Yes, I was bald and had chemo

... but it's been awhile and I can talk about it a bit better now.

To back up, I was diagnosed with breast cancer on 2/15/07, bilateral mastectomy on 2/22/07 and started chemo on 3/19/07.

Between the mastectomy and chemo I had a port-a-cath put in and I celebrated my 67th birthday - on March 17, 2007. I had a huge HEAD SHAVING BIRTHDAY PARTY. No, not everyone had their head shaved - just me - they watched :-)







I did not have the most attractive bald head, but had a really ugly wig that wasn't particularly comfortable. I wore a scarf most of the time when I was out. And of course, the rest of the 'fuzz' that's here came out too, so I actually had a 'shiny' head.

I had people ask - "why would you do that - it might not fall out?" (People can be really unthinking sometimes) I knew it was going to fall out and it seemed the one thing I could control at that point when "when" I became bald.

So, on 3/19/07 I started my weekly 45 mile trips to Huntsville for chemo/treatments. I started with Adriamycin/Cytoxan every two weeks for four cycles (with weekly blood tests on the off weeks). Each session included, Aloxi (for nausea), Ativan (for calm), Benedryl and who knows what else - followed by a shot in the stomach of Neulasta. The infusions took the bigger part of the day and the Ativan helped tremendously.

After the A/C chemo was finished, I did four-two week cycles of Taxol (again with all the good extras listed above).

I was extremely blessed during my chemo treatments. My side effects weren't nearly as dibilitating as many people experience. My white count did go really low and I experienced incredible fatigue - but I was never nauseated. I couldn't eat much and did have the mouth problems - but didn't have much appetite anyway. I was so careful trying to avoid colds/flu and was only sick once. I drank LOTS of water and washed my hands a gazillion times (things we should all be doing all the time anyway).