Funny things about losing hair!

Here are Mo, Jack and me at home. I took this picture the other day before I went to a support group meeting for young cancer survivors. At the meeting, we were talking to a newbie about what happens when you lose your hair. There are some really funny things you don't realize so I thought I would share some of those things.

The first is the order of things. Now if you are faint of heart...STOP READING RIGHT HERE.:) However, this is how things go...you usually notice hair loss in the pubic area first. Then you lose hair on your head, hair on your legs, extraneous facial hair, eyelashes, eyebrows and NOSE HAIR!

Now everyone is different so not everyone loses hair in this order...this is just kind of the standard. Not every chemo makes you lose hair and not all people lose all hair in all of these places. This is just the average way things go. Once you lose hair on the head, it gets easier to accept. The actual shedding is the worst for most people. That is when it is depressing and can hurt. Once it is gone, you get used to the baldness. My hair is actually starting to grow back in. I have little blonde hairs all over my head. Such a crack up! I won't be able to wear it like normal hair for a couple of months.

Losing eyebrows and eyelashes can feel like another setback because you can hide behind wigs, but it is more of a challenge to wear false eyelashes or draw in brows. The docs actually don't want us to wear fake lashes as it can cause infection. I don't mess with it because I am lazy, but I will start to draw my brows in soon as long as I can make it look natural. I got some brow templates and brown eyeshadow. It makes it easy because I am a tomboy and don't like to wear a lot of makeup in the summer.

The nose hair is the funniest thing. I realized this one day when I was in a meeting at work a couple of years ago. The nose hairs are the last to go so you don't even realize they are going, but you will start to get it when snot runs out of your nose because there are no hairs to stop that process. So, if you cry or if you have a runny nose in general, you will start to feel like a toddler who always needs to have their nose wiped. I always carried a kleenex around and I would make jokes about being offensive. I would tell people that they just needed to forgive me if snot ran out of my nose because I didn't mean it. I just always try to make people feel okay with my disease. No nose hair is kind of a funny thing if you think about it.

Okay, we got a new refrigerator and I have to go load the food! Will write more later.

Blessings,
Lolo