Our friend, the lovely Barbara, is doing well. The chemo and the steroids are a bitch but she is approaching every day with grace and humor and determination. She decided the other night to up and shave her head. Here's an e-mail she sent about it:
I did the deed.
Picture this, unable to touch your hair or wash it, being hot and tired. Trying to go to bed and your bed is filled with hair, it is itching your nose and in the back of your throat. So, I just went in by myself (sorry Mary) and shaved it bald as can be. I then took a full, long shower and feel like healthy Barb again. I can sleep now. It was freeing and it makes me feel so much, much, much better. When your hair is dead on your head and you can't touch it. Outta here! I look like a Sumo wrestler, but I can work on that too.
I guess what I am telling you is that there are no right answers, you just constantly have to ask yourself and whoever your support people are (Mary and I have deliberated over this for days) you have to figure out what will really make you feel better. If you can get past the looks of the deal, it is so easy. I feel 500% better than when I came in here to sleep tonight. I feel like I crossed a threshold and now I am waiting for the hair to grow back. Very positive. B
3 comments:
Will do.
She is so much more together than we, her blubbering girlfriends, will ever be.
~ell
She sounds like she's feeling empowered by that act. And that's a good thing.
One of our community members was featured in the book Turning Heads: Portraits of Grace, Inspiration, and Possibilities -- it features maybe 60 women who are bald from cancer. It's a very cool book, and the comments within it seem to resound with what Barb was saying.
Another sister was talking about doing St. Baldrick's Day and getting her head shaved in honor of the many people in our community who have been hit over the past year or so. I haven't cleared it with my "official people" yet, but I figured if I do it, we can make it a competition (she teaches at the guys' counterpart to my all-girls school, so bragging rights are a big deal!). There are moments when I wonder, but then I consider that it's not convenient for the folks who have to deal with it for real -- at least mine will grow back quickly.
Glad she's fighting .... like eb, I've been checking for updates (and figuring no news is good news).
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