Chemo Chronicles: The New Do...

SO... This was my "new do"... Remember?

I knew that the Adriamycin that is part of my chemotherapy makes everyone lose their hair. I had heard that the hair loss started about 2 weeks after your first treatment.

I had my first treatment on Monday, April 12th.

Sure enough....

2 Mondays later, while talking on the phone to a friend... my hair started coming out.

I knew this because I had been playing with it all morning... just waiting for the inevitible.
This was the Monday pile... every time I ran my fingers through my hair, out it came.

I didn't wake up to a pile on my pillow, but Tuesday morning I took a shower. It looked like a rat had died in my shower by the time I was done.
Then... because I am something of a "Picker"... you know ... like I pick at my nail polish when it starts to chip.... I started really working through my hair. I thought... somewhat delusionally... that if I just got all the loose stuff out, it would stop for a bit.
So I stood next to my sink and kind of "milked" my hair.... you know like milking a cow... I would grab a patch and start just going over it and the hair would come streaming out... like a waterfall.
After about a half hour.... I had this...

and decided enough was enough..... I was not going to spend all day obsessing...
literally pulling my hair out.
So I called my friend and asked her to meet me at the barbershop where my boys get their hair cut (when I don't do it).
I went to Ann's because her dad just went through cancer treatments... so she gets it.
I said... "Hey Ann, Got time to buzz me?"
And so she did. Down to about a half inch.
So at least when I read my book and pulled at my hair the next couple days, I only got little stacks of these...
{Sorry... not a good picture...}
Thursday, Ben got home from school and told me it looked like I had a "hair maze" on my head... you know... where the hair is just the outline for the bald-headed maze.
So I buzzed it down to nothing... Sadly, this is all I had left to buzz... it's on a washcloth.
The stubble bothered me, so the next morning I got out these...

And now I look like this....

Around the house, I go bald/comfortable.... At least I have a decent shaped head. I do have a little bump on the top and a mole on the back that I didn't know was there. Oh well.

Having no hair messes with my temperature, so sometimes my head is cold & I cover it... then 2 minutes later... I am so warm I can't stand it. Weird.

I am not "wigging." I do like my scarves though.

My dear husband calls this my "Pirate Girl" look.... "Arrrrgh!"

I do love the big earrings though!