ADAPTING

“Mummy, can you not come to my assembly on Friday? I don’t want my friends asking me lots of questions about what’s wrong with you and I’m afraid they’ll say you look ugly” and with that Harry burst into tears.

I wasn’t there for that exchange but I’m told there were tears on both sides. I think we’ve underestimated how much the change in Sam’s appearance has affected the kids. When I came home from work Sam explained to me what happened. She wasn’t angry with him and told me not to be either, but I could see it had damaged whatever confidence she didn’t have. I went into the middle room, sat both kids down and asked what happened. Harry immediately burst into tears (I think he thought I was angry) and started to explain that he didn’t want his friends looking at mummy funny and asking him questions. He calmed down when he realised I wasn’t cross and started to compose himself. I told him that if any of his friends said that mummy looked weird then he should just tell them to go and shave their mummy’s heads to see if they look half as good as his mummy does. I told him if they asked him questions about what was wrong then he should just tell them the truth and be honest with them. All of his close friends already know everything anyway. As I was talking to him you could see his posture change and he started to look proud. I told him that he was the man of house when I wasn’t there and that he has to protect mummy when she needs him. He stood up straight, walked out the room and then went and saw Sam. “I want you to come to my assembly mummy. I want you to be there”. Good boy Harry. Good boy. 🙂

That was last week and we all went to the assembly on Friday (Sam included) and Harry was very mature in the way he handled it. It was almost as if he was proud of his mummy’s new look. The visit did a lot for Sam’s confidence too because it got her over that first hurdle of braving the outside world with her appearance. I saw a couple of double takes from a couple of parents, but only because Sam was wearing a hat. It must have done her a world of good because we even went shopping afterwards. To be honest, you would never have known she was a fellow baldy because she pulls off the hat look with ease. All that walking around does tend to knacker her out though.

Talking of headgear, I was sent out the other day by Sam and her mum to purchase some head scarves for her. Before I left I was given strict instructions on what I had to purchase. I’m still not sure what these instructions were but I know I was told something. Now, it’s at this point I realised that you shouldn’t send out a man to buy a headscarf. Especially not me anyway. Send me out to find a gadget, a new TV or some kind of multimedia device, but not something that a woman would like to wear on her head. You see, when I got to the shop I was greeted by this:

But in reality, all I really saw was this:

Unfortunately, when I got home (after hours of searching) with my selection of headgear I was informed politely that, although very lovely, thick woolly hats are not suitable to wear in the spring.

As Sam mentioned in her previous post, her PICC line has been annoying her. She said she feels as if she has something crawling under her skin. Most of this is from the allergic reaction she keeps getting from the dressing that they use. We’ve been back to the hospital quite a few times to have different combinations of dressing put on but still each one reacts. Now, when something reacts on Sam she finds it really hard not to scratch and fiddle. She’s always been the same. If she has a scratch, burn or a scab then she’ll pick pick pick. It’ll last for months so she’s the worst person to get an allergic reaction. When we went back to the hospital on Wednesday she was adamant that she wanted the PICC line out. She said she would rather put up with the collapsed veins than have the constant irritation that she experiences at the moment. However, when she got there they were reluctant to remove it as the advantages of having it far outweighs the disadvantages of not having it (I think that makes sense). This time they decided to leave it free with just one bit of steri strip holding the line in her arm.

They would then use a dressing and bandage to wrap it up tight, however, they don’t usually like doing this because if she knocks it there’s a chance it could pull the PICC line out of her arm. It’s a bit better now but still not great. Still, rather that than collapsed veins. I’ve heard they can be nasty.

We’ve got to see Sue (the wig lady) on Thursday morning where we can see the final selection of wigs in Sam’s hair colour along with a few extra ones that she’s ordered for her. One is apparently called the Victoria Beckham wig. That’ll be interesting.

Hopefully they’ll get the Lady Gaga one in too. 😉