Who knew jogging bald could be so refreshing!

This past week has been very long.  It took the same amount of days for me to feel better as the first treatment (6 days), but I was very impatient and kept hoping I would feel better more quickly.  But just like last time, Tuesday came and I started to feel better.  By yesterday, Wednesday, I felt great and went out for a jog.  I was running on Powerlines path, which is pretty secluded and I got so hot I took off my hat and just ran bald.  It was amazing!  I always get so hot when I exercise and being bald definitely solves that problem.  It was wonderful, but probably a little disturbing for the mothers with small children I passed.  I jog at a pretty slow pace these days so it's not like I can run by quickly and you just get a glimpse of baldness, you kind of have to see it for a while.  I turned on to Scholls Ferry which is the main road that leads to my house and I was going to put my hat back on since so many cars were passing, but then the song "Brave" by Sara Bareilles,  (Vocal Point version)   Brave by Vocal Point came on my ipod and I just kept the hat off and kept running.  I have to admit I did put my hat back on when I turned into my neighborhood  - not quite that brave yet :)

Yesterday was also very fun because I attended a workshop put on by Kaiser for Cancer patients called "Look good, Feel good."  There were about ten women there and we each got a free bag of great make-up and were taught by a couple make-up experts how to apply make up during our treatment (just the basics like helping cover sickly skin tone, adding eyebrows, using eye liner to hide the fact that we may no longer have eye lashes, etc.)

It was so fun to be there and meet other women in various stages of treatment and listen to their experiences and be able to share mine.  I realize how lucky I have been so far that my side effects have not been severe and that I have the help from so many people to make my experience so far go so smoothly.  There were three women there who had already gone through the bald phase and were growing back their hair, which was fun to see although it does seem to come back white/gray.  That will be different.  I told them about shaving my head and asked them what they did about the pain I was feeling when my little bit of hair rubbed against the pillow at night or got caught on some of my knitted hats and hurt.  The general consensus was that I needed to shave the hair off to the skin and I would like it a lot better.  So, last night Adam spent about 45 min carefully shaving my head, and it does feel so much better.

This continues to be one of the strangest things I have ever experienced.  The down days feel a lot like morning sickness, with the added discomfort of a terrible metallic taste in my mouth that makes strange things like water seem revolting.  I do not like giving myself the seven shots I need each week and told Adam I was not going to do it anymore, regardless of what the doctor said.  A couple of the women at the make-up class yesterday just laughed when I told them this and told me they told their doctors the same things and the doctors just kept giving them shots anyway.  But the little blessings like the amazing relief I feel when I am no longer sick and the gratitude I feel for so many wonderful friends and family and experiences that make my life wonderful are definitely making it doable.  I cried at Andie's soccer game the other night just because I was so happy I get the experience of watching her play, and Monday when Hunter's letter came I cried because I love watching how he has grown and how he loves the people he is teaching and the work he is doing.  The range of emotions is intense and the highs are very high which counteracts the lows.   I am so grateful to the many people of all different faiths who continue to let me know you are praying for my family and me.  Your prayers are working and I feel blessed with small little miracles every day.