Dating after diagnosis: Love in the time of chemotherapy

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Dating after diagnosis: Love in the time of chemotherapy

Diane Mapes rejoined singles scene feeling 'as ugly as a woman can feel'

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44967915/ns/today-today_health/

By Diane Mapes Health writer

TODAY.com
updated 10/21/2011 8:09:38 AM ET



After surgery and during chemo, Diane Mapes puts on her "date face" — a wig made of her own hair, penciled-in eyebrows and prosthetics.

Call me crazy, but I went on a date two weeks after my double mastectomy.

It was also my first social outing since the surgery, not counting the shambling walks around my neighborhood or the sobering follow-ups with my doc who told me I needed both chemo and radiation since my cancer had been upgraded from Stage 1 to what I called Stage WTF.

The date — a double date, to be specific — was with some married friends and a buddy of theirs. It was very casual, which was good since I was still wearing my surgical drains (stuffed down the front of my pants at this point) and was about as prepared to hold a conversation with an eligible man as I was to walk on the moon.

Thanks to the painkillers, half the time I thought I was on the moon.