy bags. Chemotherapy, radiation and other necessary therapies leave their marks as well and pose a threat to a person's body image and self-esteem.

"Sometimes you have to be put on steroids to counteract the effects of chemotherapy, and they cause you to gain weight," says Eileen Roberto, the nurse coordinator for the Breast Health Center at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip. Radiation can cause skin discoloration and dark patches in the area being radiated.

But the most devastating experience for many women is the loss of their hair from chemotherapy. "I've had patients tell me that losing their hair was more traumatic than losing their breasts because it's visible and you look sick to people," Roberto says. "You look in the mirror and you are reminded every day that you have cancer. It can depress you."

Lynn Summers, a licensed cosmetologist who has been a "Look Good, Feel Better" volunteer for seven years, says, "When a patient walks in the door, so often their head is down, their morale is down. They're saying, 'What am I doing here? I want to be in bed.' Someone has made them come. After the program they start laughing and experimenting with the eye shadow and the lipstick. They go, 'Oh my goodness. I didn't know a turban could look like that.'"

Going by the book

Wigs can hide some hair loss, but it's more difficult to camouflage the loss of eyebrows or eyelashes. Lori Ovitz, a professional makeup artist, conducts personal makeovers on cancer patients at sites across the country, and says simple techniques make a big difference. With co-author Joanne Kabak, Ovitz recently published her secrets in a book called "Facing the Mirror With Cancer" (Belle Press, $24.95). Available at www.facing themirror.org, it illustrates how to use makeup skillfully and offers advice to men, women and children on caring for their bodies, including their nails and skin.

"I teach them how to put it all back together," Ovitz says. "It's not about the makeup; it's about the brushes and the technique. Changing your lipstick won't cure your cancer, but changing your color may perk up your attitude in the way you look and feel about yourself."

Littman agrees. "It's important to me not to look sick. I've always had beautiful hair, and I just felt that nobody was going to look at me and everyone would know [she had cancer], and I was going to feel shunned. And then I thought, 'I'm going to do whatever it is I have to do to beat the cancer and not change my lifestyle.' You have to dwell on an area where you feel that you can be beneficial to yourself, where you have control and it's not the doctor saying, 'Take this pill.' It's you telling yourself to put on lipstick when you get up in the morning, and you telling yourself that the pretty scarf on your head is just as nice as your hair and you don't look awful. It's OK to be vain. You have to do whatever you have to do to make yourself feel better."

Although there is little research to support its benefits, doctors say these types of programs have an enormous impact on patients' morale. They are more interested in completing their treatment and are more willing to take better care of themselves. "There isn't a lot of scientific basis, but studies indicate people with positive attitudes certainly get through their treatment better and may improve their survival," says Dr. Vincent Vinciguerra, chief of the Don Monti Division of Medical Oncology/Hematology at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset.

Perhaps positive attitudes help because once people start to look better, they also want to feel better, he says. "They understand that nutrition or weight reduction is part of that." They are also more likely to eat right, add physical exercise to their routine and eliminate unhealthy lifestyle habits such as smoking and alcohol use.

Let's go shopping

For Meg Bonner, a 47-year-old bank examiner who lives in downtown Brooklyn, it wasn't her physical appearance that made her feel bad; it was her inability to be physically at ease.

"I could not get a bra that felt comfortable because of my scars and the lymphedema in my right arm and right breast," says Bonner, a breast cancer survivor who had part of her breast removed in 2002 followed by chemotherapy and radiation. She attended a seminar offered at St. Vincent's Hospital by Shop Well With You, a national nonprofit organization based in Manhattan that helps women deal with body-image issues and uses clothing as a means toward wellness.

Learning how to shop for clothes "made a big difference," Bonner says. "They started talking about what to look for, the large sleeves, elastic at the waist. I went to Talbots armed with their recommendations and looked at the clothes from that point of view. I was able to buy an awful lot of stuff that way. I felt much better."

Emily Spivack, founder and executive director of Shop Well With You, says, "We work with women who have all types of cancer ... women who have colorectal cancer and want to wear clothing that doesn't show their colostomy bag, to women with breasts that are different sizes or have ports coming out of their chest during treatment. It's not about the newest fashions or the hottest trends," says Spivack, who started the organization three years ago after watching her mother survive breast cancer four times.

"It's about being able to move beyond the cancer diagnosis. Some women just cannot find garments that are comfortable. They walk around in their husbands' oversized shirts and they want something that will make them feel good and look sexy again.

"It's about not being reminded of the cancer every time you look in the mirror. It's about going back to work, having your children and not looking at yourself as though you are sick. It's about self-confidence and dignity. But it's also about feeling comfortable."

Debbe Geiger is a freelance writer.