My hair is growing back! Three weeks ago I was almost bald. I had a rapidly thinning brush-cut that was quickly starting to look more "chemo patient" and less "GI Jane" by the day. No sooner had I resolved myself to the fact that I was going to have to bic my lid, it started to grow again. Prior to cutting/ shaving off my hair, it was long, straight and red... with a great deal of silver on the sides of my head. Although I had no idea just how much silver was there, (thanks to Clairol) until my head was shaved exposing the roots; the sides of my head looked bald due to the lack of hair pigment!
Anyways the hair growing back is already much darker all over my head, and brown. The nurses advise me it will likely fall out again over the final three months of my treatment, and speculate that this crop of hair is due to the last chemo round(s) not happening to take effect during my heads hair growth cycle. Whatever, I’m enjoying it while I got it! And really looking forward to my new hair after chemo as I hear it could come back another colour and curly… “Oh to be curly! Please god after all this I deserve rich curly locks, devoid of grey!”
Four weeks ago I got a pic line put in my left arm – fant-“ass”-tic! Four weeks later, still not impressed. The merits of a pic line are: They save your veins from over use and damage resulting from over use and chemo. They are also a non-surgical procedure, and easier to get that a portacath. I was too chicken shit to get either a pic or port in the beginning and waited until my veins were collapsing, and the burning up and down my arms (from chemo) kept me up at night… and on a steady dose of pain killers before I conceded to sign up. By then the waiting list was too long for a port so I got a pic line within two weeks of requisite. Lesson for ya: Don’t be an ass, listen to your nurses and get a port or a pic when you start this process to avoid the above.
The downside to the pic line is: it’s a bulky tool kit on your arm for everyone to see. The bandages itch all the time. Local bloodwork clinics can not use pic lines, so you still get a needle unless you go to the hospital. It’s a bitch to get comfortable at night if you’re an “arm under head sleeper” and my favorite… it has to be flushed with saline every week. The later is the worst for me because after 4 months of treatment I can now taste the saline when I get my lines flushed (it has to be flushed after every chemo, blood work and cleaning) and it makes me nauseous. In the beginning I couldn’t taste it, nor would it have affected me if I could, but the body is smart! After awhile it learns that everytime we taste this shit bad things happen and we feel sick, so let’s just cut to the chase and feel sick anyways. Patterned responses, hard to control, hard to overcome. So in the end, every chance I get to not use the line, I opt for a needle (collapsed veins = 2-3 try’s) just to avoid a flush… why do I have this pic line again?
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