How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #1
Doctors examined her inside and out, pressing her stomach, inserting new catheters into her bladder, fingers into her vagina and anus, needles into her veins. (40)
Though we know from her medical records that Henrietta's first radium treatment went smoothly, Skloot's description of the sick woman's experience seems terrible. Skloot's matter-of-fact language in describing these procedures conveys how quickly a person who suffers from a disease can be turned into a medical subject, one that can be poked and prodded without much regard. Cancer treatment is still a pretty awful business, despite treatment advances since Henrietta's time.
Quote #2
Henrietta's cousins always said a bit of Henrietta died the day they sent Elsie away, that losing her was worse than anything else that happened to her. (45)
Henrietta's doctors and family had convinced her that she could no longer handle her older daughter's special needs on her own, but she was never comfortable with the decision. And considering that so many difficult things happened in Henrietta's life, it really means something when the cousins say this was the worst thing.
Quote #3
One afternoon, as Henrietta lay on the couch, she lifted her shirt to show Margaret and Sadie what the treatments had done to her. Sadie gasped: The skin from Henrietta's breasts to her pelvis was charred a deep black from the radiation. (48)
Though Henrietta was able to keep the initial stages of her illness under wraps, she eventually found the burden too much to bear. By showing her scarring to cousin Sadie, Henrietta gains a witness to her suffering and also shows how the treatment is often as hard as the disease itself. It's possible Henrietta was given too high a dose of radiation.