Mr. T and I Might Need to Share a Hair Stylist

I'm done with radiation and this round of chemo!  YEAH!  Now I can hopefully begin to function like a normal human being again.  The thing I am looking forward to the most?  Eating!  I am really looking forward to drinking water that doesn't taste like metal, and food tasting like it should.  (Hopefully I'll continue my new-found likeness of meatloaf :).

The other thing that I am really looking forward to is my hair on my head returning.  My radiation was strong enough that I lost hair on my whole head . . . except for this ring on the top.  That section of hair is growing in nicely, but I look a bit like a balding Mr. T with my funky set of hair that never fell out, but is growing strong.  I am planning on keeping any hair that is growing in as a pretty short buzz-cut until all of my hair begins to return.  I would rather not look like a rocker from the 80s.  However, thanks to losing the hair I did learn that I have a total of eleven moles/birthmarks on my scalp.  Who knew?

Now that I am done with radiation/chemo for now, I am moving onto the next health issue brought up by my tumor . . . teeth.  My mouth was already messed up, but the dentist and I could not figure out why.  What was the oddity?  Well, I don't just have four wisdom teeth, I have six of them.  Yup, six.  My mouth had plenty of space with four, so there was no plan to take them out.  Two years ago, the dentist and I were a bit surprised when the x-rays were taken, and I had more wisdom teeth coming in.  Apparently this is something that is not unknown to dentists, but is normally a genetic trait that runs in families.  No one else in my family has had this, so it was a mystery.  The presence of the tumor might of messed things up enough that it caused my extra wisdom teeth to arrive.  Ugh.  Those extra wisdom teeth are squishing all my other teeth together, so before I can have my wisdom teeth removed, repair has to be done on my squished teeth.  Apparently the radiation directed at my head and this round of chemo did some stuff to my teeth and gums as well.  So I don't have any visits to my brain/chemo/radiation doctors this next week, but I do get to have bonding time with the dentist.  The dentist's advice to me when I saw him for my cleaning yesterday?  "Next time make sure to come in before you have surgery or begin radiation and chemotherapy, so we can try and prevent future problems."  I had to explain to him that I only had two days notice before surgery, and that they were closed those two days.  The world just might be ending the first time I find a dentist that is open seven days a week.

Next thing I am looking forward to is getting off my steroid prescription.  I am really hoping that when I see Dr. O and Dr. Wagner the last week in February, that they will be very happy to take me off of it.  I would love to have a jawline back.  Facial hair is also annoying, but I've been trying to keep it nicely groomed ;)

The last thing I am excited about being able to do again is returning to work.  It is said that a teacher never goes into teaching for the money, and it is true.  I am admitting that I really do miss my students and working with middle schoolers.  It will feel wonderful to wake up each day knowing that I have sometime to do with my day other than wandering through the house looking for ANYTHING to do.  Besides, playing with chemicals in chemistry is quite a bit more fun than playing with the chemicals used for cleaning the house.