The thought of losing all of my hair was worse than it actually was. I first noticed the hair loss while I was training another occupational therapist, Natalie. Since I do home health therapy, we were in my car and as we are sitting there talking about OT stuff…my hair started to tickle my neck, back, in between the boobs… all over. I reached back to pull it out of my face and noticed the large clumps in my hand. Well this is awkward… sorry Natalie. It then started to come out more and more, especially in the shower. I would take the clumps of hair and try to stick them to the wall of the shower so it didn’t go down the drain, but it was too heavy and would slump right off, so I would throw the hair out of the shower onto the floor. Yup, the nitty gritty of chemo. I’m not leaving anything out.
My goal was to donate my hair as soon as I started to lose it. I had my sister meet me at my grandmother’s house and we chopped it off to about my shoulders. 13 inches donated to Locks of Love. It was the thinnest, little rat tail tied in about 3 black pony tails, but better than nothing right? This short hairdo lasted about 2 weeks before I needed to start wearing beanies and hats due to the bald spots on the back of my head. Luckily it was winter time. Beanie season baby! Another plus, I wasn’t just losing hair on my head… I didn’t have to shave my legs or armpits for months! Blessing in disguise? Maybe. I attended a group workout shortly after cutting my hair. During the workout I was scooping hair off of the hard word floor in between sets. Well that’s embarrassing, however not as embarrassing as losing the dang push up contest at the end of the workout! Lost by 4 push ups… but who is counting.
Mandafit 