The color is more salt-and-pepper than it was, because the darker hairs that used to be brown are growing back in a kind of charcoal black. And the texture is a bit weird, kind of frizzly and fluffy. A friend offered the perfect image: I'm growing Schnauzer hair. See for yourself:
I have an appointment next week for my second haircut (the first was really just cleaning up the edges some). So even though it's growing very very slowly, it is growing.
On the lighter side of cancer treatment (Gallows Humor Dept.): I received a survey form from the good folks at Medicare seeking my feedback re my experience of cancer care. I was particularly struck by the passage that said it was very important for them to get responses from all kinds of patients, so if I'm dead, would I please ask a friend or family member to fill the survey out for me. Well, I paraphrase slightly.
A bit of good news: I went back to the lymphedema specialist, after a long hiatus caused by first the taxol rash on my arms and then radiation, and the word is that as of now I do not have lymphedema in my arm--yay! Though I do still have to take certain precautions against developing it, which I will. There was some swelling in the breast itself, and I learned that I am at risk for fibrosis developing from the radiation, especially in the next two years. Fibrosis can be a contributing factor to the development of lymphedema. So they taught me a special massage routine to use to drain the swelling, plus prescribed the wearing of a special compression bra with a weird compression pad in it. Quite effective, and not uncomfortable, but just strange-feeling to wear. The garment is very, very, shall we say, comprehensive, as lymphedema can affect the back as well. I refer to it as my Iron Maiden bra.
Another bit of good news: I have completed the special oncology exercise program and am now fully back at Personally Fit, where I had been working out for three years before my diagnosis. And as of last week, I am fully up to speed, doing 35 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise 5 days a week plus a half an hour with my personal trainer Janet on 2 of those days, focusing on strength, balance, and flexibility. The folks at the oncology exercise program were perfectly nice, but Janet knows the quirks of my particular (decaying) body. It's so good to be working with her again! And the exercise feels terrific.
It occurred to me, the first time I worked out with Janet and she gave me balance exercises to do, that some of the increased unsteadiness I have been experiencing may be due to simple muscle atrophy from not doing this kind of training for 7 months while I was in intensive treatment. So maybe as I strengthen those muscles again I will regain some of the balance I seem to have lost--i.e., maybe it's not all due to increased neuropathy after all. Fingers crossed.
I celebrated the much-delayed arrival of spring and my own returning energy by planting three little parsley plants in my back garden when I got home from PFit this morning. So good to dig in the dirt.
At church yesterday singing Easter hymns, I noticed myself consciously employing skills I learned years ago when I took singing lessons for a couple of years when our sons were still kids. And I reflected that singing is, among other things, a physical skill. Just as I am enjoying the feel of the exercise again, I would also enjoy building the physical skill of singing. And while the exercise is partly for pleasure, partly by prescription to reduce the odds of recurrence, the singing lessons would be purely for my own delight.
I don't have a great voice, and I have a rather poor ear for music, but I derive great pleasure from working to improve what capacity I have. I have spent so much time since my diagnosis doing physically demanding things out of grim necessity; it feels really really appealing to invest in physical effort for sheer joy.
I've made an initial contact to see about setting up some lessons. I await a callback.
