In 2012, Professor Adam Galinsky at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and his colleague Hajo Adam coined the idea known as Enclothed Cognition in an article published in The Journal of Experimental Psychology. Their findings showed that there is a systematic influence clothing has on the wearer’s psychological process. That is to say, once we associate a piece of clothing to a meaning, what we wear affects our mentality.
Psychologist Karen Pine at University of Hertfordshire went even further to state that not only are we what we wear, but we become what we wear in her book Mind What You Wear: The Psychology of Fashion published in 2014.
Getting ready for my PORT, I had to wear 2 gowns for coverage
In short, our clothing affects our mindset and our behavior. When we put on a dapper suit or an elegant dress, we immediately stand taller with our backs straight, shoulders rolled back, and even speak in a more polished tone. By the same token, anyone who had ever stayed in a hospital would agree that putting on that flimsy, pale, shapeless patient gown with gaping back make us feel helpless and vulnerable, hunching our backs and dragging our feet as we move around.
That was how I felt when I was suddenly diagnosed with Lymphoma in autumn 2014 and needed to be hospitalized for long periods of time for the necessary medical treatments, which included multiple rounds of chemotherapy. Being diagnosed with a grim disease was shocking enough, but the subsequent changes in my life were just as devastating.
I have always been a strong and independent woman. I have lived and worked in high demanding jobs as a professional in many countries around the world. I am not a control freak, but I was used to being in control of my life. All of a sudden, everything was out of my hands. Once I was hooked up to the IV, I couldn’t do anything by myself, couldn’t bathe, couldn’t loo, couldn’t even change in and out of my own clothes without asking for help. This sense of helplessness made me wanted to just stay in bed and not move.
For 8 months, I called this ‘my boyfriend’ cause I couldn’t go anywhere without it when I am getting 24hours infusion for 5 days.
But I wasn’t supposed to stay immobile. Patients are supposed to get up and do moderate exercises like walking in a secure area, even when they are hooked up to a drip for the next 24 hours, in order to promote a normal flow of bodily functions and shake off bed fatigue. Since the patient gown was just too flimsy and its gaping back was just too exposing, I wanted a garment of some sort that provided coverage, comfort, easy access for the various medical needs, and that I could put on and take off without any assistance.
But after some extensive research, the products I found all provide coverage, comfort, and easy medical access to a certain extent, but none of them allow patients to put on and take off by themselves without assistance during infusion.
Basically, products that are currently available in the market can be categorized into 2 different groups:
1. Outerwear with zippers on sleeves and chest for infusion access. Problem: Patients cannot put it on or pull it off without interrupting the infusion.
2. T-shirt design with a line of snap buttons on one or both sides of the shoulder and side torso area. Problem: With the many snap buttons, it is difficult for patients to put on or take off the garment by themselves without any assistance. Patients might also impair the infusion process or damage the garment if they try to yank off the snaps themselves by force.
I was frustrated that I couldn’t find any garment that provided coverage, comfort, and easy access for both myself and the medical treatments. And if I felt the frustration, I’m sure other patients like myself feel the same way.