Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Why Don't They Tell You These Things?

Another in a long list of things that would be GREAT if they told you up front: my hair is starting to grow back. Which I was told wouldn't happen until well after chemo had ended. 

So, when I have to shave my legs on Sunday...and notice that there is slightly more hair on my head on Monday morning than there was the day before...I do what most people in my situation would do. I FREAK OUT! Because surely this means that the CHEMO ISN'T WORKING, right?! 

MAJOR freaking out going on here over the past few days. I've decided that all hope is lost and started considering plans that I should be making. Seriously, it's a little scary to think that all this time and effort I've put in to something that has made me feel like crap and now might not have worked. UGH!

Well, I broke my own "don't look up anything on the Internet" rule (seriously, it is a good one because the stuff you find online about cancer is CRAZY talk for the most part. And can be confusing and contradicting). This morning I typed in "hair growing back during chemo" and I discovered a whole host of women asking the same thing. Because we're all freaking out, for obvious reasons. Because they tell you your hair WON'T grow back until chemo is done. From what I can tell, every single one of them on the WebMD and BreastCancer.org blogs about this topic were all on Taxol, and all had 4 weeks left to go when their hair started growing back in small amounts. (All still had their eyebrows and eyelashes falling out though, which just doesn't make any sense, but is exactly what is happening to me).

Imagine that! That's me. 16 weeks in, 8 of them Taxol, 4 weeks of Taxol to go...presto.

At least I can breathe a small sigh of relief, right? I won't die before my next treatment. Or make myself crazy imagining the worst. Is it really too much to ask for someone to type at the bottom of the pamphlets, "Hey, don't worry if your hair does start to grow back when you have four weeks left to go. It happens...don't freak out. The chemo is still working."

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