Tag Archives: Hair loss

Top Ten List: Benefits of Being a Patient at Mercy Oncology

5 Replies

There is nothing funny about cancer. It is a tough and deadly disease to fight. But I am fighting hard and am reminded daily of God’s great mercy. I also love to laugh and find that looking at the light side of life is sometimes good medicine. With that in mind, let me offer my Top Ten List: Benefits of Being a Patient at Mercy Oncology. (I hope YOU don’t have to be here to appreciate the humor! I’m sure the nurses will understand! 🙂

10. With all the fluids they give you there is NO CHANCE of getting a urinary tract infection!
9. Overnight vitals, bed checks, pills, IV changes, 4 a.m. Daily Blood draws… NO ONE complains of over-sleeping!
8. On chemo days you can order good food whenever you DON’T feel like eating.
7. About the time you lose your appetite completely, they give you a beautiful room…with a kitchenette.
6. Those stylish hospital gowns.
5. Chemo makes ‘bad hair days’ a thing of the past!
4. Getting blood marked “VOLUNTEER Donor,” not the stuff taken from unwilling donors. (Credit to son Mike for that observation.)
3. Anti-infection procedures designed by Michael Jackson.
2. Coupon for a free haircut…after you lose all your hair.
1. NOT having a “red slippers” day! (See December archive, “Life in the Hospital” for explanation)

I’m thinking I might write a book about this experience someday and already have some of the page numbers done.

Life is serious stuff. Don’t forget to laugh along the way. And help others do the same!

“He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.” Job 8:21

A Hairy Confession

7 Replies

I have a confession to make. I’ve always had sort of a vain obsession with my hair. There, I said it. Since I was a young teen I have been a little too focused on my hair, especially the part that never laid down quite right. If you added a lifetime of minutes fussing over such a trivial thing, it would certainly amount to way too much wasted time. I wonder what other parts of my life have been completely wasted and the time I would like to redeem when the end of life draws near!

When I found myself responding so well to chemo, I thought to myself, maybe I will be the rare one who doesn’t lose his hair. Then, when it started thinning, I thought, maybe I won’t lose ALL of it. Then came today. With fistfuls of hair coming out with each comb stroke, I realized today was THE day. One of the ironic things here is that when you lose your hair, they give you a coupon for a free haircut downstairs. So my technician Lita escorts me downstairs on the first off unit “field trip” of my three week stay here. After the barber shaved my head, I thought this would be a good picture, Lita with her full head of thick curly locks and me with my bald head.

‘Not sure if I should start working on my Bruce Willis accent (“Hair loss is God’s way of telling me I’m human”) or Elmer Fudd (“Kill da wabbit.”)
image