Surprise!

Tell us about the last thing you got excited about.

I’ve been rather sad about hair loss during chemo treatments recently, which I never imagined I would agree to having EVER! I was not putting that poison in my body!

I did not take chemo medication recommended to me when I had my first brush with cancer in 2011. I took up a healthy lifestyle instead and recovered well, surviving the next 10 years in good health with diet, weight loss, exercise (walking, yoga, dance) and various supplements.

My next brush with cancer came in 2021, 10 years later, and I did well treating myself naturally for 2 years with various supplements and oils. However, an unfortunately unrecognised health crisis put me on a downward spiral 2 years later, this year, 2024, causing hospitalization and a mobility problem.

The cancer accelerated quickly at that point in hospital without my natural treatments, and I was persuaded to start some limited chemo treatments, with monoclonal antibodies, which I have taken 6 times now. I make a decision whether or not to do a treatment each time I talk to the doctor before a due treatment date. Somehow this doctor has managed to instill enough confidence in me to proceed on most occasions, bar one, which I declined. The 6th one may potentially be my last!

Anyway, I was proud of my silvery hair, always complemented on it, and feared losing it. I prayed to keep it! Very vain, I know!

Sadly, I saw it slowly first disappearing, then rather rapidly falling out with the 5th treatment. However, it was really the only detrimental experience about chemo.

The treatment was nothing like I had read or seen in stories about cancer patients, who seem to have suffered horribly from the process. I had no bad reactions to the chemo drug itself or the monoclonal antibodies, whether administered separately or combined during treatment sessions. I would have a couple of good, energetic days after treatment, then some general tiredness and aching. I occasionally felt a bit of nausea in the night hours which subsided as I chewed on some ginger. That was it!

Now I had thought about saving my hair to make a natural wig of my own hair but apparently that is a very expensive project and hair was just falling out it seemed everwhere at once all over everything. Very frustrating. So…..

I spoke to my grand-niece, Sharon, who is a hairdresser. She came to my home and checked out the hair situation, and thought it possible, but due to her own life circumstances, though willing, she was unable to complete the process. Life happens!

Quite some time later, in online conversation with Sharon, it was mentioned that there were wigs for sale in the shop where she worked, and there was an offer to show me them. I thought I’d look at them. I was picked up the very next day by my grand-niece, taken to the shop, had the remaining straggling hair shaved off, and was given some wigs to try on!

With Sharon’s help, I found one I liked, had it trimmed where necessary, and decided that though it was on the expensive side for me, I would take the purchase from my health fund account. I felt it was worth the price!

During that thought process, there was a phone call from a lady called Lisa, who was not currently at the shop, but had been mentioned a few times earlier on in this session. She was at another shop across the province. I had not realised that this Lisa was a student I had taught in grade one in my years of teaching in Kyuquot…had not made the connection! Lisa had already personally battled a nasty cancer and wanted me to have a substantive discount on the wig! That brought me to tears of gratitude and on the phone it was all I could do to chokingly express my thanks for such a lovely gift!

Later on, my son Tallon paid the remainder of the cost! WOW! I was both surprised and very blessed!

Now I happily wear this wig and most people who know me just think I had a good haircut! Yay! Mission accomplished, thanks to God, who placed some wonderful people in my life! So very thankful!

God bless Sharon, Lisa, and my son Tallon, who all turned a possibility into a reality! Amazing!

Thank You, Lord, that my hair seems to be growing back in naturally underneath the wig! It will take time, but I continue to have high hopes in the promises of God, who holds all the details of my life in His trustworthy hands! My everday life is a solid testimony of His loving care, and I am blessed!

Amen!

(P.S. I am very late with this writing prompt, but it’s done!)