From hair to there.

Something very UNfunny also happened with that first treatment...I was told that my chemo cocktail (shaken, not stirred....see previous post) would cause my hair to fall out. All of it. And boy, did I have a lot!

Doc said approximately three weeks after my first treatment to expect the shedding to start. Well, how right he was! It was exactly three weeks to the day of my first treatment as I was getting ready for work and washed my hair. When I rinsed it, not only did the shampoo come out, but big clumps--hands full--of hair also came out! YIKES!

When Harold called me that day from the road, he was in Dallas. I told him the news, and he said he was going to "take care of it" for me. I didn't know how, but I knew he was true to his word. Now, he had taken a couple of pictures of me with him showing my full head of hair, and found an exclusive shop in Dallas that sold wigs. He took that picture into the shop with him and told them what he was doing, and they dropped everything else they were doing and started helping him on his mission.

Finally, one lady brought a wig out to him and told him she thought it might be the closest thing to my real hair. He asked if he could take it outside and look at it in the sunlight and, of course, they said 'yes.' He turned it this way and that, shook it, and decided that yep, this was it. So he paid for it and they gave him a little "head" to keep it on in his vehicle for the trip home. He set it on the seat beside him, and said every once in awhile he would catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye and felt like it was me riding along with him.

Can you tell which pictures he took with him of my real hair, and which pictures were the man made version?

Anyway, he got it to me just in the nick of time because within a couple of days, about all my hair had fallen out. Luckily it was on the weekend, so we were the only ones that saw it. I just went into the front yard with a hairbrush, and brushed the rest of my hair gone. Then I took my wig to my hair dresser after shop hours and she locked the door and, with it on my head, trimmed it into the same style she always cut my real hair. The next morning was church. And the morning after that, back to work. And not one single person ever knew that I was wearing a wig the whole nine months I wore it. My sweetheart was true to his word...he took care of it for me!

I had more fun fiddling with that wig. I could put it onto my wig stand and fix it into all KINDS of styles--Gibson girls, fancy updos, etc.--that I could never do if it was attached to my head! It's amazing how creative you can be with your hair when you can hold it in your lap or sit it on the table in front of you! HAHA!

So why am I including stuff about this in my "funny stories," you ask? Well, to get to the funny stuff, I had to cover a little of the back story first. And a lot of it has to do with hair! Dare I say it? It's about to get hairy up in here.