Hair

It can be a pain in the tooshie sometimes.  It gets dirty, it gets greasy, it gets misshaped (?) by beds and pillows, and often one just has a bad day with it.  It must occasionally be shampoo'd, combed, brushed, teased, curled, straightened, tinted, highlighted, perm'd, detangled, braided and what have you.  And it must sometimes be cut.

We've heard that sometime after the 2nd chemo session is when most people lose their hair.  For the past week, Wendi has had more of it come out in the shower and throughout the day.  With all that hair, losing some has always been a part of the deal.  But during this weeks visit, the oncologist said that at some point it would start to hurt as the hair began falling out and the scalp would get tender.  She recommended cutting it before it got too far along down that path.

For the past few days, Wendi has felt her head get a bit tender and sore.  We thought all week that maybe July 4th would be the day.  Her hair looked good today, just like usual.  She wasn't losing too much.  But we decided to do it.

Jenna would be the one to use the scissors and I would wield the shaver.  We got all situated in our big bathroom and were about to start.  Jenna grabbed about an inch worth of hair and brought the scissors up to cut.  It was harder than we all thought!  We all just started crying!  It took a minute or two to get our acts together and then she went for it.  She cut it down to about an inch or so in length and then I went over it with a #4.  Next was #1, then no attachment at all.  We didn't dare do the razor thing - we don't want her to get cut with the worries about immune systems and germs and all.  So, we stopped right there.  So, she's down to just a bit of fuzz there.   We are all honestly impressed.  Wendi has a beautiful cranium under there.  It's just perfectly shaped and we could never appreciate it because of all that 80's hair.  It really isn't as drastic as we all thought it would be.  I wouldn't say we are completely used to it, but we're adapting quickly.

Her chemo session on Wednesday went OK.  The sickness afterwards hit sooner this time.  By 2 or 3pm she was starting to drag.  She still managed to go for a walk that day and the next day too.  It is the shot that I giver her the evening of day-2 that seems to really hit hard.  It is some kind of bone medicine that attempts to jump-start the good cell production inside the bones.  It really makes her achy and feeling cruddy.  She was not doing that great today.  Overall, not a good day for Wendi.

We are proud of our country on our Independence Day holiday today.  We would normally have been off on some kind of grand travel adventure this weekend, but are now here at home to celebrate.  We had a good scripture reading and discussion on the 4th of July and the Star Spangled Banner.  Earlier today I took Alex and some scouts to the laundromat to work on his Eagle Project.  We had some donated clothes to launder and it went well.

We are happy to have the blessings we do as Americans and the opportunity to be overseas as well, to experience other cultures.  We cherish the support we get from family and friends as we work through this most current challenge.  Thanks for your concern and kind words.

Mark K.