The Beginning of the END!

I would just like to point out that tonight, on the eve of my final chemo, that I have this much hair.

My oncologist initially told me that I would lose all of my hair within a month of starting treatment, which was August 27th. It 's definitely thinned out, but it is pretty amazing to me that I still have a full-ish head of hair! I'm so glad I never shaved it. A lot of my friends that I have met online didn't all lose their hair either, so every patient is different. My eyebrows and eyelashes, however, have gone pretty much M.I.A. One of the things I am looking forward to most is not having to draw eyebrows on to look normal. They RARELY come out looking the same, and they look different every day. But it's just one of those things you have to laugh off and roll with. 

I have come across an Instagram account that is a girl who is a breast cancer survivor, and she does tutorials on how to tie scarves. She is AMAZING. She has a youtube channel-- Confessions of a Bald Girl, and I learned how to do this from one of her videos:

Some new #cancercouture! The bow is pretty fun.




I also made an appointment and visited a local wig bank where I got my new hair:



The wig bank has free wigs for cancer patients, and it's run by the American Cancer Society. I just called them and made an appointment, and a stylist met with me and helped me find a wig that I liked and helped fit it to me! I have always wanted to try dark hair, but it's such a drastic change from what I had before, that I never wanted to commit to coloring it. So this is a nice alternative. And it's also kind of fun because people don't recognize me at first glance :)


So, tomorrow is it! Chemo 12/12. I have been getting a higher dosage of chemo the last couple times, because they determine the amount on your weight. And thanks to the steroids in my cocktail, I have gained enough to have to have my dosage increased. I could tell a definite difference in my recovery after having the higher dose. I was definitely more tired after, and it took me about a week and a half to feel normal, as opposed to about 5 days before. I also got to experience "bone pain," which I hadn't had before, but have heard the horrible rumors about. Once you realize why you have the bone pain, it makes sense, but it doesn't make it any better. Your white blood cells are produced in your bone marrow, which is in your bones. So because everything is being killed off and the white blood cells are trying to reproduce, (as my sister would say,) "there's just a lot happening." And you can feel it. Speaking of white blood cells, my counts have been pretty low the last few weeks. It's always a surprise to the nurses when it happens, but I don't know why, because isn't that the whole point? I understand the concern and wanting the patients to be careful, but I thought the whole idea here was that we were killing cells.... Anyway, normal blood counts will fall on a scale of 3.5-12. Before I started chemo, I was an 8. After my first chemo, they were at 2.7 (and that's the absolute lowest it has ever been). They have been right around 3 lately, which is low, but still manageable. When they fall below the scale, it always takes longer at chemo because the nurse has to get permission from my oncologist to proceed with chemo, and it can sometimes take a while. Which is a bummer, but I only have to be there one more time!

So I will have chemo tomorrow, and then I have an eight week waiting period before my next PET scan to make sure everything is good! So it's going to be a long eight weeks :)

I get to fill in the last piece of this puzzle tomorrow! Thank you everyone for your continued love and support. I have been so blessed throughout this journey and am so grateful for all the wonderful people in my life!