Baldness is Sexy! (10/26)

Angie, Elizabeth, and Beth at Salon 1550 right after she got her head buzzed!

Hello everyone. It's been a while! I know that I slacked off a little - but I do have an excuse, kind of! I have been really busy at work and I went out of town for 4 days to the Orthopaedic Trauma Association's annual meeting in San Antonio. Elizabeth has been keeping everyone up to date though. The big news of the week is easily seen above! She decided that it was time to go ahead and buzz her dome! For the past few days, her scalp had been bothering her so she decided that yesterday was the time that it needed to come off. I think it was a great move...she's pretty damn sexy! I was informed of this decision around mid-day yesterday. I guess you can figure out what that meant when I got home...exactly! I certainly didn't forget that I said I would shave my head but I wasn't necessarily looking forward to it. But given the spirit of the evening and her really liberating experience - what the hell!

She didn't give me much warning. She just took a nice strip of hair right off the center of my melon. Sheesh! Give a guy a warning. It was an interesting feeling - not having any hair left. I am not sure that I love this look but I am definitely glad that I did it. Anna was so intrigued that she thought she should shave hers as well...FAT CHANCE young lady! Haha. Wouldn't that look odd - a family of 4 where the 8 month old has more hair than the other 3. Ha. We talked her off of the ledge and she reluctantly told us that she would keep her hair! She is such a doll. The final product...

At some point, we will be able to look back and laugh a lot about this experience. It has certainly been an interesting time in our lives but we just keep rolling with the punches. With winter coming, I'm not sure how this is going to feel. I know that I felt cool wind hitting my scalp this morning. Fun times.

Updating everyone on Elizabeth's condition...she did really, really well this time. Chemo was not fun but she started taking Emend this time. It is an expensive anti-nausea med from Merck. It worked much better than the last drugs. She felt really good on Saturday and just ok on Sunday. However, compared to last time, this day was light years better. She was able to eat a little and stayed up much longer than I expected. She even stayed up to watch the Saints play although the game was such a blowout that the Colts put her to sleep!!! Haha (Robbie and Christina - you guys are taking the "Suck for Luck" thing too far. You don't get bonus points for losing by 55!) Monday was a good day and Tuesday was even better. She is back in the saddle at work today so I am sure that she is enjoying work, as usual! The Neulasta shot that she has to get (because her blood counts were too low) was given Saturday morning. The nurse told us to give her Zyrtec while taking the Neulasta - I suppose that there is something in an antihistamine that mitigates the bone pain! I think it's more anecdotal than hard science but it seemed to work. She felt some pain in her back and neck but it wasn't near the horror from stories that we had read. I plan on reading more about the reason why the antihistamines work with it but for now we're just happy that it helped (or seemed to)!

I know that I speak on behalf of Elizabeth when I say that we appreciate everything that you all have done for us! It means so very much to us. I wish there was something that I could say that could properly explain it but words do this feeling no justice. We are so thankful that we have such an amazing group of friends and family. I also want to say thank you to Elizabeth's mom for staying with us for the past couple of weeks. You have been a tremendous help to us and our girls. I can't thank you enough.

Again, we love you all.

Until next time (which won't be as long as this past time),

Scott