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Embracing the Pink

Jessenia Cisneros wanted to share the real truth of her cancer experiences–good, bad, ugly and more. After having a double mastectomy, she took her doctor’s recommendation for aesthetic implants. But after trouble healing, she eventually chose a flat closure, and that’s when she turned to the internet to find support.

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Transcript

The main goal is to share the realness, rawness, and truth of it all. Everyone’s like, “Oh my gosh, you wear the pink glasses, you’re so cute.” And I’m like, “Okay, yes, I decided to embrace the pink.” I started wearing glasses. People think it’s because I want to look cute, but no, it’s because I lost my hair in chemo, and wearing sunglasses or glasses like this gave me a little bit of confidence instead of feeling super naked. It honestly created this monster now. I don’t know if you remember the movie with Adam Sandler, “Big Daddy,” where he gives the little kid glasses. That’s kind of how I started with that. I’m like, “Okay, I’m gonna wear these glasses. These are my hater blockers. Any of the negative that’s here, this is going to stop that from entering in here.”

The goal was to share all of it: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the not-so-comfy.

So, Jessenia Cisneros, I was born and raised in a small town, Arcadia, Florida. I am 34 years old now, and I was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in August 2022. I found the lump myself during a self-exam. After that, I had a double mastectomy on February 23, 2023. My surgeon didn’t bring up aesthetic flat closure, so I was honestly so messed up mentally through the whole process of chemo. Friends were kind of there and then disappeared.

A week later, my surgeon put in the implants. I had to have radiation as well, so I was radiated, nuked, and burned with my implants and stitches still in. My incisions started to open up. After all that, I was like, “Okay, I can’t do this anymore. I’m driving myself crazy.” I’ve been in active treatment since 2022. I literally had 24 hours to decide if I was going to go with aesthetic flat closure or with his recommendation. He wanted to take out the one implant, have me heal for a while, and then, until the infection cleared, try again for another implant. He said I would just be smaller-breasted. I literally told him, “If you want me to live, I need you to take these off.” I kept going back and forth.

I blew up people on Instagram. I blew up all these girlies that were flatties. Everyone’s story was so different, which made it even more difficult. I literally woke up saying those implants were Satan himself because waking up from that surgery, yeah, I felt like how you would feel from waking up from that pain. But I didn’t feel the same pain that I felt every time I woke up with those implants. My body just didn’t want the implants. Ever since then, I’ve been feeling better.

We started an Instagram and a social platform. I also started sharing more on my own social media, mainly on Instagram. It’s about not feeling alone, chosen family, and other healthy non-pharma ways of getting to a better place where you can navigate through the shittiness of being a cancer survivor but still go through your day without completely losing it on people. That’s what it’s all about. We are “Deprestie Bresties,” and we’ve had a lot of good feedback. I’ve had a lot of girls say, “Oh my gosh, Deprestie Bresties. That’s hilarious. I love it. I love the name.”

This part of life is survivorship. This is the time when we need the most help. This is when you need the talk therapist. This is when you need to go to the support groups. You need to find like-minded people to talk to. That’s just kind of the main goal: connection through community and realizing that you’re not alone, even though you feel alone. You have to remember that you’re not, and there’s a difference. It’s nice to know that there are some girls out there struggling like you are. I think that’s the main thing.


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