My hair is coming back. Its about day 18 of my last chemo cycle. The hair on my legs is really soft and thin. It is also quite fair so I think I will leave it until it gets long enough to hang out from the bottom of my pants or I go on vacation, whichever comes first. I have nothing under my arms yet - thank you Jesus! I have hair on my head, well stubble on my head. It was getting stuck in my yoga mat today. It felt very similar to the Epilady. That inhumane tool that was out in the 90s that pulled your hair out by the roots. It will be nice to have hair again...except for the washing it and getting hair cuts. I hope it grows back thinner and less course than it naturally is. I also hope it isn't curly. I love curls but not on me. My unmentionable part has a wee bit of hair too. I have no beard or mustache yet.
My energy level has nearly returned to normal. I need to force myself to do a bit more than I'm actually willing to do but that's because I'm lazy. It has nothing to do with side effects. It was suggested by Dr. K. that my overies were probably affected by the chemo. I have a tough time staying asleep and I have hot flashes and night sweats. Early menopause is not uncommon after treatment. Other than that I think I'm almost back to normal.
Speaking of normal, what's normal (thank you Karen B. for your message on this)? My per-diagnosis normal is vastly different than what this normal will be. Some of you know this but I don't believe I Blogged about it.
In late Spring of last year I took a good look at myself and decided that as a 40 year old woman I still had a long time left to live. I was overweight, hardly exercising and drinking way too much beer. I started hiking and walking more, I stopped drinking, hired a personal trainer and nutritionist. Together we worked hard at breaking my bad habits and developing a new life style. I was feeling pretty darn good but having a very hard time keeping my sugar from dropping very, very low. I spent a lot of time recording everything I did and believed that there was nothing going on in my body that I wasn't aware of. Pretty ironic eh. Here I believed I was hitting the healthiest point in my life. Again, a reminder that you can feel awesome or you can feel really crappy. Either way you can have dirty little cancer cells growing in your boobies. Get a mammogram.
On an entirely different note,I need to say is this: I am not special, except I am my mothers favorite child. The publicity about my Blog isn't because I have anything spectacular to say. It's because I am totally ordinary. I am just like you, well maybe a bit better and obviously WAY more popular, but just Jeannie. Jeannie with breast cancer who by a fluke had a mammogram. I underreact to everything so I know that my lack of fear is perhaps a bit stronger than the average bear's would be. And God knows that I know that cancer is serious and lots of wonderful people, and some assholes, die of it every day. My father died of kidney cancer when he was 49 so I understand the threat of the disease. What I am saying is that MY CANCER, not yours, or yours, or yours isn't serious. This is my venue to voice my thoughts and opinions about MY CANCER and MY TREATMENT. Never for one minute would I dismiss anyone else's diagnosis glibly. I was so lucky I was literally shitting out four leaf clovers. MY CANCER was caught very early. My tumor was small. Blah, blah, blah...
Anyway, keep commenting and sharing your stories with me. I love reading them. My e-mail address is jeanniekfraser@gmail.com if you prefer to write privately. I suppose some people don't want to discuss their pubic hair growth on my Blog. I understand that. I'm shy too ;o)
Lastly, I would like to apologize to anyone who had to tolerate my 'impromtu breast cancer information session' Saturday evening. I probably should have refrained from that extra glass or two of beer.
Cheers
Jeannie
PS. To read the CB Post article click HERE
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