Week 8

Two months post chemo, I never thought the day would come! My hair still seems to be coming in nicely. My eyebrows are almost all the way back it is a miracle! I can now go out in public without having to fill them in or anything! It looks better if I fill them in of course but its not a necessary thing. It is truly amazing. And also my top eyelashes seem to be getting a little bit fuller- more hairs are growing in making me look more normal when I wear mascara!

One thing I notice is that the top of my head hairs seem to be growing slower than the hairs in the back of my head. I also have a nice little bald patch in the back near the bottom but I don't it mind so much.

Leg and armpit hair are there--still thin and kind of few and far between though. No big deal- I don't really need those anyway haha. Pube hair is coming back normal though wahhhhh!

Something else that is bothering me-- FACIAL HAIR. Not dark or thick. It's blonde and barely noticeable, but I have never had that before! Pre-chemo was smooth as a baby! I was reading online and I guess this is a normal occurrence but I do not like it! Some people said that they shaved it off once or twice and it never grew back. Others said they just let it be and after a few months it went away. Hopefully that is the case for me too! I will probably just wait  it out and hope for the best =]

My goal is to have hair by March 31st when I take my STNA test. That way I wont have to wear a hat or scarf with my scrubs! That would be wonderful. Not like I have any say in meeting my goal or not BUT a girl can dream =] That gives me roughly 33 days. eeek!

notice the bald spot on the bottom right. as I said, I do not mind it. If I have to have a bald spot, I am glad its there and not in the middle of my head or something!

the back is definitely doing much better than the top!

Week 7

My hair is finally growingggg! kind of. And so are my eyebrows! Eyelashes not so much. they are still wimpy and irritating but at least I have them. My hair is super soft too. It looks kinda lighter than what it used to be? I dont know! I dont care! =] I just think that it will take a while to actually fill all in. you can see the difference though just from last week. I am excited to see what next week will bring!

its really hard getting a picture of these babies but you can see them! its a frikin miracle truly. I never thought they would come back!

the most hair I have had in a LONG time. almost 3 months now as it is Feb 21st. I went bald right around the beginning of December. Oh how I love my hair new sprouts!

see what I mean though about thinking it will take a long time to fill in? I may have to shave it again in a month or so just to let it all grow even.

Week 6

 I had my mom cut my hair again. It seems to be a little thicker than before and it definitely feels softer and more like real hair but we shall see. My eyebrows are still coming in nicely but I can't seem to capture it in a photo. There is another girls blog that I follow and she didn't have a nice covering until about 14 weeks I think? Grrr. I am worrying more about hair coverage rather then hair growth. I just want it to all come in thick and nice like before ! Short post today. Love all you Hodgys out there!

Week 5

It is February 6th, approximately 38 days, or 5 weeks post chemo and I am finally starting to notice a little growth here and there and everywhere. Not necessarily on my head, but my eyelashes and eyebrows and stomach hair... things of that nature. It is quite exciting! The hair seems to me more fine though. Definitely more thin. Especially when it comes to my eyelashes. Previously I had none at all on the bottom and now I see little sprouts! My eyebrows are the same way. It is not dark as you would expect eyelashes to be. It is more blonde? I dont know. But hey, its hair right! It is a start. I think after I take today's pictures I will have my mom shave what I have off. You will see why. I was supposed to take the pictures yesterday, but I kind of sort of passed out in the shower and ended up in the hospital. OOPS. We called my oncologist and he said he didn't think it was anything cancer related so thats good =] Probably just dehydrated or something. 

Any way, here are the pictures ! I had to take them myself this week because my photographer (sister) decided to go to sleep early!

I wish all my hair was this long. It is a teaser! But my mom and friend told me they can see dark spots where my follicles /pores or whatever you call them are supposed to be. Hopefully it is a start!

I took my eyebrows off haha! you can't see the little hairs. Maybe next week?

I tried to capture the little spots that are supposedly there. I don't think it worked though=\

eyebrows and lashes :(

So, I forgot to post what my eyebrows an eyelashes look like up close. I am taking all these pictures with my iPhone so the quality isn't the absolute best. I think you can tell though that I literally have none. It pains me to put up this picture because I look so alien and ratchet but oh well. I don't know why, but it seems like I am still losing my eyebrow and lash hairs. To this day even and it is February 2nd, more than a month after my last chemo treatment which was December 30th. No sign of growth yet. I have read many places though that the hair that fell out the easiest will come back the fastest. So since the hair on my head started falling out about 10 days after chemo, and it took my brows and lashes till probably the 5th chemo to fall out( I had 8), it should grow back the fastest. So that means it will probably take an extra month or so for the other stuff to come back :'(

THANK GOD for make up. and eyebrow pencils...

CURVEBALL

This blog is supposed to be purely about hair, but I dont think a few posts here and there will hurt. Someone relatively close to me may have the Hodge! She is not technically family, my sisters cousin, but close enough! What are the frikin odds right. Somewhere close to 8,000 people get this monstrous thing per year in the United States. Half those people are women. So 2 out of 4,000 women in the ENTIRE UNITED STATES end up being in kind of the same family? That is upsurd and unreal and it just makes me mad. Lets just hope it actually is the Hodge because it is the 'hollywood' cancer as my oncologist would say. Only because it is so treatable---high cure rate. I hope to talk to her soon. It was nice for me to talk to someone who had the same thing as me. I knew 2 women, one 20 years or so in remission and one 2 years in remission. They both really helped me and were really optimistic. It is nice to be able to even text that person when you have a question. So I hope that is what I will be able to do for her. And hey, maybe my wigs can go to good use now.

I was also kind of a freak about looking up stuff on the internet. I would literally sit on here for hours and read other peoples blogs. Before I started losing my hair it would scare me to death to read about everyones different stories, but once I lost mine it was just kind of cool to be able to compare my story to theirs. Which by the way are all relatively the same. If they were on ABVD that is. Adriamyicin. The hair killer. I hated when they pushed that red crap into my veins because I knew within about 7 or 8 days it would take the little hair I had left away. But the stories went something like this --- I found a lump in my neck. went to the docs. they biopsied it. put me on chemo for 4-6 months. I either got radiation after, or was cancer free after just the chemo. all my hair fell out. and now its going to grow back! the end.

which is what happened to me too! and most of the ones I read were a few years old so the person always talked about how they were 2 years in remission, 5 years. It was always a breath of fresh air. I only stumbled across a few that said the cancer came back. But even then, my doctor said that with different medicines they could make it go away again. I don't know, I am just glad that I had this kind of cancer. Really glad actually. I would completely 100% choose cancer over diabetes or some other chronic disease. You just have to look at things differently now. Yeah your life will probably suck for a few months, I wont sugar coat that one. The cancer will take about a year of your life to deal with. But after that you wont ever have to worry about it again. Well besides the follow up doctor visits. Other than that life goes on. You will become a stronger person and all that nonsensical stuff people tell you. I don't see my self as 'stronger' really. Just a kid that had to deal with some annoying bullshit for a while.

life goes on. the hair comes back. nothing more to it really =]