The Battle of Chemotherapy Part 2

Before cutting my hair to donate.

My hair has always been a source of vanity for me. Right before I started chemo, it was very long and black and shiny. I loved it and knowing I was going to lose it, made me a little sad but I decided that instead of being sad, someone else should benefit.

So I took my hair when it was completely dry and made small ponytails up to my shoulders. I took the scissors and started cutting right above the ponytail holder. I decided that before I lost my hair, I would donate 12 inches of it to help others. It was empowering to know that my loss could help someone else. If you are planning on doing the same, remember to do this when your hair is totally dry because I read that often the donations cannot be used because the hair is damp when cut. When it is sent out over a few days time, the damp hair will mildew and becomes unusable.

After cutting my hair to donate.

After I had the donation hair cut off, I was able to trim it up to a cute chin length bob that had a some long parts in the front. After all I was only 38 at the time and still wanted to look cute and cool.

About 2 weeks after my round of chemotherapy, my hair starting coming out. At first it was about 10-15 strands  when I would run my fingers through it. The by the next day it was more like 50-75 through my brush.

I wanted to take ownership of my hair loss. I have 3 kids and decided to wait for them to be home from school before I did anything because I didn't want them to come home and mom be bald and be all shocked.

After shaving my head.

So that night after dinner, I told my youngest that we were going to cut mom's hair. My two teenagers kinda just shrugged it off and to be honest, it was the 7 year old I was most concerned about anyways. I grabbed my clippers and my little boy and I went into the bathroom and I explained to him that I was losing my hair because of the medicine I was taking and we were going to shave it off. So with him in there with me, I took a #1 guard and started shaving. I took control. The next day I went to a salon and had them shave it down more because it was hard getting the back and they could do it with out a guard on.

I still had some stubble that never completely fell out no matter how much I massaged my head. Some people find it very itchy or uncomfortable and will choose to use a razor to get it all the way off.

One of my ways of having fun with the hair loss was cool wigs. Who says you have to have a traditional color? On ebay and amazon you can find cos-play wigs (from China mostly)

of every color and style. I have previous had nontraditional colored hair in my life so this was not a huge stretch for me. Also, when my eyebrows finally fell out one month after chemo ended, I decided that it was time for me to be artistic. So every day I used liquid eyeliner and drew on some very interesting eyebrows.

I made the choice to make this into a positive thing and have fun with it. I didn't want to be depressed about my hair, so I just took ownership and basically said "Screw you cancer!"

Don't misunderstand me, I did have a sadness about losing my hair. I took a couple of days to feel sad but then I had to suck it up because being sad did not help me keep my hair.

Part 3 in the Battle of Chemotherapy will be about eating, fingernails and more side effects.

2 months post-chemo, got some fuzz coming in.

The Battle of Chemotherapy

The next stop in my War on Uterine Cancer was chemotherapy. I didn't know what to expect and that is a little scary. I remember being on the phone the night before with a friend having a bit of anxiety and being a bit hyper from the steroids I had to take.

My first 4 hour date with chemo.

I didn't sleep at all that night and the next day was dragging ass. It turned out to not be awful. I was in a room sitting in a comfy chair with other chemo patients. The nurse gave me a warmed blanket and pillows. I brought my lap top with because 4 hours is a long time with nothing to do.

The chemo meds in my drip were Carboplatin, Taxotere and an anti-nausea that I don't recall the name of right now. Then 24 hours after I was done with chemo I had to give myself a shot of Neulasta. That was the part I was concerned about, giving myself a shot. The first time I had my neighbor help me because she was used to giving herself shots of insulin. The Neulasta can cause bone pain so I had to take Claritin starting the day of chemo and for 4-5 days after.

I had to do 6 rounds of chemo, one every three weeks. The side effects were not easy to deal with but by far not as bad as I expected or had heard about from others. I did lose my hair but I will discuss that in my next post.

The biggest side effect for me was the tiredness. It was like this bone weariness that no matter how much sleep I got, wasn't able to get away from for about a week.

The first 2 days after a round of chemo I was ok because I was also given oral steroids to take and wow those gave me some energy. I took 4 pills the day before chemo and 4 the day after. I was also given anti-nausea meds ondansetron 8mg and prochlorperazine 10mg. Those pills were amazing at keeping me from vomiting. I was still feeling queezy here and there and the doc gave me another anti-nausea to take that was fast acting if it came on suddenly.

After the first 2 days, then I noticed things starting to happen. My body felt like it was walking through mud and then after about 5 day it got easier and was like walking through water. By day 7 I was only walking through sand. I was still tired but not as to the bone tired.

As a single mother of 3, I still had things to get done. It was time to get kids back in school for the year and there was no one to help with that as I have no close family. So I just sucked it up, no matter how bad I felt and went and bought new shoes, clothes, school supplies etc.. I also was having diarrhea so before I went anywhere I made sure I was taking some Imodium AD just to make it through the trip and always brought water or a sports drink with me.

So this isn't the end of my chemotherapy info but I will discuss losing my hair and other side effects in the next post.