Scary hairy truth

My brain is playing tricks on me. I wash my hair every morning and think "yeah, it's getting a little thinner." I was accepting that quite gracefully, I must say. But when I announced my receeding hairline during lunch on Monday with Angie and my friend, Jacqueline, they both sadly shook their heads at me. Apparently, my hair won't fall out gradually, with my adjusting every step of the way.

"You'll find it all over your pillow one morning," they said, gleefully cackling at my fate. Okay so they were compassionately smiling, but it felt like evil laughter because I was horrified. Sure, I expected to find chunks on my pillow and even pull out sections in the shower, but all at once? Ack!

With my luck, I'm betting little sections of hair will remain, so I'll look like I got scalped by a half-blind hair stylist. When that happens, I'm calling my sister-in-law, Margaret to visit with her razer pronto! Then hats and beautiful scarves will be my friends (even though I don't know how to tie them properly yet).

But currently, I still have my hair. I'm starting to really like it short. Too bad it's going to fall out any day now.

My blog is a little late today because I went to talk to my son's class about cancer. Noah's classmates seemed to know he had this secret and discussed it behind his back. So I alleviated the problems this caused by sharing my cancer diagnosis. I explained the treatment and the side effects. I'm at the school regularly and these kids will see me when I'm bald. I cautioned that Noah will experience feel a range of emotions - angry, scared, sad, etc. - and they may notice it. I touted the benefits of my great support group and asked them to be understanding and supportive for him. Noah was very keen to have me come in and talk to his class, so I hope it helped.

While I struggle to figure out how this cancer affects me, I also have to figure out how it affects my children. Right now they seem really resilient and understanding, but I am continually providing bits of information and giving them opportunities to ask questions. At dinner last night, we talked about when I'll be bald. Both Noah and Tara said, "No offence mom, but you're going to look funny."

As long as we can continue to find things to laugh about, we'll be okay. Laughter can make the serious stuff easier.

It's good advice. So take the time to find something to laugh about today (besides the visions of my bald head).

Tina