ISN’T SHE LOVELY? 

“I will definitely lose my hair, right?” I ask Elise, my nurse at the radiation treatment center.

“Yes.”

“I’ll lose facial hair too, right?” I ask.

“No, not from the radiation,” Elise assures me.

“Wait, you mean I’ll be bald, but I’ll still have to wax and pluck my mustache and beard????”

“Yes, at least from the radiation,” she says.

“OK, not to sound like sour grapes, but that is really unfair!” I say, resenting the fact that I’ll lose the hair on my head, but not the hair on my chin and upper lip. 

“I’ll lose weight?” I continue.

“Probably,” she says. “But some people actually gain weight.”

“Oh,” I say. “Oh, god no,” is really what I’m thinking. “This is gonna make me puffy and fat and bearded and bald.”

And so, with the help of dear friend Annette, we’ve created a mock-up of what I COULD look like after treatment. If you see this person walking down the street, stop and give her a hug.

It could be me.