BoobNews: "Ice and Fuzz" edition

Photos by Daniel Nguyen (https://www.facebook.com/petrodan)

Posted: 2/10/2016

Just before my trip, I was having chemo-induced pain and numbness called peripheral neuropathy (http://www.cancer.net/navigating-ca…/…/peripheral-neuropathy). The neuropathy is progressive with the chemo and can be permanent, and it was in both of my hands and about three toes on my left foot. It hurt to button small buttons, try to open pop-tops on soda cans, attempting to unknot my kids' shoes. Really, anything that put any pressure on my fingertips hurt like a mo-fo. But all praise the magic of the Caribbean - the islands fixed it! Well OK, the Caribbean and the fact I had to miss a week of chemo because of poor results on my blood work.

Although the numbness in my toes remains, the week off of chemo allowed my fingers to return to normal. Hurray! Since then I've had three more doses of chemo but now I keep my fingers and toes on ice during each infusion. This is supposed to sometimes, maybe, possibly help protect against the nerve damage that causes the neuropathy. So far it's been working pretty well, although I noticed a few days ago that more of my toes are now numb and occasionally will randomly give me a friendly little stab of pain, as if I've stepped on something small and sharp. I've heard that chemo side-effects are always changing and can keep you on your toes but didn't think it was meant quite so literally. Six more chemo doses to go!

But now the good news: Hair! It's downy and short and barely there but it appears my scalp is attempting to cover itself again in the last week. It's odd because the chemo I did back in the fall made my hair fall out while graciously leaving my eyelashes and eyebrows untouched, but the Taxol I'm on now quickly dropped almost all of my eyelashes and half of my eyebrows but is letting my hair regrow. Odd how that works, but I'm not complaining because I now have a lustrous 1/8 inch of hair to enjoy. I mean, look at what a sexy beast I am these days! Soon I may even have as much fluff as a baby duckling! Life goals!

Meanwhile, my 4-year-old goes to pre-school during the day and his little classmates have noticed for quite a while now that Asher's mom doesn't have hair. One of them asked me about it this afternoon, so I explained to the little gathering of kids that I take a special medicine that made my hair fall out but now it's starting to grow again. Before I knew it, I was bending over in the playground with a pack of little kids rubbing the fuzz on my noggin and giggling. Good times. I'm sure some parents will be confused tonight when their child tells them they rubbed Asher's mom's head today though.

Bonus good news: I've been feeling well enough to even get out on the motorcycle a couple times this past week. Other than my one ride last month, I haven't been strong enough to ride since October. Winning!