Inspiration!

 For all the girls fighting cancer!  We're still beautiful! Thanks for sending this to me, grandma! :)

I'll be losing my hair soon, the nurse said it could be up to two weeks or a little less.  Just want to upload more pics of my hair before it start to thin.

So short! Lol.

Smile never fades!

My First Haircut!

Discussing the cut...

Rubberbanding sections of my hair to cut off for locks of love!  Like I mentioned before, I donated 10 inches!  Very awesome feeling!

The end result! I think I can pull it off!  What do you think? :)

Another pic of my short hair...holding up gifts I received from my mom's co-worker, Erin! :)

My Long Hair!

Long, blonde and straight!

Curly/wavy?

Before going out with friends!  Wavy hair again. I have very thick hair. Lol.

The beginning...

This is my first ever blog! I will be posting weekly pictures of this crazy hair journey that I'm about to go through. I'll also talk about my feelings and how I'm physically feeling...but mostly about my hair haha. I'm so excited to share it with friends, family, or someone else who is going through a similar situation. Hair is important to women! Yes, I know it will grow back.  I can't wait til it does!  It may be an emotional roller coaster but if this is what it takes to get healthy, then so be it!  With all that said, I'd like to thank my friend Jess for showing me her hair blog and inspiring me to make my own!  I hope my blog can comfort someone, as hers did for me! Love you girl! :)

Here's my story...

In June of 2013, I noticed a weird lump on the side of my neck.  I truly didn't think anything of it.  I showed my mom and we both kind of shrugged it off.  I thought I had maybe just pulled a muscle or it was a swollen gland.  I let it go for about a week and then started to grow more concern when it wasn't going away.  Not to mention, I had a very strange pain in my lower back that I couldn't even sleep with unless I took Ibuprofen before bed.  With all this going on, I called my general doctor and she examined me.  She set up a CT scan and everything I thought it could be, definitely was not what it was. 

An open biopsy was performed on the lump, along with other different tests and I later found out that my body is currently battling stage 4 of Hodgkin's Lymphoma.  Stage 4 means that it's in your bones, which in my case explained the pain I had in my sacrum (lower back).  It's also in my neck and chest area, where the doctors believe it started growing. I'm currently looking at about 6 months of chemo; one session every two weeks. So here I am, 23 years old and in complete shock that I have this.  I never would have thought it was cancer. Doctors aren't clear on what causes it but the good news is that it is a curable kind (like 90% cure rate, yay!). Hearing that news and knowing how confident the doctors were in getting rid of it, has kept me so positive!!  

As I'm writing this, I still have my hair.  I did donate 10 inches to locks of love! It made me feel really good to give my soon to be gone hair to someone else who may need it! It was a big adjustment and a few tears were shed but I'm actually starting to like the short hair look.  I think it was also a good way to prepare for when it all starts falling out.  When I was told I was going to lose my hair, I bawled my eyes out. I apologized to the nurse for sounding so selfish but she said that that is typically the hardest part. Thankfully, there are so many alternatives - such as hats, scarves, and wigs.  

I had my first chemo session on Tuesday, July 16th.  It went very smoothly and I'm feeling pretty good so far (writing this a few days after it). Haven't had any side effects so far and hoping none arise!  

The nurse told me that I will probably start losing my hair two weeks after the first session, if not sooner.  I've decided to shave it when it starts thinning. I'd rather get rid of most of it instead of watching it thin and fall out in big clumps.  It's definitely not going to be easy getting rid of those last pieces of hope, but I've faced the reality that it's going to be gone eventually.  I've been keeping a positive attitude through all this! Hopefully around the new year, I'll be able to say that I fought and am currently a cancer survivor! That would be a great start to 2014!

"Fear can keep us up all night long, but faith makes one fine pillow." - Philip Gulley

Bring on the pictures!