High 5 to you Ali! lol
Hi all
I’ve been reading about you all shaving off your hair and I still haven’t done mine! Called the hairdresser to get the wig trim and she can’t see me till next Thursday. I still have a significant amount of hair, two weeks after it started to go in significant amounts, and it’s STOPPED FALLING OUT! Tingling has gone too. Now what do I do? It’s like a ninety year old’s, dead, thin, can see my scalp through it, slightly thicker on the back and sticks out of the scarf on my neck. Looks AWFUL, can’t go around without covering it,
I will have it trimmed very short, but not shaved as it will be bristly. Anyone else had this happen? Does it come out more after this last lot of chemo?
I have got used to wearing hats and scarves, went out to the allotment in a buff, felt very liberating.
Love to all
xS
When my hair started to fall out badly I thought I can either sit here all day and comb it til theres none left or its all thin or I can shave it off now,so I did! It is quite spikey and looks like theres actually quite a lot left so I’m wondering if I was a bit hasty but hey ho, not a lot I can do about it now and I’m ok with wearing scarves and I bought a great wig today which is much more “me” than anything the NHS had to offer!
Lilac and Buzzy - thanks for the comments re: looking too young to be a Nanna. Maybe it’s coz there’s no grey to be seen at the moment!
Ali- re: you’re comment about the ex. It’s weird but my ex-hubby has been a great support since all this come about. My hubby works away from home Monday - Friday and it was my ex who turned up every morning the week after last FEC to check I was ok and offering to run around after me if I wanted anything and helping out with the daughter getting her new home ready. Which by the way, she has now moved into - OH YES!
Hope you all have a good weekend.
Karen
I have taken the scissors to my hair! Couldn’t stand it any more!
Anyone ever tried to cut their own hair? What a laugh 
I have always liked to cut hair, cut my kids’ hair all the time when they were little (wanted to be a hair dresser for years when I was younger), and have always trimmed the front of my hair, but cutting the back is a different matter!
But apart from a few funny short bits at the back it looks SO much better. Bit of a butch look admittedly, but better than a ninety year old wispy do.
Now it’s a fuzz though my hats don’t half stick to my head!
We will have to compare notes Buzzy, I think we are about the same stage of FEC aren’t we? I do wonder if it will have another falling out 17 days after cycle 2.
X
Rusty
Rusty
I did my hair with clippers and I know what you mean about it sticking to your hats! I think the rest is starting to fall out now, I have two bald patches at the back and my pubes are fallin out now too! lol. Not such a bad thing! No more need for bikini waxes!
My second FEC was last Thursday. I felt fine until Friday afternoon when i just wanted to sleep so that is what I did all day on Saturday. Feel much better today. Not shuffling round like a 90 year old any more!
Hope you are feeling ok too
Debs
x
Hi All
Two weeks after first chemo and hair started to fall out.
This second week I have felt great full of life and now hair has started to come out at least I know that the chemo is working. Have my wig ready had it cut today feel good in it.
Hope your all ok.
Margaret xxxx
Hi All
Had a good weekend, just rushing around this week organising my eldest back to uni, good thing it’s week 3 so I have energy. 3rd fec next tuesday and given in and having picc line fitted on monday. I still have some of my hair (very thin)as can’t get the courage up to shave it off so expected it to fall out today which is day 15 from 2nd fec, same as it did after fec 1 but so far it hasn’t. Didn’t use coldcap, not even sure if this is available at my hospital, has anyone else found they still have some hair? The hairloss has also been a bit random, lost underarm and pubic hair but not hair on legs… how unfair is that!
Karen- can understand how nice it is having your place back to yourself again. From Thursday I will stop falling over boots, backpacks etc.
Good luck to all having chemo this week
Ali
x
Hi All,
I’m Day 9 of 2nd FEC and so dissapointed I had to sahve my legs this morning. I have all my arm hair, eyebrows, eyelashes so awaiting sunday day 15 when worried the lot will drop out. Also a bit shocked the hair left on my head is still growing. Wore my wig to a christening on sunday and weddiing on friday everyone said it was lovely. But i’m so self conscious that it is not my own hair that I don’t feel comfortable in it at all. Seem to feel better this time around, not sure if its because I know what to expect? But not quite so exhausted every day.
rusty- very brave cutting your own hair
Bird- hope the wedding went really well and the qig was amazing
Karen- so pleased you can go back to work during the treatment.
Lilac - I’m going to go Boot shopping!
Emma x
Hi everybody
Put off posting for a few days there - been feeling very low and weepy. The gap between how I feel inside and the me that everybody else is seeing seems to be getting bigger. My breast care nurse put me in touch with a counsellor who I’ll be seeing start of next month. I’m not down all the time but when it hits me, it hits hard.
FEC 2 is supposed to be tomorrow. Fingers crossed they won’t just send me home again.
Finding the same thing about the hairloss as you all - a bit random!
Lilac x
Hi Lilac
So sorry to hear you are feeling so low. It can be so random the way it hits. Weekend before last my brother rang and I cried down the phone so much he was convinced I’d had some other bad news. Then later I felt guilty for worrying him which made me tearful again but two days later I felt ok again. So take time for you and don’t feel guilty for being weepy. None of us expected to be a member of this site so it’s no wonder we cry about how life has changed.
Good vibes for number 2 tomorrow,
Ali
x
Emma - I am due FEC3 on Friday and I still have my arm hair (but not under arm), eyebrows and lashes so not sure that they will go now. I have no hair on the head, except a very fine regrowth and the ‘lady garden’ disappeared at the same time as my head hair started falling out. One thing I’m feeling is a bit of a bonus - not having to pluck those stray ones that just seemed to appear overnight on my chin before! Lol!
Lilac - awww, sorry to read that you’ve been feeling a little low. We’re all allowed a bit of down time during all this, so don’t be worrying about feeling weepy.
I thought I was doing ok until last Friday when I went to the hospital for my Chemo review appointment. As I drove into the hospital I realised I was crying and then as I sat in the waiting room the receptionist kept changing the ‘waiting time’ from running 30 mins late to 90 mins and I was sat there sobbing. Some lady sat next to me asked if I “wanted to talk about it” and so we chatted about how stressed I was about all the waiting about. It was only after she’d listened to my woes and talked me round into a more positive frame of mind that she told me she was there to find out if she had a tumour on the brain! I felt a right numpty and sooo foolish to be stressing about the bloody Oncologist running late.
Still enjoying being back at work and getting to know my new year group. I have found it truly touching that they have accepted my situation so easily and accepted how I look and the time I will be having off for treatment. They ask me lots of questions about it and some have told me their own stories of their experiences with this horrid illness within their own families.
I hope you are all coping ok with your SE’s and emotions and continue to stay positive and determined to beat this nasty and very inconvenient illness.
Take care
Karen
Hello everybody
I had FEC number two on Monday and pleased to say no sickness this time. They gave me an extra anti-sickness drug at the end of the chemo - cyclizine I think - and that seems to have done the trick. Both times the nurses have had trouble getting the needle into my veins - I’ve not had this problem before with routine blood tests - and I’m wondering if anybody has got any tips to deal with this, other than drinking plenty which I think I’m already doing, though they have made my appointment an hour later next time to give me more time in the morning to drink!
The hair loss is all a bit strange isn’t it. Mine has come out in handfuls over the past week but I’m sure it’s still growing a bit as I haven’t had to wear wig/hats yet. It disappeared from under my arms overnight but I still have it everywhere else!
Bird, hope you had a wonderful wedding day.
Lilac, sorry you have been feeling low. Hope you were able to have your chemo today. Glad you have the opportunity to see a counsellor - I’m biased as I am one, but I do think it can be really helpful if you can find the right person to talk to.
Positive thoughts to all.
Amanda xx
It can help to have the hand for venous access nice and warm, in our unit they use the microwave kernel bags heated up and applied before they try access, running under hot water also may be useful.
Good Luck to you all.
My husband says my hair is growing and I think he may be right. I wonder too if it will have another go at falling out 17 days after the second chemo Ali. I guess I will find out in a few days!
Getting the wig styled tomorrow, am looking forward to having that option. I went to the Look Good Feel Better workshop today, lovely goody bag but not enough chance to chat. It was a long way for me too, a three hour round trip. I am not looking forward to going there every day for four weeks for my radiotherapy, I hope my car can take it! Anyway, I didn’t realise that any of the ladies there was wearing a wig, even though they all said they felt self conscious.
I have tried my wig on and it is very scratchy and quite hot. I do seem to be hot all the time though, is this my hormones?
Have anyone’s periods stopped? I know someone who said she never had another period after chemo started, but I have, and actually heavier than usual.
X
Rusty
Hi
Well, day 15 past 2nd fec and what’s left of my hair is staying put, not much but it’s my own. I feel hot with my wig as well, thinks it’s because I still have some of my hair left. If it’s cold I wear a hat or scarf if I’m out but have decided that if I’m inside ( work/ home/ friends places) and too hot then everyone will just have to get used to the very!!! bad hair day look.
Rusty, I was told my periods would stop and then when I spoke with my bcn that I they were still happening she told me they shouldn’t be and that was unusual. Wonder if this is why some of my hair has stayed put and I think the rest is beginning to regrow. Also normal feelings of next period due any day so 2nd fec still not knocked them on the head but bcn implied the tamoxifen would stop what the chemo hasn’t. Oh the joys of menopause to come.
Sad and good day tomorrow as elder daughter goes back to uni, her dad has to take her, something else bc has stopped me doing, but good as a good friend is coming to lunch which being at home instead of work has meant I can do.
Hugs to all,
Ali.
x
Hi all
Shaved my head tonight. Feel much better for it. Next treatment Wednesday.
Margaret xxx
Good for you Margaret! It is quite liberating isn’t it? Hope your next treatment goes well
Debs x
Good for you Margaret. I actually find it fun deciding on what hat to wear each day.
Hope the treatment goes well. I have FEC4 tomorrow, can’t wait…NOT!
Karen
Hi all
Finally got FEC 2 on Wednesday and not feeling as sick this time. Had injection yesterday to boost white blood cell count for next time which is making me feel fluey and achey today but hopefully will mean I won’t get delayed again.
Margaret - good on you. I definitely found it easier to cope with hair loss with it really short.
Rusty and Karen - I still feel strange in my wig even though nobody realises, but having got used to wearing it, I know I can look normal when I need to which gives me confidence. I can’t wear it all day though - too itchy - so I’ve been wearing scarves/hats sometimes too. Now the weather is getting colder, I think I will be going more for hats - I’ve just picked up a beautiful velvet one in a charity shop. I’m liking the bohemian look!
Lilac x