Chemo Cancer Cuts

Cancer is a disease we cannot see, and most of the time cannot even feel until after the diagnosis which is why the "C" word has the ability to drop any human to their knees out of paralyzing fear. It sneaks up on you whether it is happening to you or someone close to you its hard to believe what you are told by the doctors when everything looks and appears on the outside to be just like it was the day before.

Never the less we believe the doctors, we trust them and we begin the journey and the fight through treatment for the purpose that one day we will find a cure!

31 days after most any hardship would be the beginning stages of emotional healing, the bottom would have hit and with time strength would begin to appear. With cancer each day is progressively different than the day before, its a roller coaster of ups and downs. From the time of diagnosis you face different challenges, and then suddenly when you feel like it," I have accepted it, we should be able to begin to move on" a drastic shift happens, the belief you have been living with the past month based on something you cannot see or feel sudden appears, you become weak, tired, and for the patient their skin changes every so slightly and then they loose their hair. Cancer all the sudden now has an appearance.

Although we knew from the beginning that the aggressive chemotherapy treatment Jarod would under go would almost certainly cause him to loose his hair along with some other side effects. And we understood what would happen, we were not expecting the shift it would cause in our perception.

Monday the doctors told us that any hair he looses will be before the end of next week, so accepting that as fact we go back to our lives, home, work and of course Georgia. We made a routine appointment for Georgia to go to the Spa Tuesday morning to get a bath, hair and nails done, and a teeth cleaning. While GA was getting pampered, Jarod called and said "well, looks like I'm shedding more than Georgia" and he told me how his hair was falling out in clumps and asked me if I would shave it when I got home.

So Jarod picks GA up and after I got home from work we ate a nice meal and then using our DOG CLIPPERS (that we bought for our precious pooch who won't let us use them which is why her haircuts cost more than mine) Jarod and I went into the master bath and we shaved his head. When we were done he said "Well I am officially a cancer patient" At that moment the disease became real it had taken on its own identity and altered his.

I think Jarod looks great with his new due but the not having a choice behind it and knowing why it was done is what made it so hard. So that night I couldn't sleep. This week had already been VERY difficult for me, I just felt SO different and lost.

The next morning when we woke up we talked about how he felt, we were both so so so sad and we knew it was JUST HAIR and we knew it was going to happen but it changed our perspective - it wasn't our choice, not to get sick, not to have your life put on hold, it wasn't your choice to loose your hair. And that's when I thought about kids who get sick how it made us feel as "young" as we are, I cannot imagine being a child of any age victim to a burn, or illness where your choice on how you look and how others see you is taken away. I told Jarod I was going that evening to cut off all my hair and give it to Wigs for Kids.

Our friend Burke had come into town just a few days earlier and had donated his hair to Wigs for Kids, he told me about the organization and I did some research and decided this would be the who I would give my hair to because there is no charge or application for any child with a medical reason to get a wig. So I went to a local, small hair cutting place who was on the website for Wigs for Kids. I called and then had a 6:15 apt, so I went and sat down and one and half hours and 2 ponytails later walked out with the shortest hair I've ever had!

I told the stylist my story and how when my Mom had gotten cancer a few years ago I started growing my hair for this purpose but ended up really liking it long so I hadn't done it yet, but after Tuesday's events I knew it was it right time.

It takes 10 pony tails to make a wig, and they must be 8 -12 inches to cut. My hair is so thick that they did 2 pony tails with the largest size rubber bands and the stylist said it would be close to the amount of 3 and 1/2 normal pony tails. One ponytail was 13" and the other was 14 and 1/2".

I love that the locks are gone and so does Jarod, but the reason I do is that I had the choice to alter my appearance and how others looked at me and by choosing to change my looks on my own a child will be able to change the face of their cancer. In a situation where most days I can't do anything, for a moment I did something and I hope it helps my husband and I hope it helps kids fighting cancer.

If you want to learn more about the cause visit www.wigsforkids.org