Conversations on the Playground

I picked up Claire from school one day last week.  We got there a little early and so Bryce got to play on the swings at the park.  There was another mom there pushing a couple boys on the swings, too.  We said hello and then after a bit she complimented my short hair.  In my head of course I was thinking about why my hair is so short.

As we chatted, she told me about her friend who had to have brain surgery to remove a tumor and how her head was half shaved and she didn't know what to do, but kind of needed to do something... she said she was going to tell her friend about my cute hair cut.

Well, that kind of opened the door so I told her actually the reason my hair was so short was because chopped it off before I started chemo and now I'm waiting... waiting... waiting for it to start falling out.  And so the conversation continued... she asked me some questions.  Does chemo make your lose your hair or does radiation?  I told her chemo, unless you have radiation on your head, then it can cause hair loss too (I read that somewhere).  She said if her friend ends up needing radiation, it would be on her head.  Then she told me the friend has been waiting 18 days for the pathology results on her brain tumor, thus doesn't know if she'll need radiation or anything else yet.  I'm sure there is more too it, but that seems like a really long time!

It was re-confirmed to me once again that I am so happy I have done my surgery and treatments though St. Luke's/MSTI.  This woman's friend was at the other big hospital here, and in her opinion the experience had left much to be desired.  It's not the first time I've heard that.  I just said if her friend ends up needing cancer treatment, I think MSTI is the place to be.

Anyway, I suppose I will get to have more conversations like that, especially once my hair falls out - IF it falls out... ha ha, I'm still having delusions it might not since it hasn't started to yet, even though every time I've mentioned that thought to a doctor or nurse they said it will fall out.  Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since my first treatment which I'm told is kind of a magic number for most chemo drugs and in particular the ones I had.  At my learning class, the nurse said usually it happens 12-19 days after the first treatment.

I'd say I'm back to feeling totally normal at this point.  Most of last week my mouth felt weird, sort of like when you burn your tongue, but now that seems back to normal which is quite nice.  The only not-normal thing is probably just wondering all the time about my hair.  Does my scalp feel weird?  Is it tingly?  Did any hair fall out when I combed it?  It's funny because when my hair was long it was always falling out like crazy!  In the shower I spent half my time getting the hair off my hands and by the end I'd have a big hair ball to throw it the garbage.  Kind of gross, I know.  The brush on our vacuum was constantly needing to be cleaned because it had hair all wrapped around it.  Since I cut it, it seems like it barely falls out in the shower.  Maybe it just doesn't get stuck on my hands because I don't know why it would stop.  For someone who has said they aren't super concerned about the hair issue I sure talk about it a lot, don't I?