Another eventful week at our house

I guess first I'd better discuss what is obvious from the pictures: our Family Home Evening activity this week was to shave our heads! All but Fiona, that is. We're not touching her beautiful blond locks! How many one-year-olds can say they have the most hair in their family?

This is probably the only buzzed picture of me you will ever see, so there you have it. Actually, I wouldn't be posting it if I weren't pleasantly surprised at how I look. I am terribly sorry about all of the stress and anguish I caused at birth, when the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck in the womb, thus causing me and my subsequent three siblings to be C-sections (word has it my first Apgar score was a 2), but I am thrilled that what my mother reported was true--C-section baby means nicely shaped head! She has frequently stated that her babies had such adorable nice little heads. The thing about shaving your head is you are really forced to focus on your face. Again, I'm not saying I'm gorgeous or anything, but I think I have a relatively pleasant face, and I am relieved. (And once again please do not dispute me if you disagree!) I look younger. And my boys don't seem traumatized. Their words were, "It looks awesome!"

At Monday's appointment the oncologist gave me good news and bad news. The good news is the cancer is literally almost gone. She said she could only feel a little bit on one side of my neck, and she had me do an X-ray today so we will see the results soon. I said, "And I still have to do 9 more rounds of chemo?" She laughed and said that is what everyone says, and yes I do. It is funny to think that in a couple of weeks I won't have cancer anymore but I'll feel more and more tired and sick. Amazing, though, that the chemotherapy is so effective! In more good news, while I will likely have the bone pain each week I get the shots, it should only last a couple of days (she was right) and I can take Advil, which does help relieve it some. Thirdly, whoever typed in my mouthwash prescription did it wrong. It is not supposed to be "1 teaspoon, swish and spit or swallow;" it is "1 TABLESPOON, swish and swallow." The doctor said, "That was probably kind of hard to swish only a teaspoon around in your mouth." So now that I am taking three times as much mouth wash at a time, my mouth pain has greatly decreased and I am once again enjoying spicy and/or tomato-based foods.

The bad news: our insurance does not cover Lupron shots. I already had one, and apparently they are very expensive--roughly $1000. This seems like information that we should have had before I had the first shot....Perhaps I was supposed to talk to the insurance people? What if we weren't fortunate enough financially that we can afford to pay the thousand dollars? And of course this means we are once again in the same boat trying to decide if I will have any more of these shots (up to three more of them). I wish there were a way for them to tell me if it's really even going to increase my chances of having kids later or not. Sigh. So we will be making that decision all over again in the next couple of weeks.

The nurses during my infusion on Monday were SO FUNNY! I came in and there were about four quiet, old people in there getting their chemo and suddenly the nurses were all jumping around saying, "Amanda! You're here!" My mom hypothesized that they were high on Easter candy or something. As I think through the details I won't give any more, because it was one of those things where you had to be there....very entertaining though.

My doctor was right about round 4 being the easiest treatment--hooray! So now I have done each of the four treatments and next week we start all over with Round 2. Good thing it was an "easy" week, because I came down with a horrible cold on Wednesday morning, courtesy of Fiona and Tom. I felt awful realizing this is what Tom had had all weekend, and he'd done everything anyway because I had been feeling so wiped out. What a trooper. Wed. is my doctor's day off but Tom said to email her anyway to find out if I should get on an anti-biotic. She is amazing--she called me from home and told me she had sent in a Z-pac prescription for me to start right away. So I will finish it Sunday and hopefully stay on track with treatment. It really helped--by Friday I was feeling MUCH better.

With the cold, I've been super tired (thank goodness for all of the wonderful meals and help with my kids this week--THANK YOU everyone!) so I haven't spent much time experimenting with hats, scarves or the wig yet. Today I wore a bandanna, which is my favorite look so far. I got my first glare though--I think maybe the guy thought I was flashing gang colors or something (it was red).

I had gone out earlier in the week mostly in baseball caps, thinking I'd get a lot of stares, and was happy to find that it didn't seem like anyone was looking. I might even eventually graduate to the comfort of just walking around bald like I often do inside the house (Um, don't count on it though...) I think there were a few curious glances in our direction when we were dining at Fresh Choice this evening, but they could just as easily have been directed at our adorable children, who always get those kinds of looks--Philip even more so now that his big blue eyes pop out extra due to the buzz cut. When I stopped and thought about it, seriously, who am I trying to impress anyway? Who of my friends or acquaintances is so judgmental or easily shocked that I would really truly be mortified if they saw me bald? I couldn't think of a single person.