A diagnosis of melanoma nine years ago initially seemed manageable for Barbara Caplan-Bennett, but the cancer progressed, ultimately requiring the removal of her entire nose.
"When you are sitting in a surgeon’s office and he tells you the best way to ensure you will be alive in five years is to remove your entire nose — well, the word ‘shocking’ doesn’t begin to cover it," Caplan-Bennett wrote. She described the fear and disbelief she and her husband, Paul, experienced upon receiving the news.
As the surgery date approached, Caplan-Bennett grappled with the prospect of becoming "a freak — a woman without a nose." She acknowledged the trauma of losing other body parts but found the disfigurement of her face particularly daunting. The plan involved a prosthetic nose created by specialists at UCLA's maxillofacial department.
To manage the recovery period before the prosthetic was ready, Caplan-Bennett's doctor provided a clear plastic form of her nose. She learned to attach it with surgical tape, cover it with Band-Aids for a flesh tone, and even decorated it with children's stickers. However, the temporary solution proved difficult to maintain, often feeling insecure and leading to condensation drips.
The process of obtaining a prosthetic nose was significantly longer than anticipated. What was expected to take four to five months extended to over ten months, involving an additional surgery to implant a device for the silicone nose to clip onto. This extended healing period, while challenging, meant she would ultimately have a clip-on prosthetic rather than one that needed daily gluing.
A New Path Forward
While undergoing this arduous journey, Caplan-Bennett, a writer by profession, began documenting her experience on a Caring Bridge website. What started as a way to update friends and family evolved into a daily blog filled with her thoughts and feelings about the ordeal.
Readers encouraged her to turn her blog into a book. After the initial year of recovery, Caplan-Bennett intended to write the memoir but deferred the project. The catalyst for finally writing the book came with the 2020 pandemic, which provided her with the time to transform her blog into a memoir titled "Noseworthy." The book was recently published by Hilltop30 Publishing Group.
Caplan-Bennett reflected on the irony of her situation: her greatest nightmare led to the realization of a lifelong dream to be a published author. She expressed gratitude for the meaningful connections made with readers of her work, though she also noted the sadness that her parents, who would have been proud, did not live to see her achievement. Despite the profound challenges, Caplan-Bennett concluded that she felt she came out ahead, embracing life after her ordeal.