Going . . . going . . . (but not yet gone...) & sign-up sheet link

So I got the dates of my arterial port surgery mixed up. To be fair (because I'm usually not such a space cadet), when the nurse called to confirm my oncology appt, my surgery appt, and my chemo appt, I was walking Bruno with my friend JoAnna (who is briefly in town) and I repeated, aloud several times, the days rather than the dates of the appointments. So I blame the nurse because while she may have given me the correct date, initially, she mis-spoke on the day of the week. So I thought the surgery was happening Tuesday but no, the confirmation phone call and mail says Monday @3pm at the Interventional Radiology Unit of Memorial Hospital. It is outpatient surgery, but it's still surgery--meaning, I need a "RESPONSIBLE ADULT" (this is the language of the surgery prep sheet) to wait during the surgery (which should last all of an hour, hour and a half) and who can drive me home because I "CANNOT BE RELEASED TO A TAXI CAB OR BUS DRIVER." Sad to think of someone taking the bus to surgery.

So tomorrow the arterial port is put in--which will be inserted under the skin underneath my collarbone--it won't be visible but I'll be able to feel it. And then at 9am on Thursday, June 10, it's the first round of chemo.

Anyway, in preparation for the upcoming chemo treatments and loss of my hair, I went to DB Sutton on Franklin Street and had none other than the illustrious David Sutton do his magic on my hair. I told him that he could do ANYTHING he wanted to do to my hair, although I was hoping to mimic the hair of one of his stylists, Rachel (who was the woman responsible for my amazing wedding hairstyle!).

Anyway, here's what I look like before...


And now AFTER!


This is me amazed at how short my hair is (for the record, I have NEVER had my hair cut this short before!)


David did a FANTASTIC job--and my hair feels much lighter now, and thus it will be much less traumatic when it does start to fall out (which should be 2-3 weeks after the initial chemo treatment).

So right after we left DB Sutton we went to In the Pink, a wig store designed especially for women who are going through hair loss issues as a direct result of cancer or other life altering diseases. Dana, the owner of In the Pink, is herself a cancer survivor and her store is essentially the place she wished she had when she was going through chemo. She was wonderful about helping me find wigs and advice about how to put them on, the upkeep, and being able to order different styles and colors on my preferences.

Here's Dana helping me prepare for trying on wigs


And here's me with one of the two wigs I ended up buying (I was trying to bounce around to make sure it wouldn't fall off!)


The battery on my camera died before I could get a photo of me with the second wig...lets just say it's not a style you'd typically find me in, and I decided to do something DIFFERENT.

Finally, thanks for folks who left comments on the previous post saying you'd like to get an email message about the sign-up sheet. Jordynn (who is a genius at many things) managed to create a google spreadsheet that allows anyone to view and sign up--so you don't need a gmail account to view this, all you need to do is click on the link below if you are interested in signing up to help walk Bruno or drop off a dish.

Sign Up Sheet Link

There's absolutely NO PRESSURE to do either, but we've been inundated with generous offers of both and David (of DB Sutton) told me (when he generously informed me that my haircut was gratis) that when people offer to help, it is very important to accept what people give--that as much as my natural pride and my own caretaker personality may balk at this, in the next 4-6 months I will need to rely on others. And he's right. I know I can't do this alone--and I know that Matthew and I are not alone, and for that, I'm extraordinarily grateful! So thank you in advance to everyone who is able to help out or who leaves a comment or calls or sends an email message or a card--all of it, every single gesture of kindness and caring, means so much to us.