The Bodice Project

Stereotypes about West Virginia are often frustrating to those of us who live here. Stereotypes about lower than average intelligence, increased impulsivity, laziness, lack of education, and poor oral health make us all cringe. Furthermore, if folks are so concerned about the poor dental health in West Virginia, perhaps they should donate some money to local dentists or the West Virginia University School of Dentistry to reach more people. West Virginia has a number of vibrant communities with cultural gems, including Huntington’s Huntington Museum of Art.

Tucked in the picturesque hills south of town and surrounded by beautiful (though steep in many places) walking and hiking trails, the Huntington Museum of Art punches above its weight. The museum brings artistic traditions spanning time and cultures to this pocket of Appalachia. Permanent exhibitions include antique firearms, Middle Eastern artifacts, and a small conservatory punctuated by a breathtaking Dale Chihuly glass sculpture.

Admission to the museum is free for all, though memberships are for sale for those who want to have a greater involvement in and express gratitude for this resource, helping ensure admission remains free and the museum accessible to those of all socioeconomic means.

The Huntington Museum of Art usually has two or three temporary exhibits to punctuate their permanent collection. Currently, these temporary exhibitions include the Bodice Project. The Bodice Project is a traveling sculpture exhibition that asks breast cancer survives to answer the question, “who am I now?”

On one hand, I am glad that breast cancer is something so many people are aware of in the mainstream. It is a devastating condition. However, I also worry that many of the campaigns that companies and aggressive non-profits run, effectively “pink washing” everything they touch, might diminish the stories of those living with breast cancer. The Bodice Project is none of this. The Bodice Project is survivors expressing their experience, their hopes, and their realities on their own terms.

The Bodice Project remains at the Huntington Museum of Art until July 25, 2021. Many of the bodices included in the exhibit are included on the Bodice Project’s main website, here. The project has already made stops in Winchester, Virginia, Frederick, Maryland, and Morgantown, West Virginia. If it visits your town, I recommend a visit to immerse yourself in what breast cancer really means to those living with the condition. Pink optional.

First Miracle

If someone had asked me if I’d seen a miracle, I’d be unsure until the past few weeks. I’ve seen some amazing places and amazing acts, but I couldn’t be sure if they were true miracles. My mother-in-law’s recovery from a quadruple bypass is a miracle.

When the odyssey began, I was heading out to Washington, DC on a business trip. My husband was given the impression that the problem was not as severe as we would all later discover it to be. I had offered to go out of my way on my drive to DC to bring him clothes, preparing for several days away, but he felt strongly that he’d be coming home the next day.

She didn’t just need a stent. My mother-in-law was transferred over two hours from her home, which is already three from ours, to the University of Kentucky. I left DC a day early, at 9:30pm, my home was on the way between DC and Lexington, KY. I was going to make it to Morgantown, sleep a few hours, do a load of laundry, and continue the five or six hours on to Lexington. I wanted to get there quickly to support my husband.

When I arrived in at my in-laws’ home, Chris and his dad were there. Chris’s dad explained how four complete blockages were discovered in my mother-in-law’s heart. He, an accomplished emergency and internal medicine physician, summarizes it best, “it is one hell of a case.”

Chris and I continued on to Lexington. His mother had the surgery only a day earlier. Upon arrival we went straight to the hospital. I had heard terrible stories about how she looked the day earlier, but now, now she was peacefully sleeping in her chair. It was not the horror I had missed while I was hundreds of miles away.

The next morning, Saturday, I had my first chance to talk with her. You’d be hard-pressed to guess she had major heart surgery. Meanwhile, as I walked past the other 35 rooms in the cardiac ICU, I saw many others who were further out from their surgery in much worse condition. According to families in the waiting room, some were still on ventilators days later, others could not seem to get themselves on the first rung of the ladder to recovery. It was clear how difficult recovery from this type of surgery often is. Yet when I’d see Chris’s mom, I saw none of that struggle. She swore that once they removed the chest tubes, the majority of the pain evaporated. It seemed unbelievable.

She had been transferred to the University of Kentucky Hospital on Wednesday, had a quadruple bypass on Thursday, and on Monday she was discharged directly from the cardiac ICU. Meanwhile, the names on many of the rooms hadn’t changed since she was admitted and the condition of many of those hadn’t improved in the perception of my passing eyes.

Our first stop was a Panera on the outskirts of Lexington. Our next stop was her home in Huntington, WV. Once in her own clothing, it couldn’t be underscored enough that you just couldn’t tell. With several years of medical experience, I know it is common to have more pain several days after surgery than immediately afterward--but that shoe never dropped. She got a second chance, increased our awareness of heart health, and is a model of bypass surgery recovery—even though she didn’t really begin the process at much of an advantage over many of the other patients undergoing this type of surgery.

It’s a miracle.

 First stop from the hospital, Panera

The National Museum of Dentistry

When visiting a new place it is not only important to get a sense of what makes life in this city unique, but what unique attractions this place has to offer visitors. Virtually every big city has a science center, aquarium, and art museums and while most of these are excellently done attractions, you’ve got to dig deeper! While recently visiting Baltimore, I dug deeper and I discovered the National Museum of Dentistry.

I can’t count how many cities I’ve visited and how many aquariums, art museums, and science centers that I’ve taken in, but I have never heard of a dentistry museum. This moved other more traditional attractions to lower slots on my priority list. I had to see this, and my curiosity was rewarded greatly.

Baltimore is home to the first school of dentistry in the world, and in fact the National Museum of Dentistry is housed in the original building of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery through mergers over the years has seen it folded into the University of Maryland, but the history is still there and what a perfect place for the museum for this science. I couldn’t imagine what would be in a museum of dentistry, but I happily turned over a few dollars and jumped in with both feet.

National Museum of Dentistry, Baltimore (Photo by Andrew Horne, featured on Wikipedia)

In the museum there are two distinct types of exhibits: dental history and the modern dental professions. The former exhibits were very visually engaging with a comprehensive collection of dental implants that leave no mystery to me as to why dentists get such a painful reputation. The latter exhibits very clearly demonstrate dentistry as something a lot more comprehensive than just some guy that drills fillings into your teeth.

Prior to visiting this museum I had no particular interest in dentistry, except as an EMT, I once had for a patient someone who had taken a good blow to his jaw, bled like a stuck pig (that’s a technical term!), and remarkably did not lose, break, or chip any of his teeth. Now I feel like I better understand how that could have happened, and can imagine what the outcome could have been like even 100 years ago (though if it were 100 years ago, there’d be no EMT checking him out!).

Though possibly the neatest (and most important) thing exhibited at the museum is how close we are to being able to grow new teeth from stem cells. This is an incredibly interesting scientific development and, while likely expensive when it comes to market, I think signals the coming of even greater science to come in terms of the use of stem cells.

So if you’re in Baltimore and looking for something unique to do, I highly suggest you take 2-3 hours and explore the National Museum of Dentistry. Trust me, you’ll feel better about parting with your money than you will at the aquarium. 

For more info, check out their website.