On Friday (day 10) the bone pain subsided enough to get out on my bike for a short ride. It felt good but my enthusiasm was crushed when I got home to shower and noticed a patch of eyebrows missing. I literally went so fast I blew my fucking eyebrows off. The good majority of hair on my entire body is gone, but up until this point I've managed to maintain a few eyelashes and a good majority of my beloved eyebrows so I was hopeful they were here to stay. Over the weekend I started to do some research on Biotin supplements, Latisse, and Rogaine as I'm eager to start the regrowth process next month. Unfortunately while doing my research I discovered that it is not uncommon to keep your eyebrows during chemo and then have them fall out afterwards, and for some reason 3 months is a magic number. Since then there have been other eyebrow and eyelash casualties, so I suspect that after the next round they will have had enough of the chemo just like the rest of my hair follicles. This sucks. I'm not one for lots of makeup, but I'm going to have to learn. Yesterday at the grocery store I noticed the young 20-something checker who has beautiful, natural looking makeup with pencil on her brows and was tempted to ask a complete stranger for a lesson. If any of my local friends know any experts in penciled in eyebrows and eyeliner please let me know. There is a makeup class through the hospital I suppose too.
On the plus side it felt so good to ride my bike, though after 4 months
of inactivity since my surgery I'm so damn slow. I even made it to the
nearby trailhead and rode the easy part of singletrack home. There's nothing like
being back on the bike with loud and sometimes angry music blasting
through your head. On the way down the road I rode my brakes like an old
lady so spare my poor eyebrows, efforts that are probably futile. After
today only one more to go....help me to soldier on and not dwell in the
vanity of cancer treatment, and just embrace the fact that a month from
now I will regularly be enjoying the things that I love most.
The chemo might take your eyebrows, but it can't wipe away that smile! Well, maybe temporarily, but at least you don't need rogaine to get it back :)
ReplyDeleteJust think of how aerodynamic you are now. :-/ And take heart that even in month 3 of chemo you are undoubtedly still much, much faster than I am on a bike. ONE more, Jenny. You got this.
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