If all goes as planned - I am scheduled to begin chemo on Friday, August 24th. I will have 6 treatments which will be 3 weeks apart. My hair will fall out 17 days after my first treatment. Lovely... that's a Monday morning.. I might call in sick that day. I'm sure I'll be feeling that way. Then the eyebrows and eyelashes fall out... isn't this fun? Not to mention - even the nose hairs! So, if I get a runny nose.... I'm not even going there in this blog!! The craziest thing of all is that I will still need to SHAVE my legs! It just makes some sort of crazy sense that the hair I wouldn't mind losing - stays. Ahh chemo....
I thought my doctor would be concerned about ITP as chemo kills platelets. He didn't seem to worried about that but is more concerned about my lack of having a spleen. His concern is for infection as I'm already auto-immune compromised and chemo increases that chance as well. So to level the playing field as much as I could I decided to have my acrylic nails removed. This is no easy thing for me. I started painting my fingernails in 7th grade and have never stopped. I added the acrylic about 20 years ago and went to the pink and white look about 10 years ago. I've always liked doing my nails as my fingers are the skinniest part of me. I will probably still paint them but I won't have the acrylic - as doing so involves little drills and files and things that can cut you.
I went to my normal nail haunt to have "them" removed. My nail guy (Justin) didn't want to try and take them off as he was afraid he would hurt me. So he filed and clipped them then said to come back in 2 weeks as he could get them off. I went to pay him and he would not take any money. He said he wanted to do something for me.
I started out feeling sorry for myself because it feels like everything is changing in my life. Yes, some things are changing but the goodness and kindness of family and friends, which was always there, has become more evident.
I'm lucky - my awesome nails-that-I-love might be gone but I still have a wonderful group of family and friends surrounding me.
I have always loved your nails and even tried to be like you and got mine done years ago(many times - actually after visiting you)They didn't look as good as yours so I finally gave up. Thank you so much for sharing this journey with us! You are amazing! It is not just your nails I still want to emulate! Pam
ReplyDeleteYou are very smart to take them off. The reason? Your natural fingernails can tell doctors about your oxygen levels, which can be a sign of pneumonia. With cancer that is one of the most common problems. The nails tell you quick.
ReplyDeleteSo you are very smart! :o)