Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Big moment in the Cowboy's chemo history.

FINALLY, his cowboy hair met its match.

And it's raining hair, beards, and moustaches at our house today.

Bill was sitting on the couch watching golf, and suddenly he yells, "Beth! I just pulled out a whole handful of hair!"

I ran in. "What? Show me! What do you mean?"

So he reaches up to his head and gently pulls on his hair, and out comes a huge clump of it.

Oh, wow.

Do you, reading this, feel that in the subconscious, archetypal, reptilian, dream sequence part of your consciousness?

Cause I sure do. And so does Bill.

Wow.

It never sounded that weird before. Hair falling out. Chemo, yeah, yeah, yeah, tell me something I DON'T know.

But the first time you run your hand through your hair and that hair decides to take a vacation from your head, and shows up, by surprise, in a big ole clump between your fingers, you're thinking, "Dear Life As We've Known It Up Till Now:  You got some splainin to do."

Oh, wow. (Sorry to repeat myself, but oh, wow.)

So, not knowing what else to do, having skipped the class "Hair Coming Out in Clumps 101," I said, "Try your moustache."

Boom. Moustache clump attains freedom from face.

"Try your beard."

Beard clump: free at last.

Oh, wow.

So thinking I'm helping, I run and get him a big garbage can, a comb, and a mirror. He says, "Um, what is THAT?"

I said, "Well, in case you want to get it over with and just pull everything out."

(Later, during my knee-jerk inner-child panic phone call to my mom, the wild-minded atheist, she says, of the mirror, garbage can, comb idea: "WELL WHAT IN THE HELL DID YOU DO *THAT* FOR?" Thanks, Mom.)

So Bill politely thanks-but-no-thanks me, and returns said items to their original positions.

I said, "Bill, not that I'm upset by this but, I'm feeling, um..um..."

He says, "Horror?"

"Yeah."

He says, "Me, too. Let's not talk about this any more and tomorrow, I'll go get everything shaved off. What's for dinner?"

"Sloppy Joes."

"Good."

"And, Bill?"

"Yeah?"

"It COULD grow back curly and red. We could have fun with that."

Bill: "Sloppy Joes and what else?"

Sooooooo.

Apart from the hair trauma, he was sick all day, gagging, aching, fever, weak, unable to get off couch by himself sometimes. But we know that starting tomorrow, he begins his ascension to feeling almost human till the next dose.

Thank God for that!

And tonight, just for a minute, remember to be grateful for your hair.