A week before my first surgery, I went to get a haircut.  A serious haircut.

At that point my hair was pretty long, by anyone’s standards, very much like that of Lady Godiva.

I decided to cut it so as to make it easier to take care of after my surgeries (short enough to be washed leaning back into the sink if necessary).  I figured I’d cut off enough to donate to Locks of Love – two birds with one stone, don’t ya know? – for those who come after me.  I didn’t at that point know whether I’d need chemo and end up losing my hair or not, but either way I figured it was good karma and just the right thing to do.

Although I came out of there feeling bald (in the world according to me), I also was not going to let an inch or two keep me from donating since I was cutting most of my hair off anyway.  I had just enough to meet the length they needed and leave me with a just-longer-than-chin-length bob.  Okay, it met both of the criteria, and I knew it would grow back (I’ve always had lots of thick hair), and if I had to have chemo, lost my hair, and it grew back different (as more than rarely happens), well that was a bridge I didn’t even have to admit existed at that point, let alone deal with crossing.

The week between getting it cut and having my first surgery, I had posted for my friends on Facebook a picture of my cut-off ponytail with the caption “On it’s way to Locks of Love.”

Well, then the rest of the week was cleaning up the house, stocking the fridge, doing laundry, setting up the bedroom with what I thought I’d want while recovering and just plain continuing to breathe in and out to keep the anxiety level anywhere near reasonable.

And then there were two surgeries (two weeks apart to the day), follow-up appointments with both surgeons, getting my ass back to work, interviewing new doctors for the next stage of treatment, doing physical therapy for side effects from at least one of the surgeries, starting the next stage of treatment, and getting at least the bare minimum of chores done to keep my life running (food in the house, enough clean clothes to dress to leave the house every day, paying at least some of the bills).

Needless to say, today this ponytail was still on my desk in my home office.

TODAY IT IS GOING WHERE IT WAS INTENDED TO BE SENT THREE MONTHS AGO!  🙂

Here’s what’s going in the package:

And here’s the package all packed up, stamped and heading out to it’s destination!  🙂

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