It was a rainy afternoon and the dog had to go for a walk, one of modern life’s little self -created tense moments. First things first - Which family member will draw the short straw and brave the elements ? Frankly I was OK to walk the dog in the rain that day, honestly I was psyched I felt up to it since I was 10-ish weeks into Chemo, was 99% complete with the transition to being hairless and fighting through the general malaise that comes with the side effects etc. so the fact that I felt like moving, walking, talking was a gift and I wasn’t going to let some rain get in the way.
With an umbrella in one hand and a leash attached to the 15 pound psychosis that is our family dog in the other outside we went. It was a real good heavy rain with some wind gusts which left my newly exposed bald scalp with a smattering of rain drops on it followed by air rushing over it which was a fantastically new sensation. I can’t say it registered as sensitive as a touchy tooth or anything like that, but it was for certain a stop and pause moment. Imagine dripping water on a bowling ball and that very much resembled my hairless head getting rain on it.
Let’s take a second and talk about all that this Chemo Hair Loss encompasses. I was fully prepared for the loss of the hair on top of my head; so much so that with my families assistance we preemptively shaved off as much as possible. In hindsight that was a rare feeling of control during a time when I felt like I couldn’t control much - shaving my hair off also served the practical advantage of eliminating the awkward moments of the uninvited “clump”, after all there are few buzz kills like the buzz kill of a spontaneous clump of hair falling off my head and onto my lap during a random conversation. There is no unseeing that for you and whomever your talking with so no matter what the topic of conversation was about it was no more, it was replaced by an awkward silence coupled with uncomfortable intermittent eye contact so getting rid of those moments was a win. However what I never thought of until it was happening to me was the loss of ALL of my bodies hair – oh yea – ALL of it. In the spirit of keeping this post to the Blog site suitable for everyone to read I’ll confine my comments and observations to PG-13 level stuff – but the total body hair loss was an eye opener to me for certain.
Which leads me to today’s headline –“Eyebrows ” !
I am here to tell you that Eyebrows perform a function – they probably perform a few but for sure they act as buffers keeping sweat and it turns out rain outta your eyes. This all makes sense now that I think about it –but up until that moment I never did. Within seconds after the first few surprising seconds of blurred vision coming upon me I was juggling the need to use either hands as wipers on my forehead and trying to keep the umbrella upright while doing my best not to strangle the dog. The unintended consequences of walking the dog in the rain shortly after I lost my eyebrows to Chemo lead me to being temporarily incapacitated belly laughing standing in a rain storm with a soaking wet dog and a useless umbrella.
So in the category of being grateful for the little things in life – here’s to my eyebrows I’m glad to have you back.