When you go through chemo, you should shave your head if you don’t really want to know when you lose your hair but even if you DO shave your head you can FEEL when your hair WOULD fall out, your head gets all tender and sore, it really hurts when people touch it so, when your hair starts to fall out try to avoid people touching your head.
Recovery from chemo2 has been miles better than chemo1. Correcting my inadvertently doubled steroid prescription allowed me to sleep the nights immediately following my infusion and to skip the hangover that kept me moaning on the couch days 5, 6 and 7 last time round.
Still, late Tuesday afternoon, I fell into a Sudden Valley of self-pity.
Maybe it was the lurking nausea that makes me gasp at smells, repetition and gross thoughts of all kinds; the accumulating isolation and detachment from normal, happy, healthy life; or the banning of all my favourite treats.
Whatever the reason, I fell fairly hard and spent most of two days in a smile-free limbo that included two temper tantrums, relentless grimacing and the frenzied consumption of a family-sized bag of Miss Vickie’s Salt & Vinegar chips.
And then they opened the Rideau Canal Skateway.
No sugar, no caffeine, no alcohol, no germs. Just the swish, swish of strong legs on blades on ice.
And life is good again.
Turns out those tiny bristles poke into your noggin if you don’t sleep just the right way.
Who’d have guessed.
It’s a short term inconvenience, though, as I have fewer and fewer of them every day:
Today was Andrea’s second chemotherapy session. As always, she was a champ. I sometimes wonder how I would fair in the same situation.
Today, as I watched Andrea’s medicine bags drain I clued in to a celebratory atmosphere just opposite where we were sitting. It was a gathering of nurses making a happy fuss over someone as they were disconnecting all of the tubes; disconnecting for the last time as it turns out. Then there was a procession of nurses clapping and hooting as they followed the patient down the hallway of clinic for what will hopefully be their last visit there.
My focus for chemotherapy is to keep our heads down and power through. If we can keep Andrea healthy, she can remain on schedule and we can listen to the nurses cheer her on as we leave the chemo clinic for the last time on April 2.
Look what just arrived!
A peachy chemo-cap from our friends Katherine Matthews and Rob Lee.
My barren head will be nice and cozy thanks to our generous and skillful friends.
Thank you!!
Strip: Hand made head warmth from talented and generous women 1. Katherine Matthews, 2. Debbie Etherington, 3. Whitney Hoffman & 4. Whitney Hoffman. Thank you!
Mark
Andrea
Lucy* (
Bayla* (*Luba = Lucy and Bayla
