Oh The Hair…
I am 1 year and 3 months out from my bone marrow transplant (and from getting my head shaved), and friends, this is where we are at! Every morning I wake up, this is what Kristin’s hair looks like. It’s always a wildcard on what it will look like each morning. I took this picture yesterday and I will say, this is tame. Every morning though, I get a chuckle at what it looks like!
Oh the joys of losing your hair. Initially I used red light therapy on the back on my head everyday and my hair grew SO fast! Then I stopped because I started to grow a mullet! Just ask my husband :). Needless to say, the RLT worked! But then I never really picked it back up consistently because I had other issues going on. THEN I learned that when you’re on an immunosuppresant, it can suppress hair growth. AH. That explains why my hair has taken SO long to grow back (plus the fact that I couldn’t take any extra supplements to help with the growth).
BUT, despite the slow hair growth, I AM STILL CANCER FREE! I would take short hair ALL DAY to be cancer free. I had an appointment at my BMT clinic the middle of April and all is still looking great! My t-cells still are low and out of whack, but oh well. I AM STILL CANCER FREE. And maybe one day they will return to normal! But after going through 2 years of treatments, something was bound to not bounce back as quickly as hoped!
Now did I expect my hair to be a lot longer at this point in the journey? Yep! This whole journey has been a huge learning curve and I just want to encourage others who may have lost their hair, that you are not alone! If you have gone through treatments of any kind for any type of cancer, you know what that chemo can do to your body. In some ways I can tell my body is STILL healing. When I look back to January, I can see a difference from then to today. My body is still working so hard to recover! God has given me an INSANE amount of healing, and it is so humbling to look back and see what HE has done. That He would choose this for our family. What grace.
So whether you have hair loss, are going through treatments, or are battling a different kind of battle, hang in there. It is a season of life. Some seasons last days, weeks, and months. Others years on end. But God can number every hair on our heads, whether long or short, and His faithfulness and mercies never end.
I’m curious what tomorrow’s bedhead will look like :)?
