Tutu!

Today is the second day of my second round, tutu!

I have two different cemotherapy regimes that will be alternated for 17 cycles, so I am on completly different medications for this round than I was on last round.

This round I have the same chemo medicaions each afternoon for two hours each, and the mesna again for 12 hours.  The first chemo is Etoposide, again light sensitive, this one can effect my heart and is why I had an echocardio gram before I started chemo.  The second is Ifosfamide, this one is the reason I am on mesna again, as it can be very harsh on my already compromised urinary system.

So far my reaction to these medications have been quite different than the first round.  I haven't been hit by lethargy yet.  I have been more irritable and have had a slight headache after the Ifosfamide.  I also had some heart flutters last night.  Because I start the chemo in the afternoon, I am getting doses of mesna over night.  This morning I woke up feeling just fine, Shac said my color had come back too, last night I looked a little peaked.

I'm glad I feel so much myself!  That is actually partially difficult, because it makes me want to be here less and at school or having fun more.  And on the other hand, it makes me know again that this is blip on the radar screen of my life.

There's a Yeti in my shower

*adult inferences*

Ten years ago, I met my hairstylist Jen B.  I was bar-tending in Willow Glen and she enjoyed margaritas.  As any good bartender does, I got to know the people at my bar and found out Jen was an apprentice at a fancy salon on Santana Row.  As I had just graduated from college and moved back home, I needed a stylist, and made an appointment.  She was a wizard with fine hair!  Jen was the first person in my life to tame my cowlicks and give me the wash and go hair I always wanted.  Over the past ten years, I have followed her to four different salons all over the bay area.  I have recommended so many friends to her it is often hard for me to get an appointment.  If you want a great stylist, contact me, I share.  She has dyed my hair hot pink and purple, given me A-symmetrical looks, and even styled my hair for my wedding last year.  Just over a month ago, Jen cut my hair into a mow-hawk, since the general consensus is that I am going to 'kick cancers butt,' I figured I needed the hair to go with it.  She is an amazing stylist, a great friend, and someone who I will miss a lot this year.

On Sunday, my hair started falling out.  It was not at all what I expected, as it was not the hair on my head, but rather, a very specific location of body hair.  *adult inference here*  Yep!  weird huh?

The reason chemotherapy patients hair falls out is because chemo attacks all cells that are meant to divide.  This means not just cancer cells, but digestive tract, reproductive and yes hair.  Basically, the follicles are not getting the nourishment to support the shaft of hair, so they are just sitting in the follicle rather than being held in place.  So every time I run my fingers through my hair, take a sweatshirt off or on, or wash my hair, it comes out.  This does not hurt, I feel no tension like if you pull a hair out, it is like dead skin sloughing off.  My hair is overall thinning, no clumps.

Over the past few days, there has been hair on my pillow in the morning.  Each day in my comb, more and more hair.  A few days ago I washed my hair in the shower, and it was messy.  I looked in the mirror afterword and you could hardly tell anything had come out!  Today, it was as though I had showered with Bigfoot.  When I checked the mirror after, it was a different reflection I saw.  The eighth wonder of the world is coming, something I never thought I'd see, my scalp.