Note:

Cancer is not invasive like a virus or bacteria, an injury or trauma. Cancer is a disease of the self. The body's own cells assume a guise & stage a quiet coup.

Breast cells, on average, take 100 days to double. One billion cells form a tumor 1 cm in diameter. Which means most cancers have been around for 6 to 10 years prior to diagnosis.

Post-mastectomy options include reconstruction (muscular-abdominal or thoracic; fatty tissue; saline/silicone implant-including or not including cadaver skin), prosthesis (cotton, plastic, rubber, or gel), no action.

Note:

Seven to ten days following surgery, patients may feel an overwhelming sensation that their body has not changed. This may result in over-activity, etc., which has been known to cause exhilaration & extreme weakness.

 
 
 
Plaster cast. Nipple round as the bulb of a lemon, flat, shy, leaning into the fine curvature of shadow it casts for itself, by itself. It just hangs there, matted in shadowbox, semi-sphere circumnavigated by lines & subsequent angles, lines & subsequent angles again. Whether Duchamp meant his title to be ironic is debatable.

'Study for 'Prière de toucher [Please Touch]''.

Museum goers, though urged-in fact, encouraged-to touch said breast, are interrupted, mid-gesture, from doing so. Interactive art rendered immobile.

'Study for 'Prière de toucher [Please Touch]''

would be the only of his works to be placed behind glass & remain behind glass for the sake of the longevity of one plaster breast in a box.

Note:

Insurance plans may or may not offset the cost of prostheses. National law, however, requires reconstruction coverage, as surgery is assumed to once again render an individual 'whole'.