It's gone

Well, today was the day we've been dreading a little and were starting to think it might be avoidable at this point in time. We were told that hair falls out from chemo at the 2 to 3 week point - but sometimes it doesn't at all. Well, today was Day 21, and Dave noticed some hair he left behind on the phone late in the morning. It was a little upsetting for Dave at first, but he seems to have come to terms with it quickly.

It was kind of funny timing as Dave was planning on heading into school this afternoon for team pictures. He washed his hair, leaving a bit more behind unfortunately, and headed in to have his picture taken with the hockey team. Then he immediately went out to a barber shop and had them shaved it all off. It's hair, and it'll grow back. We're curious to see how it grows back. I mentioned this in an earlier post that apparently it often grows back curly and a different colour after chemo. Stay tuned! Anyway we've determined that he has a decent noggin and there's no odd bumps or divets on it! Hahaha! It's beginning to grow on me. Our son Cale offered to shave his head in support but Dave said he didn't need to do that. (That's nice though.)

Dave has already noticed that he has to wear a toque or he's feels very cold. He's currently wearing one that a few of his students gave him. It says 'chemo sucks' on it!

and it does.

Despite losing his hair today, it's actually been a pretty good day for Dave. I can tell he's feeling much better today. He's still fighting this cold and yesterday was a bad day as he really wasn't feeling well at all. We kept taking his temperature and it seemed to keep climbing all evening. (When it hits 38°C [100.4°F] we're supposed to call the hospital.) His temperature has normally been around 36° and it was 37.4° when he went to bed last night. But this morning it was dropping again at 37° and is now 35.8°. He said he got a good nights rest last night and felt great when he woke up this morning. Yeah!

Well, today is the end of chemotherapy 'cycle 1'. One down!

Thanks everybody for helping us get through to this point! It's so nice that people just call to check in and say hi, or post a short note. It's really encouraging and I don't know how we'd do it without you!

Tomorrow is the start of 'cycle 2', which means we'll be at LRCP for the better part of the day for blood tests, an oncologist appointment, receive cisplatin and epirubicin intravenously, and then change the bottle on the 5-FU med he does at home. He tells me he'll be wearing his new toque!

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers. Today is another good day!

Val