Trafika Europe 6 - Arabesque

tahar ben jalloun

to stop the spread of the disease and then a breast replacement…” She explained this in an everyday tone as if she were not been concerned. On the day of the procedure, I spent a long time in the hospital hallways imagining her with one breast. A few months later, after recovery, she triumphantly entered my office, opened her shirt, and said: “This summer, I will be topless on every beach that you take me to.” We laughed and celebrated. The aesthetic surgery imitates nature’s perfection. It was impossible to tell which breast was fake. It was me and no-one else that made the final decision. Ablation, or, to use the proper term: a total prostatectomy. I had been told everything about the surgery and I knew perfectly what the procedure implicated, even

about the paralysis of erectile function. My empty body will no longer be oxygenated, etc. When a patient chooses prostatectomy, the doctors prepare them psychologically. Professor J. F. personally spoke to me about this. He took care of me and reassured me: “We will take care of things one at a time. It’s lucky that we met each other. There will be some inconveniences but all will eventually return to normal. It’s important to be patient and to tell yourself it could have been worse…” He showed me the results of the multidisciplinary doctors’ meeting which expressed the need for surgery. I asked several of my doctor friends and they all agreed with the decision for surgery. That is, until I ran into one of my former university professors on a bus; he made

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