All Good Things Must Come To An End

You know what's great? Not having to shave my knees.

I love rainy days when there's nothing to do, and nowhere to be. I just got home from dropping Sara off at her brother's and I'm not leaving the house for the rest of the day. Sara came to visit because she set up an amazing day for me yesterday. She has some contacts from back when she lived in NYC. One of those contacts is the wonderful Miss Sherry Vine. Sherry Vine set up an appointment with her personal stylist at Barry's Bitz and Pieces; came with us, and introduced us to Edward, also wonderful and so knowledgeable. I got to go shopping with the pros! I brought pictures of hairstyles I like, and pictures of my old hair. We tried on about 5 different styles. It was so quick and easy because Edward knew exactly what to pull. And you know what that means...wig montage!! Cue the music!

Okay. You sit there and look bored, and then first I'll come out in a couple of wigs that don't look right on me. You shake your head, and give a "thumbs down." Then, I'll come out in a funny one, and we'll both laugh. Then I'll come out in one that almost works, and you make like an "I don't know, maybe" kind of face. And THEN, I'll come out in a perfect one, and you smile and nod and make an "okay" sign with your right hand.

(Okay now the last shot of the scene is us walking down the sidewalk with shopping bags. Ooooh maybe while the sun is setting, and I'll put my head on your shoulder. Boom. Lifetime movie.)

So for real, it was so much fun, and also emotional. I cried a couple of times. I know I said I dig the bald, and I do. It's just that I didn't realize how much I missed feeling "normal" until I looked normal. I'm so grateful to Miss Sherry Vine, Edward, and of course, Sara for doing that with me. All three of them were so generous and patient. They made a day that could have been stressful and worrisome incredibly fun and story-worthy. Sara is amazing for arranging that AND for still coming up after her hospital stay last week. Oh and her parents sent me a fruit basket! <3

Christmas was great. We stayed down in South Jersey for a few days. Our family does a huge Christmas Eve dinner that I absolutely love and look forward to every year. I was so excited to be able to share that with David this year. I got some thoughtful gifts- a few from friends of my mother who were so kind to think of me. We also got in some quality play time with my niece. I posted pictures of our head paintings in instagram, FB, and twitter. If you missed it- It was a great way to help my five-year-old niece get comfortable with Aunt Faith's bald head. She was very hesitant at first, but then she got into it and went crazy with the glitter. I feel like this might be a regular thing when I go down to visit, and that is okay by me. I'll do anything to make that little girl happy, especially if it involves glitter.

It says, "I love gumball machines." She knows me so well!

Right before Christmas, I had a really good conversation with my cousin who went through his own battle with cancer 20 years ago when he was 20ish. His was much scarier than mine. It was in his liver, lasted over two years, and required two cycles of chemo, blood transfusions, platelet transfusions, and I believe a bone marrow transplant. Even though it's been 20 years, he still remembers it all well, and had a suggestion that has made a huge impact for me. Ready? Get this. Tomato soup. Tomato soup was the one thing he could eat that drowned out that terrible taste. Thursday night, I picked up the magic mouthwash and went to the grocery store and bought tomato soup. It was a difficult trip. Two whole stores in one outing. I had to sit and rest on a bench on the way home. (I'm getting good at not being a tough guy, pushing my body past its limits.) Eventually I got my booty home with my booty. I swished the MM around for 1 minute, spit it out, and had to wait an agonizing 30 mins before I could try to eat. When I had 2 mins left on the MM clock, I zapped the soup in the microwave. Dude. He was right. I can eat tomato soup! I was literally crying tears of relief and joy in my kitchen over spoonfuls of tomato soup.

After that I had another session with Vlad, this one bringing to light how bad I am at really letting people help me and truly allowing myself to rely on others. This is a lesson that keeps coming up over and over in all parts of my life. If I don't learn it soon, I'd hate to see what else could happen that would force me to conquer it. I'll get it, God! I promise! :D

We're all friends here, right? I almost wasn't going to share this one, buuuuut here we go. One of the other strange side effects of chemo has been some skin discoloration. It's mainly affecting my underarm area. I did some googling and it's a fairly common side effect with a few possible explanations. One of those is that maybe because cells are no longer regenerating, hair follicles are getting stopped up with dead cells. They suggested gently exfoliating. So I gently exfoliated and did see a difference. So I a-little-less-gently exfoliated and saw a bigger difference. So I not-so-gently exfoliated and was pretty happy with the results. Then, I noticed a couple of stray hairs that hadn't fallen out yet, so I grabbed my shaving lotion and lathered up. Let me be more specific. I grabbed my Dr. Bronner's lemongrass lime shaving lotion and lathered up my freshly exfoliated armpits.

Did you hear me? I said LEMONGRASS LIME.

Some other comparable scents could be ginger-cayenne, jalapeño-ghost pepper, or perhaps peppermint-salt. Needless to say I'm back to being unable to wear deodorant for a few days. Thank god it's cold out.

Aaaand last but not least, our final wedding pictures came in from Denis. They're gorgeous. I don't know how we're going to choose. I posted a few favorites below. I might have some good news next week about a wedding planner. I've given in and made some phone calls. It's just too much to do in my own while going through this, and we're going to need someone in the weeks leading up to and on the day of the wedding anyway so I might as well start now.

I think we're all caught up. My next infusion is Tuesday. I get to test out the new port. That'll be exciting.

It takes me a few days to write these posts. I keep an ongoing note open and write when I can. I started this one Thursday. Now it's New Year's Eve. We're spending a quiet night with David's parents, popping a bottle of sparkling apple cider- which is a perfect way to end this year and bring in the new one. I have to say that 2016 was still the best year of my life so far and I bet 2017 will be even better. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Happy New Year, everybody!!