Counts down, hair OOC

(7/2/09)

Aside: By the way, I've added a handy feature over to the right --->

It lets you get email versions of my posts, so you'll be sure to get the latest and greatest updates. Don't worry, I'll only sell your email address if I can get at least $2 for it.

Brief update today. My counts were too low on Monday to get treated. Boo. I'll see my doc again next week to see if they've come up again, but I've had a sore throat for the past couple days, which will probably not help matters much. Otherwise I'm still a little lightheaded now and then, but it seems to be getting progressively better. I've been having some paranoid thoughts about little aches and pains I keep feeling, but on the whole I'm trying to ignore those - after all, my body is doing its normal aging thing, too, so random aches and pains are normal, right?

Anyhow, my hair was starting to get out of control, so I finally got it cut. Below are some of shots of the "before" situation. These shots don't quite do it justice, but trust me, it was getting out of hand. You'll just have to wait in giddy anticipation (or come see me in person) to see the "after" look. . .

June 7, 2009 - I've never had curly hair before. It's kind of cool, but also very unwieldy, as you'll see in the shots below.

June 22, 2009 - By this time, the hair was really getting out of control, especially the stuff growing out of my sideburns - on one side it would grow straight down, but on the other side it would curl out. And back. And all over the place. Cuh-razy.

Turns out its kind of hard to take pictures of the back and top of your head by yourself. But the thing I really noticed was the swirl of hair around what appears to be a bald spot. . . Well, just another sign that I'm still alive though getting older. . .

Hair or No Hair?

Pad-free, counts-high, and head-shaved (12/14/07)

I forgot to mention in the last post that I've been pad-free for about a week now (woohoo!). It's a little gross, but it's a complication from prostate surgery that you end up leaking a bit. Luckily there are special "Male Guards" you can buy that are like thick maxi-pads, basically, but for guys. I guess it's more like a mini-diaper for just the front part of your pants. It's actually not that bad once you get used to them, but it's a relief not to need them anymore. I'd say things aren't working at quite 100% but pretty close, so I guess that's a good sign. My surgeon says it's still early after the surgery, so things should get even better over time.

As you may have guessed, I didn't end up going in for chemo this week, but it wasn't because my counts were too low. I ended up with pretty good white cell and platelet counts - Dr. J was really pleased and surprised at how well I've responded (including the retreat of the butt bump). She said she's not convinced that a compressed 2-week schedule would be any better than 3-weeks (it's still an open research question), so we're going to stick to the 3-week cycles. Also, I still had mouth sores on Monday, so she didn't want to start another round of chemo til those went away. But all in all it's a real positive that my counts bounced back as well as they did, and that I could have started another round is definitely encouraging.


The head-shaving party (12/12/07)

So on Wednesday night we had a little head-shaving party. My hair was coming out in serious clumps, maybe 20 strands at a time, and it was definitely starting to thin on top, so it seemed like time to go cueball (though now my head is cold most of the time and I'm constantly wearing beanies to stay warm). Also, we thought it would be a good time to set some new hairstyle trends, so be on the lookout for some of these dazzling looks in your favorite winter catalog...

The Before Picture. It's hard to tell, but my hair is thinning on top something fierce...

The first cut. Cat Stevens, eat your heart out.

Some fun styling to start with . . . I call this one "The Ed Grimley". 10 points to anyone who knows who that is.
Live long and prosper.

Here's the reverse mohawk.

But don't worry about it; you can always invoke the comb-over to hide it.

And then there's the cross or plus sign, depending on what you prefer. A great look for American Red Cross employees and volunteers. Come on, people - solidarity!

And the cross is so versatile - Here you see the double tail.

And of course, the Four-Tail.

Cutting off the tails.

The finishing touches.

And . . . The final product!

Mini Milestones

Back on the wall! (12/10/07)

Well, this weekend I got back to the climbing wall after . . . waay too long - I think end of August was the last time I went climbing but I've been itching to do so ever since. Needless to say, I sucked big time, but it was fun nonetheless. I had some major trouble doing climbs that should have been way easy, but not bad considering I haven't really exercised in all that time. Today my forearms are experiencing major second-day soreness. (Thanks to Blase for the pic and access to the wall!)

Last Thursday I also returned to tai chi class, which was pretty fun, too. Tai chi is great, because you can pretty much always do it to some extent. Even if you can't do the whole form, there are always little exercises that help you keep moving. There's a quite old fellow who comes to class with a walker - he used to be able to stand and do some of the form, but now he sits in a chair but still follows along. It's pretty impressive.

I tried to go out to eat this weekend, too, but that was less successful. The actual eating out part was fine, but the stomach-handling-it-well part was not so good. Yikes. Anyhow, I guess I should stick to home-cooked food anyway (as per doctor's suggestion) but it was so tempting to have something different. I guess the alternative is to get some cookbooks and try to learn how to cook some other types of food.

Anyhow, a couple other less fun things have been happening. I've had some mouth sores (side effects from the doxorubicin) that make it tough to eat/drink, but they seem to be healing up now. Also, the hair has started coming out. I noticed it a few days ago, but now I seem to be shedding all over the place. It's very annoying. It hasn't come out in big clumps yet, but pretty much any time I run my hand through my hair, 4-5 strands will come out. Soon I'll just shave it off, me thinks.

Well, I'm off to a follow-up appointment soon - we'll see if I get to start the second round this week, or if my blood counts are too low (in which case we'll start next week). The docs said not to get my hopes up about starting again this week, but we'll see. I kind of hope I don't have to go into the hospital again - it'd be nice to have a week of semi-normality for a change.