Going, going, mostly gone

If I were a dog, I’d be a hairless Chihuahua. Emphasis on hairless. On the positive side, I no longer need to shave my legs, armpits or worry about moustache hairs. On the other hand, I do miss my eyelashes (which departed last week) as well as my eyebrows. It’s getting harder to continue looking female. I actually went out and bought a pair of false eyelashes but the process of applying them was quite a bit trickier than implied on the box. When my success was limited to getting glue inside my eye causing a burning sensation, I decided to give it up as a lost cause. Now I’ve got penciled on eyebrows (like the ones I foolishly made fun of in my younger days) and eyeliner where once I had lashes in the hope of giving the illusion of feminine makeup. Not that I have the hang of it completely. On bad days when the eyeliner gets smudged, it looks like I’ve been slugged rather than made up. Aw well. Such is vanity.

I’ve now had 4 rounds - going on 5 - of chemo (3 wks on – 1 wk off) since I started again this July. A new chemo drug was added to the mix for the past 2 rounds. The breast tumor which had grown quite large and was unresponsive to the first several rounds of chemo has finally begun to shrink. In fact, it’s close to HALF the size it was! Praise the Lord!!

There’s a wonderful couple from our church who has agreed to meet with me weekly to specifically pray for my healing. They both work full time as well as have children to raise and many other responsibilities so we have felt very blessed to have been given the gift of their time and prayers. Lecia has been visualizing God holding the tumor in His hand and His warmth melting it away like an ice cube. So we’ve been praising God for answered prayer.

Other than hair loss and some neuropathy (numbness) beginning in my fingers, I’ve had mostly no side effects from the chemo. My energy is great and I am pain free so can’t ask for much more. We have lots to be thankful for. In spite of no eyelashes.