So, my devoted Cake Eater readers, I haven't talked about my hair in a while, so I should probably remedy that, eh?
I actually have some right now, which is good. I enjoy the fact that I have hair now. It beats baldness...with a short, pointy stick, and it beats it easily, with little to no effort extended. Particularly since it's gotten cold outside and my head chills easily. Even though my hair is currently shorter than most of the dos you see on the average dude, I'm really beyond caring at this point in time. It's going to be ugly for a very long time and I've accepted that fact. Plus, I'm saving money on shampoo and product, as I don't use very much. So, there's that bonus, too, right? I should be counting my blessings, right?
Well, I think something's happening in regards to the hair and I don't know that it's going to be a good thing.
When I went to chemo class at the oncologist's office, they gave me this handy dandy expandable file folder (generously provided by Amgen, raper and pillager of cancer patients and their insurance companies everywhere), chock-a-block loaded with valuable information for those of us unlucky enough to go through chemotherapy. In it was one sheet regarding hair loss.
I thus quoteth from the sheet:
{...}Prior to hair loss, you may experience various sensations on your scalp such as tingling, itching or hurting. When you're able to pull out small tufts of hair, you will probably lose your hair within three days.{...}It usually takes about six months for your hair to grow back to normal. As your hair begins to grow, it appears as "vellus hair." This soft, fluffy hair will last about two months. It gradually falls out and is replaced by more normal growing hair.
In about four months your hair may grow in curly. If your choose to have your hair colored, wait four months after your final treatment. The first time you have your hair colored, the color will not take very well, but the second time it should take normally.
It is best to wait six months after your last treatment to perm your hair. The recommended type of Perm is ISO Partin.
I did the math. The fuzz started coming in about a month after my last taxol treatment in July, so we'd be talking mid-August, for those of you keeping score at home. For about a week or two, it was simply comprised of white fuzz, that you couldn't see very well. Then the brown stuff started growing in, and by the last part of October, I felt comfortable enough with the coverage to go out of the house without my head wrapped up in a scarf. People stopped staring about this point in time, which was good, too. Right now, it's filled in nicely, and is sticking up in odd places, to the point where, if you catch me at the right moment, (like right after I pull my hat off) I vaguely resemble Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade. The hair is very fine, but it's my natural color, and Thank God, there's no gray coming in.
However, it appears there's a catch. You see, given the above information, I fully expected this brown stuff that I have now to fall out in October. But it didn't. It stayed put and I somewhat forgot about the fact that it might fall out. I knew that the new, and most likely curlier, stuff would come in soon enough, but after October passed without any hair loss, I somewhat forgot about it. Until now.
You see, for the past week or so, I haven't had any body hair growth to speak of. It's been very light and shaving, which isn't my favorite activity to begin with, has pretty much been kaiboshed. I didn't think too much of it. There's still a lot going on with my body, even lo these many months since the last chemo IV. I just figured it was something else, and it was nothing to worry about. As long as it's not painful or very disturbing, my general policy is not to be bothered about it. But yesterday, my scalp started hurting again, like it did when I lost my hair back in the spring. The best explanation I can come up with for this tenderness is that it feels like you've had your hair in a pony tail for too long. I know that doesn't help those of my devoted Cake Eater readers who've never had hair long enough to put back in a pony tail, but I don't know how else to explain it. It's just sore and tingly. Which, I don't think bodes well. It feels just like it did back then. Given the sparse information on the "four month out" period, I don't know if this means I'll go bald again, and then the regular hair will grow back in, or if this just means it's growing back, and will gradually replace the hair I have now.
Sigh. And just in time for Christmas, too!
I tried to call Dr. Academic's super-duper-helpful-with-the-information-nurse about this yesterday, but it turns she's out on maternity leave. (Seriously, I didn't even know she was preggers until I saw her last month. The woman didn't show AT ALL until the very end.) I didn't want to deal with the B-Team, because they always hand off conflicting, and sometimes wrong, information, so I left it alone. I'm somewhat in the dark right now about just will happen, but this year has been shitty enough all the way around, so it wouldn't surprise me one little bit if all the hair fell out and I was bald for Christmas, and New Years---and in the middle of winter, when it's freakin' cold outside, too. That would just be my luck.
Posted by Kathy at December 22, 2007 11:03 AM | TrackBack