This was supposed to be the update where I talk about the haircut and describe it as some sort of traumatic experience watching the locks fall to the floor, that won't be necessary as I'm actually pretty pleased with it! Erica provided some moral support and had her barnet done at the same time, she kept asking why I'd gone for such a dramatic look and I stuggled to come up with a concise justification but she simply proclaimed that she loved it and the conversation moved on!
Thankfully the team at Quinns in Okehampton are old-hat at pre-chemo haircuts and were able to give lots of advice on what to expect when it does start to fall out and when it does eventually grow back.
So here's the final result, I'm actually rather disappointed that I'm not going to have very long to get used to it but at least I know that short hair doesn't look ridiculous on me!
I'm meeting the chemotherapy nurses on Monday and will receive the first course at home the following day, I'm not expecting the initial effects to be overly dramatic but will be relieved once the chest-port is in place so that I don't need to worry about cannulas or tubes getting in the way of daily life.
The mistake that I did make was to Google the aspects of my pathology which I did not fully understand, if you ever have the misfortune of developing cancer I would strongly advise not to do that! I stumbled upon an NPI score (which was 6.7) and stupidly Googled it, once I realised that the score was the wrong side of what I was expecting it sent me into a bit of a panic, thankfully Nathan had spotted it long before me and had discussed it at length with people who know far more about these things than we do. Apparently the system was developed in the 1970's and calculates prognosis based on surgery alone, they tell me that chemo increases your chances by another 12% and radiotherapy adds another 10% to that; as we know, none of these things are certain but add my bloody-mindedness (which cannot be measured) and we have a pretty reasonable state of play!
Anyway, we're having a brilliant time with the old's in Winkleigh and I'm pretty sure that the Devon air is playing its part in killing some more cancer cells, when I joined Dad and Nathan for the obligatory shooting contest, I told myself to imagine on the first shot that the exploding target was the disease - the result speaks for itself! #fightlikeagirl
