Valentine's Day

John, being the romantic that he is, stayed home from work today.  We started our enchanting day in a two hour chemo prep class, followed up by a trip to the plastic surgeon, and finally a wig consultation.  I mean how romantic can you get?!

I actually found the chemo class to be very useful in some respects.  There were a lot of little things I didn't know, like I can't get a regular dental cleaning during chemo, I have to start using toothpaste for sensitive teeth like Sensodyne, I shouldn't be the one to clean up after the dog (finally a perk!), and my nails may turn a dark colour.  The bad part about the class is that they are also obligated to tell you every possible negative side effect, even if very few people will experience them. Some people are all "knowledge is power" and they want to know everything.  I'm more of a store that in a binder on the shelf in case I need it kind of gal.  It's like all those books on childbirth.  I finally forced myself to read the chapter on delivery, which I had successfully avoided for nine months, basically the day before I gave birth because sometimes all that stuff just freaks you out more.  Besides, isn't that what the doctor is there for?  Anyway, the facilitator was excellent, we did take away lots of information, and even a couple of coupons!

My trip to the plastic surgeon - not as fun.  Today was my first saline injection into the expander.  He injected 60cc's (same as MLs I think).  I didn't feel the needle go in at all, but I could feel the saline getting forced in.  It wasn't uncomfortable, just a strange sensation.  Great, I thought, this is going to be easy.  We made our appointment for the second injection a week later and off we went.  By the time we got out to the parking lot I was already starting to feel it.  Owwww!  It's like something stretching your skin from the inside.  No, correction, it IS something stretching your skin from the inside. Think Sigourney Weaver in Alien. Let's just say, even with the valium and the percocet, it was a difficult night.  Maybe I need to reconsider this whole reconstruction thing.  Do they really need to match?  Maybe a "little sister" would be just fine.  An added sock for special occasions?  Food for thought.

Which brings me to the last dreamy stop on our Valentine's tour - the wig shop. As I mentioned in my last post my new friend Jackie is lending me her "underhair" which is kind of like a skull cap with hair attached to it that you can use with any hat.  I think this is going to be great for around the house, running errands and everyday stuff because you can just wear it with a ball cap or a sun hat and who will know?  I also think it will be tons cooler than a full wig in the summer.  That being said, I think I'm still going to need a full wig for work, hence my first consult at this wig store, which I didn't know existed but is about 5 minutes from my house.  The woman was fantastic and has actually been wearing wigs since she was 15 years old.  I would never have guessed that she was wearing a wig.  We tried a couple on, but most of the ones she had were brunette so they made it that much more difficult to try to think about it looking "natural", particularly at the hairline.  The other thing is that I have very thin hair so all these wigs feel strange to me because I'm getting about twice the volume of hair! Albeit thick, here's one I thought the cut and length were cute (obviously she would try to match my natural hair colour as much as possible). I actually think I look like my sister Jennifer in this one:

 This one is hysterical.  She was trying to match colour at this point, and kept telling me to ignore the style, but all I could think of was Dana Carvey in Wayne's World:

Anyway, this was my first trial, but I can't procrastinate too long as my hair should fall out about 2 weeks into chemo so I've got 3, maybe 4 weeks?  The store owner had a new shipment of wigs scheduled to arrive soon that she thought might suit me so I am heading back in on Friday morning.  I also have an appointment with the American Cancer Society tomorrow which apparently gives out one free wig to all patients undergoing chemotherapy.  I have a feeling that the free wigs will be a little Halloweeney but it's still pretty amazing that they offer the service.  To give you an idea, the prices of the wigs I was looking at were nearly $500 and that was for synthetic hair.  I can't imagine what the human hair ones cost.

Tomorrow is also the operation for my port which I'm a little nervous about, but I guess I should be used to this by now.  It's more the idea of having a quarter-sized disc tapped into my vein under my skin for a year that freaks me out.