Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

Greetings from Kauai! Yes, I'm in Hawaii! My dear friend Stephanie is celebrating her birthday and had invited me a few weeks ago. Per my usual response lately, I declined with a myriad of excuses. Not enough money, too much going on with work..blah blah blah! Then I received the fun news of the spread and the immediate start of radiation so it was totally off the table.

Well....after three radiation treatments I decided to pump the breaks. Yes, you read that correctly. I did an 180 in my treatment. I realized I just blindly went into the new treatment protocol. I think when I heard brain, my brain just froze and like a sheep I just followed. It all happened so fast I didn't have a chance to really get second and third opinions. I briefly discussed it with other doctors and they all said the same thing but I still felt I needed to explore other options.

I decided to meet with a new doctor (thanks to my guardian angel Tom Hoppa!) that wanted to try a few new drugs. So with faith and moving all of my eggs from the standard traditional basket to a trial basket I jumped in head first! I stopped my current protocol, drugs, radiation and all and started a new protocol.

I figure I've given my other doctor four years (he can argue he gave me four more years) and I could give this doctor two months. I'm doing bi-weekly blood work to monitor my tumor markers and I will do a brain scan and chest CT in six weeks. If things haven't gotten better then I will decide if I want to continue or go back to the standard treatment. My gut is telling me this is the right move. Plus whole brain radiation isn't going anywhere. That option will still be there in two months if it's needed. However, there is no reversal of the side effects of WBR (whole brain radiation) and if I can do something to avoid it, then what do I have to loose!

So..here I am! Sitting on a couch, listening to the rain in a tropical paradise! My friend Cortney gave me the miles to get here and the house and trip were already set up! How could I say no! I'll be soaking it in for a week!

I will also try and tan my newly bald head! Yep..you read correctly! I'm bald! I thought I had avoided the no hair bomb when I stopped radiation. I guess my follicles had another idea. A few days ago I noticed a lot more hair in the drain of the shower. Then the next morning my hair literally started coming out.

I asked Andre to cut it to my shoulders with the assumption that less weight would slow the process down. 

Ha, well I was wrong! They next day I already had some bald spots, it was coming out in clumps and fast. So yesterday I made the decision to just shave it off! I ask Skylar to come over and document it. We are putting together a video and full photo's but I hope you are sitting down! Check out some of the moments below :)