September 29, 2009

• Hair

  Hair?

  Yes, I actually have *some* hair to talk about today!

  By the way - yesterday's radiation visit was tolerated by me.  Tears rolled down my cheeks several times.  I just couldn't help it.  The radiology oncologist doctor was unsympathetic and . . . well . . . let's just say I'm VERY GLAD she won't be my doctor after I'm finished with these last 6 (yes, I'm counting!) radiation treatments.  I'll go back to my regular oncologist and her nurse - whom I trust and REALLY like.

  Yesterday was a day needing faith to get me through.  I prayed on the xray table and felt nothing.  I asked for God's presence to make me feel more secure, and I felt nothing.  Those are the times when you have to just know that you know He is always present and *does* hear prayers.  There wasn't one "feeling" that connected me to Him, and I felt very alone lying there.  But, I was not.  I know that.  I know that because He promised to never leave us or forsake us . . . AND, He doesn't lie. 

  So, "feel it" or not - He was there.

  ===========================

  Now, about my hair!!! 

  I attempted to take pictures (always a hit or miss success!!!) of my no longer bald head.  Many would still call me bald; but, I prefer to say I have a "tennis ball" type fuzz or hair growth, all over my head - especially in the back, above my neck. 

  I was worried, at first, when my hair began to grow back in a U-shape over my ears and behind, at the base of my neck.  It left the front and top very shiny and bald.  I feared it would grow back in looking like a public restroom's toilet seat - you know? that famous, black U-shape!!!

  If I look in the right light, I see hairs standing straight up all over my head.  It may be a quarter of an inch long and that, possibly, could be an exaggeration!!!  But, it's hair.  And, I'm glad!  Much of it is platinum (white white) and you can't see it in these pictures.

                   
  Who would have thought a person could rejoice at the "smallest appearance of hair" and find it a lovely gift????!!!!

  All the little red dots, or freckles, are a result of the chemo therapy and I doubt they will ever go away.  They are all over my face, too, and possibly the rest of my body.  I don't know because I can't see my back!!!

  A small price to pay for killing cancer cells. 

  That is how I must look at everything, right now.  I weigh the price (the side effects) of the long term good.  It's a harder stretch for me to imagine the long term good of radiation therapy, but I am submitting myself to the treatments . . . that's as "accepting" as I can be about radiation.

                             
  If you look across the top of my head (at the black background over my scalp) you can see the little hairs standing up, just like a newborn baby.

  And this is the most hair - the hair at the base of my skull/neck.
     
                                   I can actually grab a hold of and pinch the hair, here.

          
                              HOWEVER . . . Chirper still remains the one with more hair than me!!!! LOL
                                             (Yes!  That is last night's dinner on the tip of his nose!)

          
           BUT, we are neck and neck in the eyelash competition; and, I may have him beat in the eyebrow game!
                               (See all the little dots on my face?  My chest is the same way.)

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  Annamarie is still sick in bed.  She missed school yesterday.  So as not to overwhelm her, I gave small assignments yesterday.  That way, she won't have so much work to catch up.  Rissy sounds the same this morning, but her voice and nose problem cleared up yesterday afternoon.  Hers may be more like allergies and Annamarie's is a regular old fashioned cold.

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  After yesterday's appointment, Jesse took me to my favorite craft store.  It's less expensive and larger than Michael's.  I went in by myself.  I found a clock for our mantel (I never finished redoing our fireplace area a month or so ago) and I needed to buy some Christmas silk florals for a friend who is a missionary overseas.  I quickly found a clock - cheaper than the rest of them - that was one of a kind.  It was perfect and Jesse commented on it when I placed it above the fireplace.

  CAN YOU BELIEVE the Christmas florals were already marked down HALF PRICE???!!!!!!!     It's only September, for crying out loud!  

  I bought a few stems on sale and headed back out front, where Jesse and the girls were waiting in the Suburban.  I am still shaking my head over the fact Christmas things are OUT, much less marked down!

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  I've lost about 20 pounds, since starting cancer treatment.  I can see it in the little vertical lines in my cheeks and my rings are REALLY loose.  Just where I needed to lose weight - in my fingers!!!! LOL!!!!

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  Our weather has been (and will be all week) gorgeous.  Upper 70's and low 80's for highs.  The nights are chilly and it makes a difference in the house when we wake up.  We aren't ready to turn on the heater, just yet, not even for a chilly morning.  They are even saying we could have thunderstorms by Thursday.  Of course, like always, the weatherman say our city is "right on the line" of the approaching weather pattern.  "It *could* happen, and, then again, it *might* not."

  With those vague reports, *I* could be a weather reporter, too!!! LOL

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  It's time for me to get off of here, brush my teeth, and start school.  I'm still not planning ahead.  I simply write down (in my school planner) what we accomplish on a given day.  I'm not in the mood for copying hand out sheets for homework, so the girls only have their school assignments to do and no "after class" work. 

  Since everything is done "at home" - I guess "homework" is a wrong use of their *after class* work!!!  LOL

                      

  Be Blessed  ~

  • 11:04 am
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