When my Mother first dressed me in a hat as if I were a Lady, I owned the title.
That's me on the far right holding an Easter basket, wearing a hat, of course. We all were (except my cousin Steve). The other children in the picture are (left to right) cousins: Shelley & Steve, My sister Susan eating a piece of candy; she never could wait, cousin Vickey, freezing in the back, Kim, the baby cousin in the front, and then back to me.
But it was my cousin Kim who insisted, Megan, why don't you just get a bunch of fun hats to wear? When I lived in Orlando, we used to give hat parties to our friends who had to go through chemo. Hats are way cooler (especially, I thought, when you live in hot, humid Florida) and lots more fun than having to wear a wig all the time.
So that's what Dwain and I did. We went hat shopping. In fact, not only did we purchase hats, we dug around here at home and found several older hats. I even found beautiful black velveteen hat that belonged to my very own mother.
That's bald me on the far right (again) and my cousin Shelley sitting on my grandmother's lap. Sadly, bald just doesn't look adorable on this end of the age game. Bet my grandmother would still love me anyway, don't you think?
Why all the interest in hats? Well, according to my calendar, my days of shampooing and conditioning are limited, at best. If what everyone tells me is true, by the end of the week, I will need hats in the worst way. Check out the recent post by Connie, my new friend and neighbor, from Bentonville, AR. She's just ahead of me in her chemo treatments. You'll see her new "do," her new hat, and her new "I Hate Chemo" pin. She's adorable.
Dwain and I spent Saturday afternoon trying on hats and taking pictures. Come with us, take the tour...
This is my ultra-fancy hat, and that's my new Fight Like a Girl Shirt that my Chicago friend Paula sent me. Paula, you are a doll!
This is me wearing my new wig. Got some "tweeking" to do to get it right.
This is me wearing my new wig topped with my mother's black velveteen hat.
This is Dwain wearing HIS shaggy wig. I think he looks like Fred Flintstone. HA HA!
I absolutely could not look at Dwain with that wig on long enough to take a picture without totally cracking up.
Last night I dreamed that I saw a huge owl. Guess that means I'm very wise. WHOOO ME?
Dwain thought this hat made me look like a Baldknobber (a very bad group of people who used to live in the Missouri Ozarks a long time ago). So he wore his best Baldknobber-looking hat in support of mine.
Mattie Mae (my mother-in-law) crocheted me this beautiful hat and poncho. I told Dwain that I looked like an odd sort of bird.
This is one of the T.J. Max hats we found made of angora. It's really soft and so pretty. I think it will be one of my favorites; I know it's one of Dwain's already. By the way, that's Sir Winston, our Norwegian Forest Cat that I'm holding. And yes, that IS his happy look, isn't it, Jayme?
This is one of those hats I found in my closet. Kind of old-fashioned looking. I think it will be perfect.
Dwain wrapped a very long scarf around his head. I told him I couldn't quite place who he looked like. Then he said it, just like that -- The Grand PooBah. That's it! I love the "Magic" hat, I'm wearing, too, don't you?
Dwain gave me this knitted cap for Christmas. It's already a favorite, and I'm not even bald yet.
I've had this cap for a couple of years, so it's already proven itself to be quite warm and quite cute, too.
When you wear a hat, it is like medicine for the soul. The hat is the expression of who you are as a women in every moment! The hat is your dreams of who you can be. It facilitates the different parts of who you are: With the wave of the hat, voila! You are mysterious...no, you are sexy...now proper...now playful.
I have no idea how it's going to really feel to lose my hair, and I do dread it. Initially when I first found out that chemo was in my future, it was the thing that I feared the most. Since then I've come to realize that hair loss is temporary; that there are lingering cancer monsters out there that I should fear far more than losing my hair.
But Chemo Really Does Suck!
LOVED all the pictures! They all made me smile, even laugh!!!! Strangely enough, I didn't dread the hair loss as much as I did the side effects of the chemo, and the future radiation. Since I lost my hair in the winter, it was VERY cold feeling. I did find myself VERY fussy about my pillow cases as it seemed that my scalp was very tender -- almost like when you shave too closely. I couldn't take the roughness of the inside of the wigs, so just wore a variety of chemo hats (found great ones on Ebay). They paid off a few times for me. I wore the chemo hats when grocery shopping, and people seem to recognize those hats and will let you go to the front of the checkout line! I remember feeling so weak that I just couldn't walk one more aisle of the grocery store and headed for the check out. I must have looked terrible, because people emptied my cart for me, helped me out, loaded my car, etc. I felt like a queen!!!!
ReplyDeleteYes, it IS temporary! And a few weeks after the last chemo, you will start getting fuzz. A few weeks after that, you look like a marine with a fresh buzz cut. And then you are on your way back to normal. For some, it's a REALLY big deal -- for me, hair was the least of my problems. But I must say, I LOVED all your hats. Makes me want to go get some even now!!!!!
Mom: You looked like a snow bird! In the picture of you wearing the knitted shawl and hat you reminded me of when I was in ballet and I was a snowbird for the Nutcracker one year. The costume I had to wear was a shiny gray material with wings and a hat, and for that reason you just reminded me of it. You are a snow bird! And yes, that IS Winston's "happy" face. ha ha ha!!
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