Well,
when I last wrote here, we were hoping we had found a breakthrough in the
mystery of why my hair isn’t growing back.
I mean, it is about 2 ½ years since chemo ended, and I am still
bald. Bald enough that strangers stop me
in the supermarket to compare notes on how we got bald.
We had hoped that we had found the
culprit in my case: a lazy thyroid,
possibly because it had accidentally got nuked while we were deliberately
nuking the lymph nodes nearby. This
would have been a relatively easy problem to fix.
I am
very sad to report that my blood test results are back, and my thyroid numbers
are perfect. So were all my other numbers. Even my cholesterol, which I am the first
person to admit, is unfair as hell, given what I eat. I am healthy as a horse. I mean, if your horse has breast cancer and mysterious
baldness. I should be happy about this, I know.
The
next step, apparently, is to talk to a dermatologist. My doctor suspects I was just going to be an
old lady with thinning hair, anyway, eventually, because of genes, and the
chemotherapy just speeded up the timing of that. I have my doubts, since all the elderly women
ancestors I can remember had plenty of hair.
But I will go talk to the dermatologist anyway. I suspect he will simply recommend Rogaine
for Girls, which I rejected a year ago because of the potential side
effects. Am I desperate enough to try it
now? I don’t think so, but ask me
tomorrow…
I do
think all the oncologists out there should stop telling women that their hair
will definitely grow back after chemotherapy.
Yes, it usually does. But not
always, and I have now heard enough comments around the Internet and at the
supermarket from women whose hair didn’t grow back, to know I am not
alone in my shiny baldness. Researchers,
are you listening? Saving our lives is
Priority One, for sure. But if you want
to take a crack at the baldness thing, there are a lot of us out here who would
appreciate it.
