Social Portrait

By Elaina Ford (UK)

Since my diagnosis, I seem to have spent a lot of time on social media, and I’ve found myself using a lot more emojis than I have previously. So I decided to make a (non-sophisticated) picture from some of the most used ones during cancer! (There wasn’t room for the wine glass as I couldn’t make a hand!). I think it might have been funny if not for all the unhappy faces.

☹️ I think the unhappy faces are self-explanatory.

🤦 My hair is made of the “facepalm” – in my more old-fashioned terms “for goodness sake” – something I’ve felt a lot from each new biopsy finding another tumour through to surgery cancellation after cancellation. And a few stupid things I’ve done in between (not sure if I can really blame chemo brain, but stress at least).

🤞 The arms are fingers crossed as I’ve been hopeful at many points, mostly fruitlessly. But it’s probably my most-used phrase over the last months.

💔The broken heart is about the loss – over my healthy life, potential inability to have children, loss of hair and the oestrogen that makes us women.

😩The breasts are worry and anxiety – plenty of that, I’m definitely someone who worries.

🥵The nipples are representing hot flushes from the hormone therapy.

💩 The tumours are a load of shit.

😢All this is wrapped in a frame of the expected sadness and tears that come with a cancer diagnosis, and one of my favourite emojis -what-the-hell-is-going-on, and an inability to make a decision or figure out any rhyme or reason to any of this. 🤷