Monday, December 27, 2010

Big Hairy Deal

It has begun.

Each day I give my hair a good tug. I don't want this hair-loss episode sneaking up on me. I want to know when it happens - makes me feel like I have a little control of the situation. I am starting to lightly shed. When I give a tug, I now get a few hairs. A shampoo yields even more.

Dramatized cancer always shows the hair coming out in big chunks. It never shows that for days prior to the chunks you just shed. Robbie and I both agree that when it gets to "chunk" time that we'll shave my head. I probably have a few days until that happens. So the jury is still out about whether I will start the year looking like Baby New Year!

I am bizarrely excited about this whole hair loss thing. To me, this says that the chemotherapy is doing all that it is supposed to be doing. If I didn't start to lose my hair I would worry that it wasn't killing the cancer cells either.

Thursday is my next round of chemotherapy. I am a little anxious. I have felt back to my normal self over the last few days. I will miss feeling normal. I am not looking forward to the steroids and the crash that follows. I also dread the loss of taste, though that may be a good thing after the holiday indulgences. I have also read that chemotherapy can be accumulative so some side effects may get worse. Or I may have additional side effects I didn't have the first time.

The discomfort is the price I have to pay to kick this. And the the price for long-term quality is often higher than you initially want to pay. But 20 years from now it will seem like a bargain.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

2 comments:

  1. I'm so glad to hear that positive attitude! You are totally going to kick cancer's ass, and I am anxious to see you do it. You go girl! (Insert cheerleading sounds here.)

    OXOXOx
    ---S

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  2. You are kicking so much ass!

    My friend who just finished up 20 weeks of chemo just shaved it all because it was irritating her. Her husband and sons did it too. She too is a beautiful wonderful person kicking cancer's ass.

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