Got some hair hanging on and new wig

On Friday, I went to Party City to check out some of their wigs. I saw a long black one with curls and purple highlights, but I decided to wait. When driving into the strip mall parking lot, I noticed a Beauty 4U store a few stores down. I headed over there, not knowing if they would have wigs or ones that would look OK on me. I was surprised to find that they had a whole wall of wigs displayed on styrofaom heads in the back, and it looked like it was owned by Koreans. I heard the staff speaking Korean on my way to the back.

There were 2 women behind the counter, one at 50 (she told me later) and one in her early to mid-twenties. I told them that I was undergoing chemotherapy, and that my hair is coming out so I needed to find a wig. The older woman didn't know what chemo was so I explained that I had breast cancer and was taking drugs for it. The older woman helped me find 3 wigs that were different than the one that I already bought. I had the pic of the other one in my camera. As we were trying on the wigs in front a large lighted mirror, she told me that she had just had surgery for calcifications found in both breasts, but the doctors said they were benign. She was suppose to have a 6 month follow-up recently, but she's been too scared to go back. Also, I think that she's the store owner and doesn't have health insurance. The outpatient procedure was probably pretty expensive. My insurance covered all my surgeries, but it was definitely over $10,000. I told her that it's imporant to do the follow-up, but also to try to get a second opinion in reading her pathology slides.

By the time I tried on the second wig, I could tell that my hairline was starting to recede, and there was a pile of hair on the table. Before you wear a wig, you have to put a stocking cap on your head. Since my head is so big and still has hair, the cap was sliding off, and every time it did, it took out more hair. I told the nice Korean lady that I was going buy a wig that night and wear it out of the store. I wasn't expecting my hair to be noticeably coming out until the end of the weekend, but now it looked like it wasn't going to last until the next morning. The last wig I chose because even though it was synthetic, the hair moved like my hair. As I swung the styrofoam head back and forth, the hair in the back swung with it. It looked great on me, and I walked out of the store with it on my head.

I felt like it wasn't really just chance that brought me to the store that night. The woman actually ended up saying the exact same thing as my mom to comfort me when I realized my hair was really going, which was, "Don't be sad." I hope she ended up going to the doctor. I intend to bring my mom there and choose another wig. The lady gave me a 10% discount, and the wig was only $40! The other one from Rene of Paris was $400!! She also let me pick some earrings.

On Sat, I had a really long shower. So much hair came out that I was afraid to look in the mirror afterwards. Running my fingers through my hair and seeing hair come out is quite normal for me, but just not that much hair. It didn't cause me to panic because I was prepared to see hair in my fingers. I only yelped when there was a bunch of hair sliding down my chest. I thought it might have been a bug. That only happened once. When I finally looked in the mirror, I realized that I still had a lot of hair left so I just put on one of my comfy hats and went to Target. Sam can tell you that I took a long while, but I found some earrings to accessorize my hat.

On Sunday, I think not as much came out, but there's a noticeable bare spot in the front middle part of my head, probably where the stocking cap pulled the most. Since I see scalp, I'm applying the Vitamin E cream there. There's quite of bit of hair behind both of my ears with the hat on, so not so bad.

It's kinda cold outside today so wearing the hat doesn't seem obvious, especially with my coat on. After radiation treatment today, I went to reschedule my blood work for tomorrow. The woman asked me, "Who is the patient?" instead of saying, " Give me your card." I must look pretty healthy. => Of course, more pics to come.