Rosa Di Micco – Etna Late Spring Interactive Course 2018

I’m glad to share with you the letter of my colleague Rosa Di Micco MD:

I will never forget the first time when I looked straight into a breast cancer patient’s eyes. I found there a universe of conflicting feelings from fear to anger, from sadness to courage, from surprise to awareness but most of all I read the claim for the best treatment for surviving as long as possible. I was only a young resident collecting patients’ clinical data, I felt so unprepared and tiny in front of those big eyes that I promised to myself: “If I want to be a good breast surgeon, I must work hard to become an excellent breast surgeon” and this is my daily mission.

Rosa Di Micco MD

Each patient has the right to demand and receive the best in terms of oncological, surgical and aesthetic outcomes all over the world. Patients ask for living longer but they also need to live well. As a surgeon I know that I must indicate the safest procedure for a cancer patient, but once the cancer has gone a healthy woman will only see in the mirror the results of my surgery for the rest of her life. I feel my job like an investiture and I work every day to be worth of it.

The pursuit of excellence is a very long, engaging and ambitious way, but it is the only way I see to cure and care breast cancer patients. They are special patients as their history never implies to treat the cancer only but also involves entering that intricate and unique world which being a woman means: femininity, fertility, daily acitvities, social life, men’s opinion, pregnancy, lactation, sexual life and much more. This is what makes our job challenging and fascinating at the same time. This is why I could never stop studying how to offer patients the best and the ETNA course could help me a lot, being an humble scholar ready to learn form masters in oncological, oncoplastic, reconstructive and aesthetic breast surgery. All of these specialties have a role in today breast cancer surgery and should be part of a breast surgeon’s background.

I was happy to meet Giuseppe two years ago in London, both far from our Italy, we immediately shared the same enthusiasm and approach in dealing with the patient as a whole, the concept of continuous learning and the idea of sharing knowledge among young and senior physicians. Similarly Nicola, coming from my same city, is even closer to my interest in breast cancer research and in a dedicated breast surgery training. The G.R.E.T.A. foundation is a great achievement for all breast surgeons who were looking for a platform of high quality learning and high level professionals, building a network among motivated physicians.

I would be glad to participate the ETNA course to have the opportunity of meeting great worldwide-known surgeons and young colleagues having my same belief and determination while taking patient-oriented decisions. Discussion, interaction and comparison are always seeds for professional growth, if it happens in the framework of the wonderful Sicily all turns into a dreamy experience.

I look forward to seeing you all,

Rosa

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