Friday, June 22, 2007

Ya'll know what I'm talking about.

Or at least, you should if you've been reading my blog. If this is the first time you've ever bothered across my ramblings, then you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. So here's the dealio: I have two months (ish) left of chemotherapy!! Honestly, I am pretty sure that September is never going to arrive. It's almost July; summer is almost one-third over. For some, the next two months will fly. For me, I have no doubt they will take way too long. I do hope, however, to spend as much of the next three months as possible at home. I have found it is much easier, and even healthier, to waste time in my house, as opposed to in the hospital. Case in point: I was discharged three days ago. In those three short days, my appetite has returned, my general "ill" feeling has disappeared, and I am gradually building up my strength. Today I think I walked between a mile and a half and two miles, and I was carrying my camera. And that's not counting all the times I ran up and down the stairs in my house, searching for my glasses or the phone or my book... The very good news is that I have yet to fall on my face on the stairs again. So progress has definitely been made!

And now for one of my cancer-induced observations that most people don't think about. So, last week my friend and I were discussing bald heads. She told me that she had seen one of the administrators from BU who is bald, and his head was extremely shiny. She said she thought he might have oiled it. I thought, "Perhaps," but my sentiment was that the man might have just had a greasy head -- I believe "glistening" was the term I used. It has now been over a week since I shaved my head, and I have an update for my friend: my head is shiny. Not overly, blind you in the sun, shiny, but shiny nonetheless. I have a few hypotheses as to why. One is that a clean scalp is a shiny scalp. Two is that our heads all naturally excrete oils, which is why we wash our hair. The difference is I don't have hair. And finally, our heads also sweat, which produces a healthy glisten. So perhaps the administrator was just sweating. Anyway, the next time you see a shiny bald man, don't automatically assume he oils his scalp on purpose.

Finally, one last little thing. You may have noticed there is a new picture of me over on the right. I took that a few days before they shaved my head, when I still had a decent amount of hair. I had enough for a faux-hawk anyway. That's how much had grown back. Also, you may have noticed the little white things sticking out of my chest. Those are my tubes, sometimes referred to as my catheter. Notice how you can see the tube go over my collarbone and down into my innards. Good stuff. And if you're curious, I was in my hospital room, looking at the children's hospital that was across from me. Now, the hair's gone, the tubes are still there, and I am definitely home. That's about it from me for now. Have a splendid weekend. Pax.

3 comments:

P&J said...

Happy to hear you are home! We love the self-protrait and know we will see it again. And we know all about shiny heads :)

Summer Camp has begun which means the summer is almost over!
Keep gathering strength...

Fondly, Pam & John

Megan/Yuping said...

damn, gurl, you look good with short hair.

Also: I am glad to know that a certain BU administrator does not oil his head! Because that would be kind of weird. Thank you for clearing that up in the name of Science.

Also also: Remember when we were in Times Square and saw the ads for Tarzan the musical and were like, "Wow that is the worst possible idea ever"? Well, after this past weekend in New York and an unfortunate experience on Broadway I can now say with scientific confidence: That was ALMOST the worst possible idea ever. Cats may have been a little bit more destructive in scope. Call me sometime, I'll tell you all about it.

Unknown said...

I agree. You do look good with short hair. I also think the catheter makes you kind of look like a bionic assassin. Or at least bionic. It's probably the short hair that makes you look like a hitman. All the good female assassins have short hair--less to get in your way when you're dodging bullets and whatnot.