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My New Look

I forgot to mention in my last post that I'm bald now! Well here is what I look like bald...

I don't think it looks bad at all. Here is what my hair looked like on Friday hours before it started falling out.



The hair loss was dramatic. On friday morning I noticed a little bit of hair falling out when I showered. During the day my head felt really itchy. At around 8 pm I was able to pull clumps of my hair out of my head. I was able to get about half of my hair out with just my hands, but the other half wasn't ready at all so I just shaved off the rest. RIP my hair haha. I'm not really ashamed of losing my hair which surprises me because I was obsessed about losing it in the first place. The only thing that bothers me about my new bald head is that it gets cold sometimes. But I already have that covered with these chemo hats that my Aunt Diane bought me, and the skull caps that Aunt Chrissy bought me. They are a real lifesaver. They keep my head warm, but not too warm like a winter hat. And they are so comfortable.

This week has gone really well for me. My cold is almost gone, and the little fever I had earlier in the week is gone. I had two of my friends over yesterday for a few hours. It was really good to see them. I need to have them over again soon. Keeping things as normal as possible during treatment really helps me not go crazy, and playing video-games and eating pizza with my friends yesterday was what I needed. I felt a little tired after they left so I slept amazing last night. 

The only complication I had this week was my joint pain on Wednesday. One of the side effects of my Neupogen shot(which helps my bone marrow produce white blood cells) is bone and joint pain. Well I had joint pain alright. My knees started to bother me around noon, and got worse throughout the day. By 6, my knees felt like they were being swung at by a baseball bat every 10 seconds. It was probably the worst amount of pain I ever had. Not even a Vicodin was able to stop the pain. Fortunately the pill did put me asleep. And in the morning I had no pain. Thank you God! I have my last Neupogen shot today which makes 7 days in a row with only one bad day of side effects from it. The oncologist told me to take a claritin before the neupogen shot to prevent the symptoms, but that day it did not work. Other than that one day I would definitely say that claritin is effective.

I'm going to take it easy over the weekend. I start my second cycle of chemo on Monday. This will be Part A of cycle 2. I will only be there for one day this week, and it'll only be for a few hours. I already got this treatment before so I know what to expect as far as the procedure goes. So I'm not nervous. Hopefully I'll recover as quickly as I did before. The arm still feels soft which I'm happy about. I might get on the treadmill for a few minutes today. I haven't exercised in a while, and I will benefit from a little run. 

I added a slideshow to the bottom of the page of the blog. It is a collaboration of all of the pictures on this blog in order. I also added a follow by email widget to the top right. You will be notified of new blog posts by email if you submit your email there. I'm not going to change the look of the blog. I like the simple look of it, and most importantly it works well.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 23, 2013 at 12:02 AM

    Hey! I'm really enjoying reading your blog so far :) You have a great attitude! I finally started mine as well. Hopefully it's half of what yours is!

    Hair loss is what I'm most anxious about--I feel like my hair defines my style, so I don't really know what I'm going to do when it starts to fall out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mike JudgeOctober 23, 2013 at 1:48 PM

      Thanks! Keeping a positive attitude through treatment is key. Cool! I'll check it out now.

      As far as hair loss goes...I had a lot of anxiety over it too, especially since the nurses kept telling me that it would fall out on day 17. I'm just embracing the bald look; I like it. I mean there are advantages like having no bed head right? haha

      But I would just suggest trying different wigs, or hats. Maybe you could find a new style. Also, you're head will get cold sometimes after you lose you're hair, so buy these. http://stores.ebay.com/English-Traditions-Chemo-Scarves
      I have a few sleep caps. They're really comfy.

      Delete

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