Bye Bye Hair

This weekend was another spent in Livermore. Friday night, though, Dave and I went out to sushi with some friends here in Davis. It was a nice change of pace, for sure.

Saturday evening Mommy and I went to Anita's salon. When the stylist realized that Mommy's hair had been falling out for a few days, she asked the owner (Mark) to come talk to my mom about her options. My mom thought that she'd have a couple more weeks to deal with her hair before it fell out completely. Unfortunately, Mark explained, she probably wouldn't make it one more week without losing all her hair. The people at Anita's certainly didn't force her to cut all her hair off, but did recommend it so she wouldn't have to deal with clumps of it falling out at home.

So...she agreed to have Mark shave her head down to about 1/8th of an inch. She winced while he did it, which made me feel sad for her. After she put her glasses back on and surveyed her head she just rolled her eyes, chuckled a little, and asked me to pick out some hats for her to wear. We picked a cute pink night cap, a plain brown beanie, a nice light blue scarf/cap thing, and a pretty pink floral cap. After a long head massage/shampooing (with shampoo specially made for chemo patients) she bravely pulled on her cap and we headed up to the register.

She didn't want me to tell my dad or Dave about her bald head--she wanted to walk into the house and see how long it would take for them to notice! Haha! We ended up meeting them at Emil Villa's (where else?) in the parking lot. They both did a double-take when they saw her and then smiled. Like she said "it is only hair and it will grow back."

This weekend I became "Nurse Julie" at the house. On Sunday she took a shower while I read an Oprah magazine in the bedroom in case she needed help. She hadn't been able to shower since October and she was a little nervous about it. We installed a shower stool and a hose for the shower head so she wouldn't have to move her arms too much. First I had to cover up the chest catheter with tape and Saran wrap so it wouldn't get wet. The after the shower I changed the dressing on the chest wound from her lung drainage tube. The wound looks like a bullet hole in her chest. It is about the size of a nickel and is filled with white goop--not puss, I don't think, but probably surgical adhesive. Still, it was a little gross. I made my dad look at it in case it gets worse he'll have something to compare it to.

The rest of my weekend was full of cooking meals, eating, washing dishes, doing laundry, changing bedsheets and bathroom towels, and generally tending to my mom's needs. It is a lot of work being the "woman of the house" for two households! But I'm glad to do it. I admit, though, that I couldn't stand doing all this without having Dave with me each weekend. The first weekend I went to Livermore to see my mom Dave had to work. I was so stressed out and depressed after that weekend. Since then my stress level has lightened greatly (despite all the other crap that has come up--like the sudden disappearance of my school funding) and I'm feeling much more upbeat. Every weekend gets a little easier but I know it wouldn't be as nice without Dave. Just knowing he's around makes all the difference. Plus he's a HUGE help to my dad with all the cleaning...and my mom absolutely loves having him around. But who wouldn't? =o) (I love you, my baby.)