1/4 Treatment Done + Hair-loss + Stuff I Get in the Mail

On Wednesday  (the day before turkey day), I had my 2/8 treatment, meaning I'm 1/4 the way done with 1 cycle finished.

Yay!

I normally have treatment on Thursday's every other week, but because of turkey day, I had mine the day before... along with every other cancer patient in Seattle.  The wait for treatment was 2 hours (!), that was a lot of pissed off cancer patients. I was in around 12:30 PM, and didn't get home until about 6:30- talk about long days.

This go around, was a little better thank my first treatment.  "Better" being relative: I didn't have the painful salivary gland pain problem, and my jaw pain from the V wasn't nearly as bad.  The bone crushing pain from nulasta wasn't present- or at least I didn't feel it as I had taken claritin every day after getting the shot.  I did have some nausea, but it was pretty light and easily managed with the anti-nausea drugs (although I imagine over eating on turkey day probably caused some of it).  The fatigue though hit me pretty hard, spending half the day in bed for the last 4 or 5 days, and currently I'm starting to slowly move to my "up week" with some energy.

Oh yeah- my hair has started to shed.  I might need another "trim" in the next couple of weeks. Which is a normal side effect of most chemotherapy drugs.  Basically the drugs attack the rapidly growing cells in the body- which are the cancer cells, stomach lining (hence nausea), mouth (mouth sores+ pain), and hair follicles.  Newly diagnosed: Most patients shave their heads, because well- it's kind of messy.  It tends to come out in clumps and patches- although everyone is different.  Mine is kind of shedding evenly- and pretty lightly, so far anyway.  If you're wondering- yes, of course it grows back after treatment.

Head coverings:  So I decided to wear a hat for my hair loss, with my hair cut to reduce stray hair being everywhere (I do have cats, so it's not like I'm not used to it).  I currently have 3 1/2 hats- I didn't put together the frog hat yet my friend Lynn sent me (shame on me).  

I think it might be "indoor" only (but I will wear it!)

My friend Tom in CA sent me the hat on the right, and my boss sent me the scarf on the left.  Did you know I like gray things?  I do- it matches all of my clothes.  Which are gray.  Entirely gray.  (Technically I do own 1 red sweater- honest).

Mainly I decided on a hat- because well, I'm a dude.  Any hat or super short hair cut/buzz cut/bald head will due.  It's a pretty easy decision. I'm a guy: as long as I wear a peacoat- I'll look good. Most "head coverings for cancer patients" are geared towards women- for obvious reasons, with scarves and wigs.  The hair pieces for men look like they belong on 1970's porn stars.  No seriously:

That or I'd have to start teaching wood-shop or something.

I'll just get a pair of big rimmed glasses instead: