Two Weeks of Chemo: Day 7

This is part of an ongoing two-week series. For more info, see this introductory post.

Let's start with a minor complaint for the day: acne. Without fail, a week into my two-week cycle I get a lovely breakout of acne. It's unavoidable and made annoyingly pronounced my starkly bald head. This brings us to the topic of hair loss.

The lack of hair is the most obvious identifier of a cancer patient. And it's not the hair on one's head that I'm specifically talking about. Of course, friends and family will notice if you suddenly shave your head, but there's no reason for the average person on the street to assume anything other than that you're a fan of a no-hassle hair style. If you lose your eyebrows and eyelashes, however, something is obviously amiss.

Hair loss affects everyone differently. Some lose only certain areas, others lose it in patches, and some lose none at all. And you don't lose every strand of hair; it just becomes super sparse. I have lost most of the hair from my scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes, facial hair (but only the lower half), hair on my torso, armpit hair (but my left more than my right), and the hair on my upper legs (but not the lower).

What's the most annoying hair to lose? Nose-hair. Talk about things I took for granted. Your nose-hair collects mucous (i.e. snot), in part too keep the nose tissue from drying out as you breath. When you lose it, there are two seemingly unrelated consequences: you have a constantly runny nose and your nose becomes dry to the point of bleeding. Take a moment to appreciate your nose hair and all it does to keep you sane.

Back to Day 6.
Ahead to Day 8.