Help Me Find a Thing
 

A long time ago, there was a story somewhere on this board of a woman receiving unanesthetized surgery in the 1900s or so. I think it was a breast tumor removal? And I'm pretty sure it was a first-person account, her describing what the doctor did and what it felt like in a letter to her sister or something.

I've searched every combination of terms I can think of, and can't find it. Anyone have any idea what I'm talking about?

Was it this?
http://cellar.org/showpost.php?p=71016&postcount=43

No, that's not it. I admit I can't remember if it was copy/pasted, or a link, or even a jpeg of the letter.

Http://www.cellar.org/showthread.php...=lester+letter

You're welcome.

Thanks, that was a cool one too. But it's definitely not the one I'm thinking of. It was about a woman getting her boob cut off, and holding her arm above her head and telling the doctor to just do it quick so she could bear the pain.

I've just had a flashback that Hawaii might have had something to do with it. Lemme keep looking...

Okay, I have now figured out from the internet at large that it is a somewhat famous letter, written by Frances Burney, about her mastectomy in 1811. Still can't find the freaking text of the letter, but have found numerous academic references to its existence.

Ah ha!!

No no no!

It was this one. See, Hawaii did have something to with it. And still, I can't find the reference to it on the Cellar, but I swear I did hear about it here.

And was it in the cellar?

Dr Moreau? :eek:

Ahh, the second story isn't as bad... not good, just not as bad.

Still couldn't find it. I'm thinking it was a link, which is why none of the text of the letter was searchable here. But I was even searching for things like "tough" and "lady/woman," since surely someone would have replied that she was such, and yet nothing, so maybe I'm hallucinating.

Perhaps not Clod. I remember following the via link in the Lester Letter thread opening post that BigV cited. It leads to the Letters of Note website which has the Lester Letter (titled Servant until Death) and also contains your Deep Sickness Seized Me letter.

On the left side of the page is a list of the website's most read letters as links and I've scrolled through them before. At that time, late 2009, I think a brief description appeared as the cursor highlighted each one. IIRC, the link to your letter was on that list and looked something like: Deep Sickness Seized Me - first hand account of Lucy Thurston's unanaesthetised mastectomy. The descriptions no longer appear even though there's a plus sign (+) preceding each title. That's a shame since the titles can be ambiguous.

I found the letter interesting enough; but, decided against posting it in The Cellar. I didn't think it would be well received back then when Trilby was still going through turmoil from her experience, monster had a friend affected, and Sundae's mom did too. It may have seemed insensitive while those conversations were taking place.

Perhaps someone else posted it. Perhaps they had second thoughts and deleted it. There's a way to search for links and attachments which I did (cursory searches); but, I didn't find it either. That doesn't mean your original encounter with it didn't stem from The Cellar.

I remember reading it. Can't remember if it was from a link or someone posted the text. However, I definitely read it.

Hi Lola Bunny!

Help Me Find a Thing
 

Fargon is happy he found da Lola Bunny; but, Clod still wants dat ding