chchchchanges

It is weird seeing the changes every day as my body recovers from the devastation of chemo. My hair is rapidly growing back on my head although the color is still of some question.

The interesting thing is the bits you don't normally think about, like hair on your face and no, I don't mean beards and mustaches. I am talking aobut those little tiny blond hairs that cover almost every part of your body for warmth. I never really noticed the ones on my face, either before the chemo or when they went missing. However, I do see them now that they have grown back. It is that strange feeling of glimpsing in the mirror in the morning when the sunlight hits you just right and you see a glint off the little hairs rather than just a smooth, shiny face.

My eyebrows have also come in with a vengeance, black, thick, long and bushy. No more drawing them on. In fact, I will have to see Melissa, my eyebrow lady, next week for the first time in about 6 months to do some waxing, shaping and clipping.

Somewhere along the way since Sept. 12 (my last Taxol chemo), I have stopped having the hot events (too long for flashes) from 8:00 - 10:00 every evening. These were periods when I could have warmed the house all by myself. Just had to grin and get through it. Occassionally, I still have one in the night or sometimes in the morning when I first wake up but nothing strong, serious or even very noticeable.

The balance has yet to come back and I still wobble a lot as I try to find my space in the universe of things. Will keep working at it.

This week has also shown a marked decrease in the neuropathy that has plagued my hands and feet from the Taxol treatments. Neuropathy is a very annoying tingling of the hands and feet - not just fingers and toes- and numbness at the ends of the fingertips and pads of the feet. It makes it difficult for me to hold things, tie bows, pet the dogs. Imagine your arm or leg falling asleep and that horrible sensation as feeling comes back. I have that all day and night. I am hoping that it is finally going away but, just when I think it is gone, I have a new recurrence. This week has given the longest periods of relief so I am keeping my tingly fingers crossed that it is finally going away.