Skip to main content

Wigs and Things

"Well, these days they are doing all kinds of neat stuff with wigs and things."-my breast surgeon, on the day she told us that I have breast cancer; Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, Stage II b, grade 3.

If it were up to me, I would open a cool little shop called "Wigs and Things", where other "cool" cancer patients like myself could shop for wigs in fun colors and styles, as well as other "things", like rockabilly hair turbans and beanie hats.

We would have take a break from wig shopping to rest our achy bodies at lace-covered tables adorned with daisies in little jars and help ourselves to lemon tea in pretty tea cups and warm, fresh from the oven ginger cookies on flowery china plates as Johnny Cash hummed in the background, forgetting all about the nausea and fatigue plauging us.

Yes, Wigs and Things is a magical place! Too bad it isn't real.

My experience thus far; not so magical.

The wigs I like are more like Halloween costume accessories than something edgy and "cool". The caps and turbans are mostly modeled on a person WITH hair.  And the rest are too, I don't know...cancery.

Yes, they are doing all kinds of neat stuff these days with wigs and things...



Sawyer and I nursing from my lumpy breast at the surgeon's office moments before it was biopsed. I was pretty sure I had cancer when this photo was taken, but was still hoping it might come back benign. Nope!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Little Old Lady and Yoni Steam Baths

''Hello! May I please have an ounce of marshmallow root, and an ounce of stinging nettle?''. ''Sure, but...you have to tell me first!''. ''Okay...tell you what ?''. '' You know ; Did your period ever come back? I've been dying to find out!''. Now to answer the burning question of both you and the local herbalist's, the answer is yes, my period did come back. And yes, I am such a 'townie' that even the herbalist is keeping track of my sporadic cycles with intense (and surprising) enthusiasm. I went in there right after Christmas, so less than a month ago. I was a regular for years, both there and the other herbal shop the next town ever. Even though I am not religious, I like to blend medicinal teas reminiscent of biblical times, the ''Red Tent'' days and all of that. My love affair with herbs began when I was 24 years old, as I walked past an herbal shop on my way to and from
Post a Comment
Read more

12x9

That's the number in millimeters my lung nodule now is: 12'9. It grew from 5'3 mm in November, nearly tripling in size. I was in tears in the stall of a middle school bathroom as my pulmonologist said the words, ''I'm very concerned''. Another teacher came in and watched my class for twenty minutes so I could pull myself together. And the rest of the day ensued, with students sitting there oblivious to my plight, ignoring my requests to quiet down, to stay on task, one even asking me to walk over and hand back her work because she was ''too tired''. And all I could think, all I could honestly think, was how much I wanted to be with my own baby. How I could be standing there with breast cancer in my lung and die prematurely and should be spending every precious moment with my toddler who was in day care, so maybe, he might have some memory of me. And instead I with my students, working under an administration who replace me in two da
Post a Comment
Read more

The Lawyer And The Guy From Vancouver

Today is better! As was yesterday! Firstly, I saw my therapist in the morning, who, when I told her about my ex's insensitivity about already staying out all night with another woman the day after we filed our divorce papers (insert salt-in-wound here), said simply, and I am paraphrasing here, ''Are you really surprised? After all, wasn't it his lack of empathy that brought you to this point in the first place? He can't help it, you know that. This is just who he is. He doesn't mean for it to be that way, but still, it hurts you. This is why it isn't working anymore.'' Pattern of behavior . In the clear light of day, I realized that. He genuinely is oblivious that doing such a thing would be hurtful to me, just as he was oblivious that all of the other things were hurtful to me, too. I have learned you cannot teach a person empathy, either it is something they possess or it is something they do not. Lastly, I arrived at the yoga studio at 6:1
Post a Comment
Read more