So ... in the last few weeks, I have been reading on online breast cancer support forum on almost a daily basis -- www.breastcancer.org The site has been tremendously helpful as a place to hear thoughts from other folks in the same boat. There is even a thread called "CMF" in which discussion focuses on the very kind of chemo that I will start getting next week. Anyhoo -- I was reading through some of the earlier parts of the discussion thread (goes back to something like 2006) and saw a conversation about head scarves. You see, patients who receive CMF therapy typically don't lose all their hair but more along the lines of 40-50% of their hair. If I had thick hair, I probably wouldn't even notice ... but mine is pretty thin. Painfully thin actually. Someone on the discussion board said that she found head scarves useful as a way of hiding her hair loss since she, too, had problems with thining hair. She even mentioned a web site where she was able to get a high-quality silk scarf for free. So I checked it out. Was the free scarf still available?
Why yes indeed! The web site is the home of a company called "France Luxe." [Click on name to read more about this great company!] These folks are fabulous! Most of the scarves start at $70 but a chemo patient can get one for free! (Check the picture out that accompanies this post!) The woman who started the company (in North Bend, WA, by the way -- my home state!) initiated the "Good Wishes" program when a long time customer went through chemo and then opened the program up to anyone. Is she not the coolest? She let me pick out any scarf that I wanted! And this was not an easy thing to do! But I finally narrowed it down the the Brown Paisely one since I figured this would match more of the clothes that I wear when I teach.
I ended up buying two cheaper scarves today from another company so I think I am good to go as far as any hair loss.
In other news -- I feel physically pretty good today! The surgery yesterday went pretty well though I apparently fought the anesthesia a bit. Originally I was supposed to be in "Twilight" (like the last surgery in June; this still means, by the way, that you are unconscious) but they wheeled me right into the operating room and I was still awake. I was sort of freaked out because (1) I have never seen an operating room and (2) was I supposed to be seeing the operating room?? Not too long after going in, though, I was under (later Jim said they had to put me under full anesthesia). Dr R, my brilliant surgeon, thinks she got the clear margins she needed and I took a shower this afternoon and there was only a little blood under the main bandage. All good! There is a little pain when I apply pressure (i.e. picking up our big ass cat from a place he wasn't supposed to be) but it's pretty minor. I took it easy today but I have a busy week ahead of me!
Tomorrow -- Doc appointment at my GYN in Clayton and then a quick trip to Carbondale to see the awesome Dr M and then a homeowner's meeting in our building here downtown. Whew!
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