HURDLES

I suppose in a way it’s like waiting for that perfect meal. You’ve craved it for ages and you’re absolutely starving, but when it eventually turns up at the table you just look at it and say “Meh”. All of a sudden you find that it doesn’t look as good as you remember and you’ve gone past that point of being hungry anyway. It’s been a bit like that for Sam and the wig. 2 weeks ago she was absolutely gutted that she had to wait so long for it to arrive, but that was when her hair was thinning. The original plan was to get the wig before her hair did a disappearing act on her. She was going to shave her head and then wear the wig straight away so that nobody would be any the wiser. The problem now is that everybody she knows is in on the secret, so wearing the wig would just highlight it. She’s been out now quite a few times with a hat or a scarf on and I think she’s getting used to the idea. People haven’t been staring or pointing (although there have been a few double takes) and shes got over that first hurdle of going out in public, so the novelty of the wig has sort of worn off. Also, you know when you get your haircut and it looks really nice, but then when you get home you realise that you can’t get it to look the same when you try and style it? Well turns out the same applies when you get a wig. It just never goes on in the same way. One moment you look fine and then the next you end up looking like a Tina Turner tribute act.

Sam went to see the doctor on Friday because her adult acne has come back with a vengeance. She got it really bad when she was pregnant with Rosie and then again when she was having Charlie. Well, now it’s come back angrier than ever.

It’s got to be the hormones in her body going nuts that’s causing it and the thing is you can’t help but feel that the 2 pregnancies plus the hormone explosion has helped create this whole situation. You also have to wonder whether her body was giving her warning signs early on that something wasn’t quite right. She’s actually found herself looking forward to the chemo sessions now because whenever she has it her skin clears up for 2 weeks. The doctor couldn’t believe it. She said she’s the first patient she’s come across who’s actually found an advantage to having chemotherapy. Unfortunately, she wasn’t prepared to prescribe her anything without talking to the oncologist first. She said that she had to make sure that the usual treatment wouldn’t interfere with anything that was already going on. Hopefully on Wednesday the oncologist will be able to give her something that will help treat it.