Fuzziness and A Quick Update

Let's start this off with something sort of humorous. You see, I use to have long hair. I mean, long, wavy, down to the middle of my back hair. I cant even remember the last time it was cut above my shoulders. I'm fairly certain it has been over a decade which makes me feel rather old now that I think about it.

Anyway! Thanks to the chemo my hair started to fall out after a few weeks. It was a very slow process which was in contrast to everything I had been told. I was expecting to be bald after my second treatment. But there would be many, many more stages in between. I first cut my hair to shoulder length, then as it became more of a hassle to clean up the hair from the floor and my sheets, I recruited my father to give me a buzz/pixie style cut. That lasted for about two months.

My hair actually continued to grow. Well... some of it did while some of it stunted in growth or continued to fall out. To say the least I was beginning to look at little shabby with random, unruly long hairs reaching out past the shorter ones waiting to fall out. But on to the actual humorous part.

I was feeling rather poorly one day and my mother noticed as she walked by my room. I was sitting on the side of my bed and pulled off my beanie hat as she entered to talk with me. Just a few steps into my room though she stops, pauses, and then begins to fight a growing smirk on her face. I knew instantly what it was about as she dropped her head between her shoulders and began to chuckle. So I rolled my eyes and waited for it.

Sure enough in a low tone came the chant from child hood. "Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy, was he? But  you are!"

Needless to say I buzzed my head again just a few days later.

~/~/~

On to the update which I don't really have a lot to say about. My scans showed that I still have a mass in my neck but it has gone down by half in size. Unfortunately, that doesn't really tell us anything. Seems that some lymph nodes may never return to normal size after having lymphoma. So I have four more treatments and afterward we will do repeat CT scans to see if there has been any change. If it remains the same size we know that it is just the new "norm" for me and that I am in remission. If it gets smaller, the chemo is still being effective which means I still have cancer and will need additional chemo treatments as well as daily radiation.

So here is to hoping that the lymph node remains swollen... a very odd concept.

Thank you again to everyone who has sent their prayers, thoughts, and well wishes. They are indeed helping me through. And even if I haven't managed to respond back to you directly, I have read every single message and email sent to me if not multiple times a piece. I can not say thank you enough for your support.

Hi

Okay, so clearly I didn't get to update like I had hoped but I'm still here! Thank you for all of your well wishes and kind words.

Unfortunetly the side effects from my chemotherapy haven't wained as time progressed so we are having to treat them with more meds. They help with the side effects and therefore keep me out of the hospital but leave me in a groggy state for several days and slow my "jump back" time from each treatment. Add that to what hours I can find at work and I'm pretty much wiped.

On the upside though... I only have 4 more treatments. So 8 more weeks! I'm very excited. I am more excited because we are doing scans to restage me Monday and my doctor is already thinking I am in remission. Fingers crossed that this will soon be over and I can get back to life the way I liked it.

Clearly with all the treatments, meds, tests, and work hours I wont be able to update for awhile but I still plan on finishing up the sequel after the treatments. I don't like to leave things open and you all have been so great that I don't want to cut it short either. So thank you all again for the messages and emails. You have no idea how much they mean to me right now and how much of a positive distraction they are providing.

Hope to update you again soon with official good news.