Baldies' Blog began originally in the UK by a 26 year old journalist with a blood cancer on a mission to inform the world about bone marrow donation.

He has since died, and I took on the cause of making cancer care more transparent for everybody.

Cancer is a disease that will touch everybody through diagnosis or affiliation: 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed and 1 in 3 woman will hear those words, "You Have Cancer."

I invite you to read how I feel along my journey and
how I am continuing to live a full life alongside my Hodgkin's lymphoma, with me controlling my cancer, not my cancer controlling me.

I hope that "Baldies' Blog" will prepare you to handle whatever life sends you, but especially if it's the message, "You Have Cancer."

Get a playlist! Standalone player Get Ringtones

Monday, November 10, 2008

Due to the Economic Downturn. . .

Due to the economic downturn, I’ve been forced to make some difficult decisions in the budgeting department.
In the spirit of being frugal, I have decided to give up my hair. Included in this decision, I will continue to go without shampoo, combs, brushes, & razors.
I think this is a good all around decision. This step will also help me decrease prep time in the morning.
For real though, I have been getting a lot of questions about my hair, or lack there of.
See me, BC (before cancer) in the picture. This was taken on vacation the month before my diagnosis. Left to right it's Allen, Jon, me, & Heather. I knew I had cancer then. I was dropping pounds. I had fevers. I took more naps than my two year old.
I did have gorgeous, thick, wavy hair once.
Chemotherapy can take about twenty-one days before the side effect of “alopecia” occurs. Not all treatment has this side effect.
Woman can keep their hair longer through high doses of Vit. E (consult your doctor, this could thin your blood MORE) or not touching it. This means no washing, no touching, no primping, no nothing.
I did not and will not lose every hair on my head (or any where else for that matter).
I had random bald spots. I have a bald handprint on the left side of my head because I sleep on the left, with my hand over my face and head.
I’m an all-or-nothing girl. I don’t like to start things I can’t finish. I voted to shave it.
Also, there was the economic advantage.
I think this was empowering. My hair started to misbehave and I dealt with it.
Losing hair is messy. It is also uncomfortable, if not painful.
In all honesty, before I had cancer, I have looked at my friends and thought, if I had their hair, it would be gone. In college, girls regularly would go out with their scarves.
This just doesn’t happen in New England. I’d show pictures, but then my friends would no longer be my friends.
I encouraged my gorgeous niece, with unruly hair, to buzz it and show her face.
My biggest problem with no hair is that I get cold.
Yes, it has all ready begun to grow back. I will (hopefully, cross your fingers, knock on wood) not be needing further treatment.
It will grow in eventually.
For now, it all just makes economic sense.

No comments: