Mid-October update: Hair!

We’re about two-thirds of the way through radiation treatments, and it’s time for an update. Exhaustion is the theme of the week.  They said the daily radiation could make you tired.  They were right!  But when tired is the baseline, it’s hard to know if any extra perceived tiredness is because you’ve been having radiation, or you’re still tired from the chemo (which ended in July, for Pete’s sake), or you spent the week getting your 8-year-old’s face stitched back together after some playground exuberance gone wrong, or you stayed up watching an old James Garner movie until 1:30 a.m.  Who knows?

                I am now rocking an impressive radiation burn.  It looks, and feels, pretty much like a sunburn—a bizarrely localized sunburn.  I will have the strangest farmer tan ever. It covers half my chest, half my neck, and one armpit.  The treatment for this is to use one of two possible ointments.  One is greasy, and makes you look funny, like a body builder who has just oiled himself.  The other one feels nice, but smells like compost.  Would you rather look weird or smell weird?  I opted to look weird, because I don’t have to look at myself all day, but I couldn’t live with that smell.  Yes, cancer keeps finding new ways to make me more attractive! (I know, I know, this, too, shall pass.)

                My fingernails are also pretty interesting.  Every one of them has rings like the rings on a big old tree stump.  There are six rings on each nail, one for each chemo treatment. Those were truly badass drugs.

                But there’s good news, too. I have rudimentary hair, though it’s pretty mangy-looking right now, and a lot grayer than I had hoped it would be.  Every day, though, it’s a smidge less pathetic. And I got all excited this morning because I actually had to shave my legs! Yes, if I’m this excited about shaving my legs, I probably need to get out more.

                The best improvement this week has been the return of eyelashes.  English-teacher friends reading this, do you know if anyone has written an ode to the eyelash?  Someone should. I never realized how awesome they are until they went away.  They keep lots of crap out of your eyes, and save you pain and trips to the eye doctor.  They are purty.  They stop you squinting. And they are expressive.  Have you ever tried to flirt with someone without benefit of eyelashes?  It’s just not the same.