Realities of Chemo

Yesterday Charl completed Round 2 of chemotherapy. I've put some photos on the sidebar slideshow in Latest Pics that show the building, room and some photos of what it's like going through this process. He felt fine. We went for a nice walk in the sun after it was over to get some fresh air, and all seemed quite normal. After a pretty busy day today, however, he's not feeling so well. We had a few appointments and did the requisite walk (some form of exercise is highly recommended for overall health during chemo), but he says it's different from last time.. but has a hard time explaining what it's like. I imagine it is a mix between fatigue, mild nausea and being run over by a truck several times. But that's me. It's a good thing he's as strong as he is.

One of our appointments today was going to get Charl's head shaved. He was starting to lose hair at an alarming pace, which of course we expected, but anticipating and experiencing are two different animals. It's quite common to have some scalp sensitivity while losing your hair, so things we take for granted like lying on your pillow can become a nuisance as the hair can feel spiky on your scalp. So that, coupled with the amount Charl was losing (see here how much hair was coming out just by getting it wet in the shower) :

...we knew the time had come. We found a little hair place in the area and a nice Chilean woman did the deed. She was quite meticulous in trying to cut his hair as close to the scalp as possible. Apparently salons don't "shave" heads, only barbers do. So we had to settle for a 1mm hair length, as opposed to 0mm. So for $15 (including a hot water head massage) he's a new man. And a very handsome one at that!

Pretty cool eh??!