Coming to grips with chemo and change…
\nI\u2019ve decided to go with the Gandalf look. I had reconciled myself to the Yul Brynner or Zhaan look, but I didn\u2019t lose the hair with chemo. It just went snow-white and brittle. It\u2019s not bad, now that I\u2019m not trying to be Cher. It’s shoulder-length. I think I\u2019ll let it grow and see if I can rock the look. I have a light hat I can wear when the wind\u2019s blowing, so I don\u2019t look like sfx surround me\u2014it\u2019s super light, and doesn\u2019t stay put.
\nComplexion\u2014well, that\u2019s aged a whole lot. Dropping 40 sudden pounds will do that to you: I am developing…character. That\u2019s my take on it. Always wondered where the lines would go. Not too bad.
\nStrength: that\u2019s the big one. I don\u2019t have much stamina for standing upright\u2014or for walking very far. Give me an ever-so-slight grade and that stamina evaporates like fog in sunlight. A ramp is harder than stairs, coming or going. But everything works. I\u2019m doing PT to correct some things surgery did\u2014like make it hard to stand straight. I\u2019m gaining on it.
\n\tWhat I don\u2019t want is to miss out on things because of it…and most of all, because Jane, who delayed her hip surgery for two years of misery to take care of me, now has had her surgery and can get out and do things, and I\u2019m keen on it. Party, you say? I\u2019m for it. I\u2019m for craft shows and horse shows and cons and whatever. So I tried the rolling walker, and that\u2019s good on some things\u2014we even went to my first-ever concert. (The Monkees revival.) But\u2014the stamina thing. So, step two, I\u2019m getting a portable powered scooter that will let me get up and go and keep both of us active, so we can get out to cons as they become active again, go to exhibits and events, and so I won\u2019t flag while doing them. It\u2019s a light one, something we can take in the car with little fuss, and will let us both enjoy whatever-event-it-is. Most times I don\u2019t need it. I can get up and sit on a con panel and such\u2014it\u2019s the walk down the long hotel hall to get there that does me in. Or the 2″ rise in that hall that isn\u2019t that visually apparent. I\u2019m still doing PT and pushing the walking as I can. But\u2014if this keeps me active, that\u2019s a plus on a lot of fronts.
\n\tSo I will be doing public events again. I\u2019m grayer, older, thinner, and using some aids, but it\u2019s what I have to do. It *is* a decision to use the help getting about, and I understand the resistence to saying I need a machine to do it, when maybe on some level I don\u2019t, but hey, like the going-grey thing, it is what is, and with it, I\u2019m able to keep active, so that\u2019s why. Hoping to see many of you at conventions as the circuit picks up steam again, in whatever way it takes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Coming to grips with chemo and change… I\u2019ve decided to go with the Gandalf look. I had reconciled myself to the Yul Brynner or Zhaan look, but I didn\u2019t lose the hair with chemo. It just went snow-white and brittle. It\u2019s not bad, now that I\u2019m not trying to be Cher. It’s shoulder-length. I think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":751,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cherryh.com\/WaveWithoutAShore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cherryh.com\/WaveWithoutAShore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cherryh.com\/WaveWithoutAShore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cherryh.com\/WaveWithoutAShore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/751"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cherryh.com\/WaveWithoutAShore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9349"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cherryh.com\/WaveWithoutAShore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9353,"href":"https:\/\/www.cherryh.com\/WaveWithoutAShore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9349\/revisions\/9353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cherryh.com\/WaveWithoutAShore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cherryh.com\/WaveWithoutAShore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cherryh.com\/WaveWithoutAShore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}