Well. There's nothing like shedding huge hunks of hair. Huge hunks of LONG hair. I knew going in that one of the most visible field marks of a person undergoing chemo is hair loss. One of the drugs I'm on has hair loss as a side effect and one doesn't. The odds were good that I'd lose my hair. I considered donating it to one of those hair for wigs places, but inertia won out. Yesterday I pulled out a hair brush and it pulled out my hair.
As background, I last had my hair cut when I was young (I was so young I wasn't birding yet). My mother took me in for a hair cut without telling my father. After work I greeted him at the door when he came home and he cried. I'd never seen him cry before. My dad cried because my hair was short. This was the start of the great bangs war. I hated bangs. I never cut my hair again. Trim the ends? Sure. But not cut. And that was a lot of years ago. I'm used to having long hair - though every summer as a kid I'd threaten to get a buzz cut. Long hair is so hot! Now's my chance, LOL!
Don't get me wrong, I still have some hair today but it's a lot thinner. And today it's a lot less important, though yesterday it was surprise.
Of all the potential side effects of the chemo drugs, hair loss is a social inconvenience at worst. It will most likely grow back once I've defeated this cancer so it's just a short term oddity. But it was still shocking to see all that hair coming out. And no, I don't plan to do wigs or turbins or the like, but a sun hat will be a requirement when I go out. And I hope to avoid as many of those other side effects as possible. The list is horrific.
I've been feeling pretty good, I can walk a half a mile but I'm puffing at the end (middle?) of it. My temperature seems to have stabilized in a more normal range and I even have appetite! One night this week I woke up and ate another meal because I was HUNGRY. That's so much better than forcing myself to eat every single bite. And thanks to KR and SH I have a box of protein drinks for after the next treatment, hoping that will help keep my energy up. I've gotten practice at chugging liquids without tasting them, like CT contrast. All these survival skills I'm picking up, LOL!
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Reminder -
If you want to see my suggestions for contacting me without causing me stress or adding to an already emotional roller coaster, see this page. To start at the beginning, see https://marybirds.blogspot.com/2019/03/testing-testing.html.
