Somewhere between the diagnosis -- ovarian cancer -- and the chemo, Pam Haggerty gave up on looking good. The 58-year-old retired nurse from Novi, Mich., stopped wearing makeup, something she'd loved since she was a teen and something she never left the house without. Then again, aside from doctor appointments, she wasn't leaving the house much, anyway. People close to her worried that she was giving up on more than her appearance.
"We were just shocked," says her sister, Cyndi Scott. "She was, of course, going through this traumatic treatment. It seemed to affect her inside and out. ... She looked so horribly sick."
When a Karmanos Cancer Center social worker suggested a Look Good ... Feel Better seminar -- a program designed to teach cancer patients how to apply makeup, style wigs and wrap turbans -- last month, Haggerty was skeptical.
But she went anyway and, she says, "walked out of there feeling stronger and feeling like I didn't have to give up looking and feeling attractive just because I was fighting cancer.
"I felt better about myself, just going out in public. I felt more attractive. I felt like putting that energy into how I looked helped me to feel stronger. ...
"There's something about taking that power back and saying, 'I'm still a woman and I'm strong,' and going out in the world and looking like a woman and not looking like so much a victim of an illness."
Attitude Adjustment Cancer changes you on the inside; its treatment changes you on the outside. Surgery brings scars. Chemotherapy makes your skin sensitive -- sometimes it peels, sometimes it develops rashes. Nails become brittle. Lots of people lose their hair. People treat you differently because you look different than you used to look. "When you lose your hair, it is most difficult," says Kathleen Hardy, clinical social worker at the Karmanos Cancer Center's Wiseberg Treatment Center in Farmington Hills. "For many women, hair kind of defines who you are. When you lose your hair and your eyebrow hair and your eyelashes ... you feel like now you can't hide the fact that you have cancer. You lose a sense of privacy. ... You lose a sense of control when you have cancer." Look Good ... Feel Better, a program of the American Cancer Society, is celebrating its 20th anniversary of helping cancer patients gain back some of that control. Volunteer cosmetologists lead seminars teaching cancer patients how to pull their look together to boost their confidence. The workshops last about two hours and take place at hospitals and treatment centers throughout metro Detroit. Each participant receives a makeup kit full of cosmetics donated by companies such as Chanel, Estee Lauder and Avon. A cosmetologist teaches them to moisturize, use proper foundation, draw on eyebrows and put some roses in their cheeks.
"If you look good, you don't get all of the 'Oh, how are you feeling? I'm so sorry for you.' All the unwanted advice," says Hardy. "People don't want to stand out any more than they have to." There is no evidence that nonmedical treatments such as makeup lessons impact the survival rates of cancer patients. The real value, doctors say, is that they can improve a patient's attitude by giving them some sense of normalcy, some sense of fitting in. According to Felicity Harper, a researcher and clinical psychologist at Karmanos Cancer Center in Detroit, evidence suggests that people with optimistic outlooks are more likely to participate in positive diet and exercise and health behaviors, which improve their quality of life. They are likely to spend more time with family and reflect on what is truly important in their lives. Identifying their priorities helps them better adapt to a life that includes cancer. "When you feel pretty, you feel positive about your situation," says Barbara Hubert, 71, of West Bloomfield. Hubert, who volunteers at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich., attended a Look Good ... Feel Good seminar through Karmanos last year. "Life is very precious, you want to live every day," says Hubert, who is cancer-free after treatment for metastatic breast cancer. "This is another tool to make you feel better about living every day.
"The doctors are fighting, the nurses are fighting, the oncologist, the radiologists. They're all fighting. You have to fight, too, and not give in." 'I Want to Be Saved' Paying special attention to your appearance also sends a message to everyone you come in contact with, says Linda Wittsock-Massaro, 56, of Bloomfield Township, Mich. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1998. A former nurse, Wittsock-Massaro reminded herself of this a couple of weeks ago when she realized the T-shirt and jeans she'd chosen to wear to a chemotherapy appointment made her look dumpy. "I thought, 'I can't do this, I feel bad.' " She changed into a nice pair of slacks and a matching sweater. "I want the doctors to think I'm worth saving. ... Your attitude has everything to do with their attitude," says Wittsock-Massaro, who now sells real estate and plays tennis regularly. "If you go in with your sweats and your hair dragging and no makeup, I'm afraid they're going to think, 'Let's put her out of her misery.' I try to look as good as I can when I'm there for an appointment, when I'm there for chemo" so they know "not only that I'm worth saving, that I want to be saved."
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