Velcro Head- just for fun

I got a couple of really nice comments on my blog this week and I realized that I probably should try a post a little more often, and maybe not always be quite so pathetic. I don't want everyone thinking that I'm so deep ALL the time....So, in an effort to lighten things up after a few weeks of deeply darkest dark things..

After about 15 days into my second cycle of the A/C chemo, the dark stubble on my head started falling out.  I keep thinking that at some point that I'm going to actually lose ALL my hair.  But no, only the dark stuff fell out last time, which was a relief, because it was NOT a pretty site, but I still have all these short blonde hairs all over my head.  I also have a patch on the back of my head that is still dark and stubbly - it reminds me of those ancient Asian warriors who shaved their heads except for just the patch in the back and then they had a really long braid.  I'm not sure I could rock that look either, but that's what it reminds me of.  Luckily I can't really see that part unless I pull out a hand mirror to check out the back of my head, and these days, why the heck would I do that!??

I tried to take a picture of my velcro head...but you can't really see the blondies! (oh, but the age spots and wrinkles show up real great!)

Another picture to show the current state of my eyebrows and eyelashes. As you can see I still have some of both, but they are in a pretty pitiful state.  I keep hoping that I will be able to get through this with at least some of them still intact, but I still have the 2nd half of this round to go through (I usually go through a de-hairing around day 15) and one more, plus the taxitere. 


Still, a girl can hope.  At this point, the only one who really cares about this is me and anyone who ventures to my house to visit.  
Usually, if I know I'm getting a visitor, I WILL shower, make some effort with makeup and put on my "dress pajamas".  A girl's gotta have SOME standards!

Velcro head PLUS Clean Bathroom!

Speaking of standards, I cleaned my bathroom today!!  WAHOO!...!  I mean...I really HATE cleaning my bathroom, so I'm not excited about THAT,  but what I hate more is a dirty bathroom.  Up til now we have been paying my 17 yo to clean the bathrooms and vaccuum but she quit last week because she got a real job and she is a senior and her life is more important than me having a clean bathroom....   boo for me.  I'm not sure I can hire a real cleaning lady for what I was paying her.  I looked into "Cleaning for a reason".  This is the charitable organization that will set up free house-cleaning for cancer patients, but alas, there was no one in my area that was hooked up with them, so...no free housecleaning for me. 

I'm feeling much better today, so when I say I cleaned it, I mean I really cleaned it...pulled the cabinet away from the wall.... (GASP!) and wiped down the wall behind the toilet and everything.  Then I got hubs to scrape off the nasty 20 yo caulk off of it and recaulk it fresh.   It's still a butt ugly blue cast iron tub with pepto bismol pink tiles, but at least for today it is clean clean clean...(I mention this cuz you can see a bit of the ugliness in the background of my photos- see how clean the ugly pink tiles are???...that is my go to photo mirror to take head shots of me with my iphone.)

Yes, I am finally feeling BETTER!  Not great, my stupid knees and ankle are still swollen and painful, but at least I'm not so nauseous.  At the advice from my oncologist's nurse, I started taking Compazine on top of Zofran and that helped a lot.  Yesterday, I think I even managed to eat 3 or 4 times...(does 1/4 tub of Kozy Shack chocolate pudding count as a meal? I think it does!)

I haven't had a repeat performance of  hives either, so either the steroids that I'm taking are helping or I broke the cycle.  (my bet is on the steroids).  

Swami PIXIE BADASS....?

I also started taking an additional drug that my Doctor prescribed awhile ago to help my antidepressants work better.. (IMHO it's a whole big pharmaceutical scam, but I think that is a whole OTHER blog to talk about!) 


but anyway....

One of the side effects is that it makes you really sleepy, but I've taken it two nights in a row and slept through both nights!  I had really vivid crazy dreams, but at least I slept all night and didn't have to keep waking up to pop some xanax to get back to sleep.  I'm not wanting to take it on the regular, but if it means I can cut out 3 other drugs that weren't working ok, and I get some sleep in the bargain, I'm on board for now.  

It's totally frustrating to be at the complete mercy of medications, but for now, anyway, everything seems to be working, so I will leave it at that and call myself happy.  

I can't get into see my Rheumatologist until this Thursday- they are squeezing me in around 5pm, so any guesses on how long I'll actually be there?  I have a new hat I'm wanting to try out, and it's amazing how much knitting you can get done in a doctor's office waiting room- trust me!

The new hat is a slouchy style beanie with.....a CABLE brim!  I've never done cable, so this is sure to be VERY exciting.  I keep hoping that I will find the magical hat pattern that will not make me look like a Q Tip on legs.  I've knit 4 hats now, and the only one I wear on the regular in that stupid infant hat that I made wrong!  Here's a picture of what the (airquotes) EASY (air unquotes) Cable Slouch Beanie looks like on a person with hair....I'm sure it will look much worse on me, but I'm willing to give it a go, at the very least, I'll finally be able to say that I have knit cables.